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Using the Seasonal Module with Visual Liturgy 3.0 for Common Worship

The status of the Seasonal Module within Common Worship

The Visual Liturgy Seasonal Module is a product originally published as an add-on for Visual Liturgy 1.x and 2.0. It is also compatible with Visual Liturgy 3.0, provided you first install the ASB 1980 texts from the Visual Liturgy 3.0 CD-ROM (see "Installing the Seasonal Module with VL 3.0" below).

The Seasonal Module is still available to meet the need for seasonal material within Visual Liturgy until the future publication of the Times and Seasons volume of Common Worship, which is expected in 2005 or 2006 in both paper and electronic formats.

Liturgical advice with regard to the services contained in the Seasonal Module

(All page references are to pages in the Common Worship Main Volume.)

Users of the Seasonal Module will need to take care to ensure that the material they are planning to use conforms with the provisions of Common Worship. As a general guide, the provisions on pages 24 and 25 of the Common Worship Main Volume, for A Service of the Word and A Service of the Word with a Celebration of Holy Communion, should give enough scope to provide legal authority for most of what is contained in the Seasonal Module.

Users will need to take care that the words of authorized confessions and absolutions (page 122ff), of creeds and authorized affirmations of faith (page 138ff), and eucharistic prayers (page 184ff, 216ff, 240ff and 261ff) all conform to those in Common Worship. This information is also available within Visual Liturgy 3.0, either as templates, or in Help - Common Worship.

Practical ways to conform your Seasonal Module services to Common Worship

Here are two methods to help you apply the liturgical advice given above.

Method One - drag-and-drop technique (basic technique, suitable for novices and one-off use)

1. First open up your seasonal service onscreen.
2. Then go to start a new service again (don't close the seasonal service!)
3. Choose the Common Worship lectionary folder, then the Additional Resources (from the President's edition) folder. Choose the resource template that you want, eg "Creeds and Authorized Affirmations of Faith". (If you want Eucharistic Prayers, they're in a different folder - Common Worship / Holy Communion / Service sections).
4. Click on the Tile Windows button on the toolbar across the top of the screen. It looks like two upright rectangles side by side.
5. You'll now see both services open onscreen, side by side. You can drag-and-drop the confession etc. items that you want from the service list on the resource template into the seasonal template.

Method Two - editing theme links in order to create permanently adapted templates

Alternatively, if you are confident about amending templates, you can do the following:

1. Open your seasonal service.
2. Scroll through the service list to the first non-CW item and right-click on it.
3. Choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
4. Go to the "Theme Links" tab of the dialogue box that will open.
5. Click on Change and then select the appropriate CW category. For example, for a confession choose "CW Authorized confessions". Then click on OK. (If you want to be able to access both ASB and CW texts, then click on the Change button next to the empty box, not the first one.)
6. Repeat for all the other non-CW items in your service.
7. Choose File - Save Template as..., give your template an appropriate Name. This is what you will see the template listed as under the Start a new service dialogue. You can also change the Title if you like. The Title is what appears at the top of the service text on the right when you open a service.
8. Then click on to the Categories tab. Choose Add to add the template to a service category, which will make it easier to find again later. You’ll be prompted to save the template before you do this - so long as you have already changed the name of the template you can safely say yes. Frequently Used Services is often a good category to choose.

Installing the Seasonal Module with VL 3.0

Upgrading: If you have already been running earlier versions of VL together with the Seasonal Module, you should be able to upgrade to Visual Liturgy 3.0 without any problems. However, when running VL 3.0 for the first time, make sure that you do not choose to remove the ASB. If you’ve already done this by mistake, follow steps 2 and 3 from the process for Clean install below.

Clean install / new user: If you are a new user, or you need to do a clean install because you are using a new computer, or have encountered problems in the past, this is the process you should follow:

1. Install Visual Liturgy 3.0 according to the instructions on the leaflet. Make sure that any anti-virus software on your system is disabled while you do so.
2. Making sure that VL is not running, run the VL 3.0 CD again. You will see a message saying "Visual Liturgy is already installed" and offering you a number of options.
3. Choose the option to "Import the Alternative Service Book 1980" and follow the onscreen instructions, choosing OK when it shows you the module notes.
4. Once the module has fully imported, again check that VL is not running, and then install the Seasonal Module by running the file "setup.exe" from the Seasonal Module floppy disk.
5. Everything is now installed. When you run Visual Liturgy 3.0, make sure that you do not choose to remove ASB if prompted!

See also the Seasonal Module is version 1.7. Can I install it on top of version 2.0 or 3.0?