Pardon me, Madam, but have you bothered to read your own Prayer Book?

Few would argue that Anglicanism's most significant contribution to the wider Christian community is The Book of Common Prayer. Many a believer, Anglican or otherwise, has been enriched by its profound and theologically rich prayers and liturgy. First compiled by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1549, it underwent several revisions until 1662. The expansion of the Anglican Communion around the world necessitated different editions, but the 1662 edition has remained the theological standard.

The most obvious advantage of having a Prayer Book is that Anglican Christians can always be ready in season and out to offer a prayer or devotional exposition, not because they have a pre-written script, but because they have been steeped, or at least should have been, in a grand tradition of theologically rich prayer and spirituality. There should never be any need to "wing it," or to make something up as you go along. So, it is more than a little bizarre that the "Presiding Bishop" of the former American province of the Anglican Communion has so much trouble in this video, posted on her denomination's website, explaining the Christian holy season of Lent.

While some have criticized the 1979 American edition of the Prayer Book as lacking in some of the finer points of theology, it nevertheless includes a rather succinct explanation of the meaning of Lent in its Ash Wednesday liturgy.

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

So one is left to wonder if Madam Oven Mitt has even read her own Prayer Book!

Not coming to a Prayer Book near you (but it should be)

Unfortunately, you probably won't find it in the Prayer Book anytime soon, but this collect by Julian Mann, a.k.a. Cranmer's Curate, is a healthy dose of biblical truth for a society that fantasizes about the church blessing sexual abominations.

Almighty and eternal God, who through your servant the Apostle Paul has taught Christian people to flee sexual immorality, we ask that you would give all of us who profess the faith of Christ grace to be obedient to your word. If we have chosen to have sexual relations outside the honourable estate of holy matrimony between one man and one woman for life, give us, we pray, the grace of repentance. Empower us, we beseech you, by your life-giving Holy Spirit to exercise self-control and to honour you with our bodies, through Jesus Christ your eternal Son our Lord.

Amen.

Error, truth, and the fellowship of Christ's religion (or, Collects then and now)

Three years ago, I made these observations about the sheer ugliness of inclusive language:

The surest way to dumb down a church's theology is to tamper with its liturgy, and there is no more reprehensible way to wreak havoc on the liturgy than to pepper it throughout with "non-offensive" or "inclusive" language. Mainline churches today are dead in large part because their liturgies are lifeless expressions of rancid sterility laced with the deadly poison of idolatrous gender neutrality. The "God" who is "worshiped" in these liturgies is not a loving Father of infinite goodness and mercy, but a faceless functionary who is apparently so distant as to be beyond personal pronouns. If "God loves all God's children," why can't this loving "God" be addressed as Father or referred to as he, him, or his?

A "God" who is not personal is neither capable of loving nor of being loved. The prophets of inclusiveness will insist that "love" is all that matters. But "love," to them, is not unconditional self-sacrifice, but narcissistic self-exaltation. Thus, it is no longer "right to give him thanks and praise," but "right to give our thanks and praise." That subtle alteration, now standard in many eucharistic liturgies, illustrates profoundly the shift which inevitably takes place when "inclusive language" is the main concern. The focus is not on God, but on ourselves. God is no longer the object of worship; we are the object of our own self-congratulation.

It should go without saying that inclusive language liturgies are but the culmination of a process of dumbing down the liturgy which began over half a century ago. It is a long and winding road littered with ironic twists and contradictory turns, one of the clearest illustrations of which will take place the Sunday after next when Anglicans of varied theological persuasions across America will pray this collect from the 1979 BCP:

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

There is nothing objectionable about the language, theology, or content of this prayer. It was composed to correspond with the Gospel reading for Year A of the lectionary, Jesus's well known discourse on the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-10). In that regard, it is biblical and most appropriate for the occasion.

It is also, however, a radical departure from the collect Thomas Cranmer originally appointed for the Third Sunday after Easter and included in every American Prayer Book before 1979.

Almighty God, who shewest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Cranmer borrowed this prayer, one of the oldest in his original compilation, from the Sacramentary of Leo I. It emphasizes one of the principle themes of the Easter season, namely, the incorporation into the body of Christ of new members via baptism and profession of faith. Barbee and Zahl, in their commentary on Cranmer's collects, offer these observations:

The Collect for the Third Sunday after Easter draws its power from the relation it represents between "the light of thy truth" and "the way of righteousness." We might have expected the Collect to posit God's showing forth His light to all "that be in error," to the intent that we would return to His truth. But no! The intent of our receiving His light is, in Prayer Book logic, that we return to "the way of righteousness." Truth creates right doing!

How can this be so? Truth here must be something potent in practice. It must be more than an abstraction. It must be more than principles or correct thinking. It is in fact right relationship. It is fellowship with God, to use the Collect's phrase. Truth enables relationship. The link between truth and relationship is the truth about ourselves in the light of the truth about God. When we are truly known, particularly in the darkness and shadows of our lives, by a Love which does not reject, we are cemented to God. To be known in truth and at the same time loved is the coup de grace to our retreat from relationship.

If what you believe is God's truth (grace) and your truth (the way you really are), the fruit of your belief will be works of righteousness and "all such things as be agreeable to the same." The relation between what you believe and what you do will be of cement, or better, of steel.

The ancient Collect posits the formula for true and lasting inclusion in "the fellowship of Christ's religion," namely a turning away from the darkness of error and a joyful embrace of the light of God's eternal truth.

Liturgy, confession, and language that is full of life

The ACNA Prayer Book Liturgy Committee (PBCL) is meeting this week at Church of the Apostles in Columbia. This morning's opening Eucharist offered, perhaps, a taste of North American Anglicanism's liturgical future, although the committee's chairman, Bishop Bill Thompson, said it was by no means the finished product. I will be interviewing the bishop for Anglican Ink on Wednesday after the committee has wrapped up its work for the week.

In any event, the service this morning was a moving experience, quiet and reverent yet deeply uplifting with a definite 1662 feel. Although the language was in modern English, it was unburdened by the cumbersome grotesqueness of sterile "inclusive language" which has plagued so many contemporary liturgies. The restoration of traditional elements which have been missing in the dumbed down liturgies of the age was quite refreshing. Most notable, perhaps because this is the season of Lent, was the prayer of confession and its accompanying invitation. For older generations, the words, though slightly updated, would be quite familiar. For even the most ostensibly orthodox among the younger and emerging generations, however, the language of repentance and reconciliation, of acknowledging and confessing our many sins and offenses, of provoking God's wrath and righteous anger may sound quite foreign.

I was reminded of a news report prior to the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles in which secular-minded journalists reported the inclusion in the service of the traditional Anglican prayer of confession as some kind of major news event. A reporter with a deep British accent breathlessly declared, "The prayer being used in the service states, 'We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.'" It was a sad commentary on a society in which human beings acknowledging and bewailing the fact that they are miserable sinners, even within the relatively safe context of an official church ritual, is an all too rare occurrence. Rite II in the 1979 Prayer Book deftly glosses over this uncomfortable fact, vaguely referencing things done and left undone and a failure to love God and neighbor wholeheartedly. Thankfully, it doesn't look like we're going to get off that light this time around.

The feel good liturgies which have come into vogue over the last 30-40 years may salve the consciences of comfortable, marginally religious church-goers, but they do not present the fullness of the Gospel which must puncture our hearts and pierce our souls in order to heal our wounds. While I will reiterate that this morning's liturgy may not be the finalized version that will appear in the ACNA Prayer Book, it certainly suggests a move in the right direction. Liturgy that is full of life must include language that acknowledges both our utter sinfulness and unworthiness and God's overwhelming grace and mercy.

CORRECTION: According to Bishop Thompson, the official name of the group is the Prayer Book and Common Liturgy Taskforce.

Commemorating the First Book of Common Prayer

It was on this day in 1549 that Anglicanism's most enduring tradition was inaugurated. The first Book of Common Prayer was used in churches throughout England, restoring the worship of the church to the common language of the people. Here's some of the history behind it:

The Book was the work of a commission of scholars, but primarily of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was based primarily upon the Latin worship tradition of the Use of Sarum (similar to, but not identical with, the Roman rite used by most Roman Catholic between 1600 and 1950), with some elements taken from the Greek liturgies of the Eastern Church, from ancient Gallican (French) rites, from the new Lutheran order of service, and from the Latin rite of Cologne.

The older usage had grown haphazardly through the centuries, and had added so many complications that it was difficult to follow (the priest often needed to juggle up to a dozen books to get through a single service). The new order pruned and simplified so that only one book other than the Bible was necessary, and so that even the laity could follow the service and participate without difficulty. Moreover, the quality of the English was outstanding. All Christians who worship in English, from Roman Catholics to Southern Baptists and beyond, are in some measure influenced by it, and all to whom it is important that the people of God understand the worship of the Church and take an active part therein have cause to be grateful for the Book of Common Prayer.

The original Prayer Book was used for only three years, being revised in 1552. However, it established something of a standard for all future editions, including the often criticized (perhaps unfairly, as Greg Goebel has lately observed) 1979 American edition. Among the prayers still used by the church are the collects for peace and for grace during morning prayer. Other than the spelling of certain words, these collects have retained their basic content in all subsequent editions.

The second Collect: for peace.

O GOD, which art author of peace, and lover of concorde, in knowledge of whome standeth oure eternall life, whose service is perfect fredome: defende us, thy humble servautes, in al assaultes of our enemies, that wee surely trustyng in thy defence, maye not feare the power of any adversaries: through the myght of Jesu Christ our lorde. Amen.

The thyrde Collecte: for grace.

O LORDE oure heavenly father, almightye and everlivyng God, whiche haste safelye brought us to the beginning of this day: defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and graunt that this daye wee fall into no synne, neyther runne into any kinde of daunger, but that al our doinges may be ordered by thy governaunce, to do alwaies that is righteous in thy sight: through Jesus Christe our lorde. Amen.

To commemorate this day, the following collect is recommended.

Almighty and everliving God, whose servant Thomas Cranmer, with others, restored the language of the people in the prayers of your Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with the understanding, that we may worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.