September/October 1999 Volume 18, Number 5 MA MHA TF

THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY CELEBRATION IN YOR 1549 _ i999 The Archbishop of York (Dr David Hope) York Minster in July 1999 about to celebrate the 1549 In York Minster.e '

The Archbishop of York and Primate of England, Dr. David Hope, was the celebrant and preacher at the Service of Holy from the first Book of the Common Prayer (1549). The Service on July 24 was arranged by the English Prayer Book Society with the full cooperation ofthe Dean of York, the Very Rev. Raymond Furnell, and the full participation ofthe Minster . Over 700 people were present and around 600 received Holy Communion. See page 15.

THK LIVING PAST FOR THE PRESENT AND INTO THE FUTURE 3. Introducing the Lord's Prayer. 4. Our Father which art in heaven. 5. lallowed be thy name. 6. Thy kingdom come. 7. Thy will be done. 8. Jive us this day our daily bread. 9. Forgive us our debts. 10. Lead us not into temptation. 11. Thine is the kingdom. 12. The Prayer Book Societies in Australia 13. A Discussion Paper on Titles. 14. The Formularies of the Anglican Way. 15. Sermon by the Archbishop in York. 16. Prayer Books in print.

What is the Prayer Book Society? First of all, what it is not: 1. It is not a historical society — though it does take history seriously. 2. It is not merely a preservation society — though it does seek to preserve what is good. 3. It is not merely a traditionahst society — though it does receive holy tradition gratefully. 4. It is not a reactionary society, existing only by opposing modem trends. 5. It is not a synod or council, organized as a church within the Church. In the second place, what it is: 1. It is composed of faithful Episcopalians who seek to keep ahve in the Church the classic Common Prayer Tradition of the Anglican Way, which began within the Church of England in 1549. They wish to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in a dignified and understandable English. 2. It claims that the Constitution of the Episcopal Church gives to rectors and parishes, as well as individual Episcopalians, the right to use the last genuine Book of Common Prayer in America, the 1928 BCP. 3. It is committed to educating and informing people of the nature and content of the Common Prayer Tradition, and its use for Holy Communion, the Daily Offices, Baptism, Funerals, family prayers and personal devotions. 4. It is involved (in cooperation with sister societies in Canada, Britain and Australia) in maintaining and teaching that Biblical Faith, Order and Morahty to which the Common Prayer Tradition, along with the other Anglican Formularies, witness. 5. It seeks to do the above through lectures, seminars, pubhcations, phone conversations, an intemet web site and work in local churches. Its educational outreach is called the Cranmer-Seabury House of Studies.

TO MAINTAIN THE ANGLICAN WAY SUPPORT THE PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY Especially consider giving specific support to the Cranmer-Seabury House of Studies Send your gift to the Philadelphia P.O.Box. 35220 Philadelphia, PA 19128 Call 1-800-727-1928 for details.

l/J..ril I '..sf^ I r, Editor: The Rev'd Dr Peter Toon MANDATE, Vol. 18. 5. is published six times a year by the Prayer Book Society, a non-profit organization serving the Church. All gifts to the P.B.S. are tax-deductable. Recipients of Mandate are encouraged to send a minimum gift of $28.00. Editorial and all other correspondence: P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia Pa. 19128. Phone 1-800-PBS-1928. Postmaster: Please send address changes to The Prayer Book Society, P.O. Box 35220, Philadelphia. PA 19128.

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MANDATE: September/October 1999 The Prayer Book Society Reflections from the Editor's Desk

The Rev 'd Dr. Peter Toon THE LORD'S PRAYER

he moral law which we know as the Ten Commandments public liturgy. And it is done so usually in exact translation into the was written "by the finger of God" (Deuteronomy 9:10). In ofthe form given in the Gospels in Greek. In the period Tcontrast, the "Prayer of prayers" dropped from the lips of immediately after the apostles, we know from the ancient docu­ the Son of God, our Lord, Jesus Christ and thus has been known in ment called the that baptized Christians, and only the bap­ the Church as "the Lord's Prayer." Though short it is comprehen­ tized, were urged to pray this Prayer three times a day - moming, sive, complete and clear. Christians pray according to God's will noon and night. when they pray in faith, hope and charity the words of this Prayer. In the ancient Church the Lord's Prayer was a constituent part The Prayer is found in two places in the Gospels. First of all, it of the Lord's Supper and everywhere the Lord's Prayer, together occurs in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is actually talking with the creed, was also part of the necessary items in which candi­ about genuine, sincere prayer (:5-13). Secondly, it oc­ dates for baptism were instructed either immediately before or af­ curs in :1-4 in answer to a question from the disciples who ter baptism (usually at Easter Eve). The baptized leamed the Prayer impressed by Jesus' praying asked him, "Lord teach us to pray." of prayers by heart and they were allowed to join in praying it for the first time at the Holy Communion immediately following their It may be said that what Jesus Christ, the Son, teaches about baptism. The sense of privilege in using the Prayer is preserved in his Father in heaven's relation to people on earth is summarized in the ancient. Orthodox Liturgy of St John Chrysostom where the the Lord's Prayer. This "Prayer of prayers" is a complete statement priest prays: "Make us worthy, O Lord, that we joyously and with­ of what God's children, Christ's disciples, should desire and ask out presumption may make bold to invoke Thee, the heavenly God, the Father of the Son who by grace is their Father also. And since as Father, and to say. Our Father" what they ought to ask of God is a sure indication of what kind of God it is to whom they pray, then we may leam from the Prayer In the classic Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Com­ what Jesus knew the heavenly Father to be like and thus what he munion we pray the Lord's Prayer in the Daily Offices of Moming wanted his disciples to know of his Father. and Evening Prayer, in the service of Holy Communion, in the ser­ The prayer though a unity tends to fall into two parts. The firsti s vice of Holy Baptism and at the Burial of the dead. We leam it both concemed with cosmic issues while the second focuses on personal at our mother's knees and in the Catechism used to prepare us for issues. Both are presented as being in God's care and control so that Confirmation. It therefore not only gives us words to pray, but a the God who govems as the Father almighty the course of world model for prayer and a doctrine of God the Father and our relation history is the very God, the caring Father, who has time for and min­ to him. isters to the daily needs, physical and spiritual of individual persons. Both in liturgical and non-liturgical churches the Prayer of 1. The heavenly Father who rales the cosmos. prayers serves as a model and pattem of prayer so that pastors and (a) The hallowing of his Name. people create their own private and public prayers based on its struc­ (b) The coming of his Kingdom. ture, content, doctrine and ethos. We may say that both the precise (c) The doing of his Will. recitation of the original words and their use as a model for prayer are adequately justified by the words in which Jesus provided this 2. The heavenly Father who cares for his children. Prayer. He said, "After this manner pray ye" (Matthew 6:9). "After (a) Provides daily bread. this manner" can surely mean either "Use these specific words" or (b) Forgives sins. '' Let all your petitions be in harmony with the content of this Prayer.'' (c) Protects and delivers. Our Father is here revealed as being concemed with things Of course, if it is not prayed in an appropriate attitude and just infinitely great and infinitely small. The will ofthe Father relates to recited parrot-fashion then it will be mere words and be without the total life of man on earth and in heaven and the whole person, power and comfort. However, what the saints who love God and the total man, may enter into communion and friendship with the man have found over the years is that they never tire of praying the Father. Jesus teaches men about his Father by teaching them to pray Lord's Prayer. They discover that in praying this Prayer new layers to his Father and thereby to submit their whole life to his loving and depths of insight and meaning not previously seen and grasped care and purposes. constantly emerge. The Lord's Prayer has been prayed daily in the Church through Let us pray the Prayer of prayers with understanding and with the centuries and is still prayed today in the daily offices and in reverence and as the adopted children of the heavenly Father. -

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 fact he did actually bring to the world and to us in his personhood, his deeds and in his teaching a full and clear revelation of God, then we ought to pay particular heed to what he did and said. Fur­ OUR ther, if he himself addressed God as "My Father" and instructed his disciples to address his God as "Our Father" then we are duty bound as honored servants to pray in this manner, rejecting the pressure from the feminist lobby. FATHER So that we always remember that Jesus, the Incarnate Son, is the Son of God by nature and right and that we mere mortals are sons of God by adoption and grace, it is good and for us IN always to pray (even when praying alone) "Our Father..." For a Christian believer to pray "My Father in heaven" is not wrong, theo­ retically speaking, in terms of grammar and theology, but it can be HEAVEN so easily misunderstood in this age when individualism is so ram­ pant in the culture. In praying to God the Father, you or I, as an individual person, pray to him in and through Jesus Christ, the trae Son, and also as he "Prayer of prayers" is not addressed to "the Lord God of one of the many disciples of Jesus Christ, united as one family in Israel" nor does it ask for blessings upon Israel. It seems to God's household, the Church. Even when I pray alone I am praying be entirely free of Jewish elements and represents the dynamic T to "Our Father..." for I do not have a relation to God which is that nature of the new covenant with the living God brought into being by of an individual to an Individual! I pray as one who is in a personal Jesus Christ, the Mediator. The Son of God as the Word made flesh relation to the Son and in him to the Father and also as one who is came into the world as a Jew to be the Messiah: specifically he came also in a personal relation through Christ Jesus to fellow children unto unto his own people but they did not receive him. "But as many of God in his one family. as received him [Jew and Gentile], to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believed on his name" (John 1:12). Thus as the adopted sons of God (Galatians 4:5; Romans 8:23), In heaven Christian believers pray the Lord's Prayer. God the Father is not an inhabitant of this world and he does not live in space and time as if he were like us. He is an infinite and To whom addressed eternal Spirit who is the creator of the universe, the visible and Jesus himself as the Son of God incamate prayed to Jehovah invisible worlds. He is above the creation and outside space and (Yahweh), "O Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (see Luke 10:21; time. His abode is "the heaven of heavens." Together with the only John 17:1). His whole relation to Yahweh is best described as a -begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, in the unity ofthe blessed, holy uniquely filial relation, a communion between the Father and the and undivided Trinity, he is worshipped and adored by the hierar­ Son, as the rich contents ofthe of John make very clear and chies of angels and archangels, who in awe and wonder cry out, John 17 illustrates perfectly. In Matthew and in Luke's Gospels we "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, which was, and is, and is to have the saying of Jesus: "All things are delivered to me by my come" (Revelation 4:8). Father and no one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Belonging not to God's own infinity and etemity but to cre­ Son wills reveal him" (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:21-22). ated space and time. Christian believers look to God's heaven when The disciples of Jesus, who are related to Him as servants to they worship, for they address the heavenly Father through his In­ Master, share in his filial relation to his Father and thus they pray, camate Son and with his Holy Spirit. Heaven has become their true "Our Father..." Certainly he is the unique, the one and only, eter­ home for heaven is the abode of the redeemed family of God as nal, only-begotten Son ofthe Father who possesses the one and the well as of the holy angels. Christians are united by faith and the same deity/divinity/Godhead as does the Father. In contrast his dis­ Holy Spirit to Christ Jesus, the Mediator between heaven and earth, ciples are creatures made to be sons/children of his Father by adop­ and thus in and with him they rise through the presence and power tion. He is the Son by right and by nature but they are the sons by of the Holy Spirit "to seek those things which are above" and "to grace. However, though in a secondary and derivative way, they are set [their] affections on things above" (Colossians 3:1-3) for they most certainly sons, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:17; are "heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14) Galatians 4:7). Such a wonderful access to heaven brings great joy and elation Today, regrettably, in the main-line denominations of America of spirit but it does so only when the dominant attitude is that of there is opposition from those who see what they call patriarchalism, reverential awe before the majesty and glorious nature of God — androcentricism and sexism as major evils to the addressing of God a sense of amazing wonder, deep humility and profound stillness as "Our Father." They hold (erroneously) that the calling of God, of spirit. For the Father of all goodness is also the Holy One and "the Father," arises from the practices of a male-centered culture the Righteous One, before whom guilty sinners tremble at his rather than from the direct revelation of the etemal God through his wrath against sin whilst forgiven sinners are filled with praise at Son. They believe that in a modern culture committed to the equal­ his justice. ity ofthe sexes it is not appropriate to have religious language domi­ Therefore, even as "we are all the children of God by faith in nated by masculine names for the Deity. Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26) so we pray the Lord's Prayer in faith But, we answer, if the Lord Jesus is truly our Master, and if in with a filial disposition as true believers.

MANDATE: September/October 1999 1 ne r rayer book bociety ation, especially in the invisible world: "Glory to God in the high­ est" (Luke 2:14). Earlier the Psalmist had sung: "How excellent is HALLOWED thy name in all the earth" (8:9). To hallow God's name is to set his name above every other name. It is much more than to admire him. It is to adore him and to BE love him uniquely with the whole heart, soul, mind and strength. In practice we hallow and sanctify God, the Father's holy name:

THY (i) When we set him highest in our thoughts and thereby truly honor him. That is we think of God as the most excellent and most wonderful infinite Beauty and etemal Good and in so NAME thinking we adore him as the super-eminent and incompre­ hensible Being. Further, seeing all things in relation to him for he is the Creator, Redeemer and Judge, we praise him in fter addressing "our Father in heaven" disciples ofthe Lord his works and words. Jesus Christ pray, "hallowed be thy name." In effect they Asay: "Let thy Name be acknowledged to be holy, treated as (ii) When "we trast in his holy name" (Psalm 33:21) and recog­ holy, venerated." They ask that they and all rational creatures not nize that he is truly worthy of all praise, honor, loyalty and only reverence and honor God in speech and attitude but that they commitment. Thus we offer him our worship (worth-ship). also glorify him in deed by obedience to his commandments. To believe in him, to commit ourselves to him and thus to trust in him is to declare that he is all-wise, all-powerful and The verb "to hallow" is common in the Old Testament espe­ the God of all grace and that we are wholly dependent upon cially in the context ofthe worship of Yahweh (Jehovah). The temple, him. the priesthood and all its and implements were hallowed, set apart for holy use (Exodus 29:21). And it was required of the (iii) When we always pronounce the holy name with the utmost covenant people by their God that "they shall sanctify my name, reverence and awe. "Blessed by thy glorious name, which is and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel" exalted above all praise" (Nehemiah 9:5). (Isaiah 29:23). Thus God declared to his people, "I will be sancti­ fied in you before the heathen" (Ezekiel 20:41) and again, "I will (iv) When we offer to him spiritual worship (Leviticus 10:30), sanctify myself and I will be known in the eyes of many nations worshipping the Father through the Son and with the Spirit in and they shall know that I am the LORD (38:23). truth (John 4) in the congregation ofthe saints.

"Thy Name" is not a mere periphrasis for God himself. Rather (v) When we gladly obey him: "I delight to do thy will, O God" it points to God's self-revelation of his identity, his nature and at­ (Psalm 40:8). "Ye are... a royal priesthood,... a peculiar tributes and, further, it points to his relation to his covenant people. people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who hath Thus in Israel to "profane the name of thy God, the LORD" was a called you out of darkness into light" (1 Peter 2:9). terrible sin (Leviticus 18:21). God, the LORD, had commanded, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the (vi) When we stand up for his truth, for God's glory is known in LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" and by his revealed trath (Jude 3). The Church is the pillar (Exodus 20:7). On the positive side, Israel prayed, "they that know and bulwark ofthe trath (1 Timothy 3:15). thy name will put then trast in thee" (Psalm 9:10) and "let them that love thy name be joyful in thee" (Psalm 5:11). (vii) When we make converts who, in repentance and true faith, join us in hallowing God's holy name. It not be said of God's name as revealed to Moses is the LORD (Jehovah, us what Paul said of the Jews that "the name of God is blas­ Yahweh) or " I am who I am" and "I am who I was" and "I shall be phemed among the Gentiles through you" (Romans 2:24). what I am" and "I am and shall be what I was" (Exodus 3). The holy and glorious "I AM" is also "I AM A TRINITY IN UNITY If we ask the question, "Why did God give us life?" the answer AND A UNITY IN TRINITY." The Lord Jesus made this clear when is that by our living we may hallow his name. He gave us minds to he disclosed the full name of the LORD (Yahweh) — he told his admire him, hearts to adore him and tongues to praise him. We disciples to baptize converts "in the Name [LORD] of the Father exist in order to enjoy and glorify God unto ages of ages. His name and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). God is a is worthy to be praised; his name deserves hallowing; and Christian Trinity of Persons, the Father together with his only-begotten Son believers fulfill their vocations when their lives are consecrated to and with his Holy Spirit. the hallowing of the name of God in all that they are, have and do.

The angels who sang at the birth of Jesus, the Incamate Son, Hallowed be the Name of the Father, and of his Son and of his proclaimed that God's name be glorified and hallowed in all cre­ Holy Spirit unto all ages and world without end.

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 enly and coming kingdom, were present on earth. Thus as he lived as a Jew in holy communion with the Father, doing his will, he proclaimed that the kingdom had drawn near. In him the kingdom of the future was a reahty in the present. In him the glory of the age to come was seen in this age, in the rough and tumble of Palestine. Therefore to believe in him and to belong to him meant to be in the THY sphere and under the influence of the Idngdom of God the Father, and thus to be receiving God's salvation here and now. To be a disciple of Jesus was to be a disciple of the Idngdom of heaven. KINGDOM The kingdom was present in Jesus as God's Incamate Son on earth but how is the kingdom present in space and time now that he is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory? The answer is straightforward. By his perfect life of love, by his atoning death COME and by his exaltation into heaven Jesus conquered all the enemies of God and man - sin, death, hell and Satan. From heaven the Fa­ isciples of Jesus Christ, addressing the Father, pray for the ther through the Son, and for the sake of the Son sent the Holy coming ofthe Father's kingdom, of which Christ is the King. Spirit to be the Paraclete of Jesus. Thus in and by the presence of At first sight this seems a strange petition when we bear in D the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the King, is known on earth and where the mind that the kingdom came in, with and through Jesus Christ and Spirit and the King are, there is the kingdom of God the Father. that disciples of Jesus Christ are actually in God's kingdom. But on "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness reflection we see that from our human perspective as pilgrims and and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). So it is not sojoumers on earth it makes perfect sense so to pray. While the surprising that while Jesus himself preached the arrival ofthe king­ kingdom has already arrived with Jesus the King and is present dom of God, his apostles preached the exaltation of the crucified where his Spirit is active as his Paraclete, it has obviously not yet Messiah, in and with whom is the kingdom of God. come in its fullness. We actually live in an evil age in mortal bodies affected by sin. In fact disciples would not be instructed to pray, The Petition "thy kingdom come" if they were not yet still, at least to some degree, in the kingdom of darkness and open to the temptation of When disciples of Jesus pray "thy kingdom come" they pray the world, the flesh and the devil. for the completion of God's redeeming work on earth and the dawn of the future kingdom of righteousness and peace in the age to come. A future reality They pray for the demolition of the kingdom of darkness and of the From the human standpoint the kingdom of God is primarily a devil. Such a petition necessarily includes prayer for the coming of future reahty. It is that state of affairs which will come into being at the kingdom into the hves of human beings as they are moved by the end of this evil age, after the Last Judgment. Then God will not the Holy Spirit to look to Jesus Christ for full salvation from all sin. only be fully in control, but everyone and everything will gladly Thus it is a prayer for what may be called the coming of both the acknowledge his rale and praise him. His future kingdom can be present kingdom of grace and of the future kingdom of glory. called a realm, a sphere and a rale. In it there will only be goodness We pray that the kingdom of grace may be set up in our hearts, and beauty and glory and peace. The kingdom will be the new cre­ increase and flourish. We pray also that the kingdom of glory may ation in splendor, full of righteousness and free of all evil and sin soon come and that we be translated into it. These two kingdoms, and imperfection. or aspects of the one kingdom, differ not in nature but in degree. It was to this final perfection and consummation that the proph­ The kingdom of grace is nothing but the beginning of the kingdom ets of the old covenant looked, describing it, for example, as "new of glory. The kingdom of grace is glory in the seed while the king­ heavens and earth" and "new Jerusalem." The Lord Jesus used vivid dom of glory is grace in the full flower. There is such a relation language to speak of this kingdom which he saw as coming in full­ between the two kingdoms that one can only enter in the kingdom ness and splendor after his Second Coming and the final judgment of glory through the kingdom of grace. of the nations. The kingdom of God will be the sphere in which, God's kingdom is obviously not of this world or of this age. under the rule of the Blessed Trinity, the redeemed in their resur­ Thus any social, economic or political goal for the improvement of rection bodies enjoy the fullness of etemal salvation in God's ser­ the human condition may be admirable but it cannot ever be the vice and proceed from glory to glory as with the angels they behold kingdom of God. Certainly earthly citizens of the heavenly king­ the glory of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ, the Son, with the dom of God are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the Holy Spirit. world and thus make a difference to the quality of life on earth for Present in Jesus all. But to equate any human Utopia with the kingdom of God is a terrible mistake. Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God made man his presence in space and time in Palestine meant that in him God's perfect rale "Thy kingdom come" is a prayer for "a kingdom not of this and peace, which belong essentially and necessarily to the heav­ world." +

MANDATE: September/October 1999 i n© rrsysr tsooK oociGiy (a) by obeying as God's word only what God has revealed as his will. This means that they have to be well-versed in the content and meaning of Holy Scripture and be able to discem the will THY WILL of God from the will of man.

(b) by obeying this revealed will of God entirely, sincerely, will­ BE DONE ON ingly, fervently, swiftly and constantly. This means that they have to be indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit and live by faith which works by love and in faithfulness.

EARTH AS IT Disciples do not follow the example of the evil angels, led by Satan, who disobey the will of God and seek to thwart his purposes on earth. Rather they pray to their heavenly Father both that his will IS IN HEAVEN be done and that they, weak as they are, be given the strength and determination to do that will wholly and to his glory (Psalm 143: 10; Ezekiel 36:27). aving prayed for the hallowing of the holy name of God and for the coming of God's kingdom, disciples of Jesus Hthen pray for the will of the Father to be done on earth even Active and Passive Obedience as it is done in heaven. And they do so in the knowledge that the only Person who wholly and totally lived according to the Father's The Lord Jesus obeyed his Father actively and intentionally in will in space and time was the Lord Jesus himself and that they are doing what he was commanded to do - active obedience. He also to be like him, to imitate him. In his ministry he often made it clear obeyed his Father when he accepted what the Father caused to be that "I came to do the will of my Father in heaven" and, as he faced laid upon him, chiefly his passion and death on the cross (Matthew the horror of crucifixion at Calvary, he prayed, "Not my will but 26:39) - passive obedience. thine, O Father, be done." Living in an evil age, where sin abounds, and where sickness, When speaking of the will of God, theologians have distin­ pain and injury are common, the disciple of Jesus often has to suf­ guished between (a) God's will, or the will of his decrees, fer physically and emotionally and know persecution, deprivation and (b) God's revealed will made known to us in God's Word writ­ and poverty of various kinds. In these circumstances passive obedi­ ten, the Holy Scriptures. Here the petition obviously focuses on (b) ence is required in imitation of our Blessed Lord and of his saints. because (a) cannot be known, being locked up within the wisdom We are prone to resist affliction of any kind and to gramble and and knowledge of the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity. moan when it comes our way. But even when we can say to God, " Thy hand presseth me sore" (Psalm 38:2) and we know that the Lord "multiplies our wounds" (Job 9:17) we are patiently to be In heaven submissive to him and his will for "all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to his God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, and heaven purposes" (Romans 8:28). belongs to the invisible things. Heaven, the dwelling place of the angels and archangels and of redeemed humanity, was given a new Afflictions received as means of passive obedience contribute center and glory when Jesus Christ, Incamate God, ascended into to our true happiness, our blessedness (Job 5:17). They bring us heaven. In fact, heaven as Christians understand it only came into into deeper communion with God and they make us much more being in its fullness with the exaltation therein of the Son of God aware of our heavenly pilgrimage and inheritance. with his perfected human nature. Now pure angels and perfected men behold the glory of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ and serve the Lord with pure hearts. Since the Exaltation there is greater The Consummation revelation from God and greater communion with God even in heaven through the gracious presence of the Word made flesh, the This petition is not only a request that the members of God's Son of God Incamate, our King, Priest and Prophet. family, his household, the members of the one, holy, catholic and i apostolic Church do his will on earth. It reaches to the whole of the Always, however, the will of God was perfectly obeyed by the created order and requests that God's will be done everywhere and hosts of spiritual beings which serve the Lord God Almighty from by all. Thus it is a prayer for the Parousia, the Second Coming of age to age, everlastingly. Disciples of Jesus on earth pray that they ; the Lord Jesus in glory, to consummate the purpose of God by his will obey the Father as did and as do the angels in heaven. We are to judging of the living and the dead and by his bringing into being resemble them and make them our pattern (Psalm 130:20; Isaiah 6: the new age of the kingdom of God in its fullness and glory. For Revelation 4). Thus disciples on earth called to be holy and to be only at the Parousia will every tongue confess that "Jesus is Lord" perfect (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15-16) do the will of God: to the glory of the Father and thereby God's will shall be done. #

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 flour, kneed the dough and bake in the oven the bread what we eat is the gift of God. "All things come of thee and of thine own have GIVE US we given thee," said David before the Lord. Since food and clothing and shelter are gifts from God, they remind us that while it is good and right to ask for temporal things THIS DAY (food, clothing, shelter and health) we ought to desire them and use them for spmtual ends, that is as helps in our pilgrimage towards the heavenly city on the narrow way which leads to Life. To pray OUR DAILY for temporal and physical things only to satisfy natural desire is not to make progress in the life of faith, hope and charity. "Man shall not live by bread alone," said Jesus, "but by every word that BREAD ; proceedeth from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Even as we prayed "our Father" so we ask for "our bread." A t is of great spiritual and moral importance that before we pray disciple of Christ can never truly think and act in egotistical or for our own needs we seek God's glory and the advancement of individualistic or selfish ways for he is seeking to love one another Ihis cause. Christ Jesus taught us to petition for that which is as Christ loves him and others. Thus the congregation in unison but supreme before that which is important but yet secondary. And we also the individual believer in his privacy both pray for "our bread" know that only his trae disciples, those who have been bom from since they are praying for all and for each others, that the needs of above and seek the things which are above, can truly pray in sincer­ all and every one shall be met by God's bounty. ity and with fervor in this way, putting God's honor first. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," said Jesus, "and Contentment is gain all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). In this request for bread, disciples pray for part of the "all these things" God can bless a little and we can do well on a little. We recall which is added unto them out of God's bounty. that Daniel and the three children ate pulse and drank only water, a very basic diet, and yet they looked healthier on it than those who The Greek word epiousios, which is often translated simply as ate at the king's table (Daniel 1:12). Thus we look to God who "daily," has been much discussed because it is a rare word. Perhaps provides it to bless even our bread and water (Exodus 23:25) for the best explanation of its meaning is based on the derivation of it we know that simple fare with God's love is traly angels' food. as ep-iousa meaning "that which is coming." This would mean that "Feed me with food convenient for me" said the wise man (Prov­ here we have a prayer for bread for the coming day. Now the com­ erbs 30:8). ing day would be the same day if the prayer be offered in the morn­ ing and it would be the following day if the prayer be offered in the Yet God may give us rich food in plenty to eat. With the manna evening. But there is a further probable meaning. "Bread for the we may be given the quails (Exodus 16:ff.). Here we must be both morrow" could also mean "bread for the future" that is "nourish­ thankful and also wary for a full table can be a snare! There are ment at the Messianic Banquet of the age to come." spiritual dangers in prosperity and plenty unless we use these gifts to honor God and to love the neighbor. The golden sands of pros­ If the request for the daily and the end-time food are united in perity are often quicksands and this petition reminds us that God, intention then we have here a petition for health and salvation for the Source of our plenty, helps us to be thankful, generous with it body and soul, as a unity of being, both in this age and that which is and to live in contentment. to come. We need food for the body and food for the soul now and then in our resurrection bodies of glory we shah be fed at the Ban­ We are always to be aware that God often answers the peti­ quet of heaven, the Messiah's table, with the food of etemal life. tions of his children by inspiring and guiding fellow human beings And the latter food is of course given now, howbeit in small quan­ to provide what is being asked for. Thus the church, as the family tity, each time we kneel at the Lord's Table to receive Holy Com­ of God, has seen its duty over the centuries to feed the hungry and munion. provide water for those who are parched (see Matthew 25: 3Iff.).

A gift To ask for the bread of today and of the morrow and further to ask for the bread of the heavenly Messianic Banquet is to All we have is of and from God's bounteous provision. Even if place ourselves where we truly belong, as God's creatures look­ we plough the fields and plant the seed and reap the harvest, what ing dutifully and thankfully unto our Father as the Giver of all we obtain is the gift of God. Even if we grind the corn, make the good things. #

MANDATE: September/October 1999 The Prayer Book Society for God the Father on the basis ofthe merits of his Son to cancel the new debt. Thus the petition, "Forgive us our debts/sins..." How­ ever, God the Father only forgives those in whom the spirit of for­ FORGIVE US giveness and reconciliation is active. So there is a condition to the receiving of God's forgiveness daily - he who desires God's for­ giveness must himself be prepared to forgive others. OUR DEBTS AS During Jesus taught his disciples much. On prayer and forgiveness he said: "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven WE FORGIVE may forgive your trespasses" (Mark 11:25). The apostle Paul ech­ oed this when he told the Colossians that they were to forbear one another and forgive one another even as Christ forgave them OUR DEBTORS (Colossians 3:13). If we follow Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer then we find aving made petition for the world to see the glory of God, the word "sin" rather than "debt." Both are translations ofthe origi­ and having asked for what is necessary for bodily sus­ nal word used by Jesus, hoba, which while literally meaning "debt" tenance in this age and the age to come, disciples are is used in the for "sin" and "transgression." Sin means H "missing the mark" and failing to do what God has commanded. To directed by the Lord Jesus to pray for forgiveness by their heavenly Father as they offer forgiveness to fellow human beings. sin is therefore to transgress God's holy law and to be under God's judgment as a transgressor. Forgiveness makes possible right relations so that there can be So debt points to what we owe to God and sin points to how communion, fellowship and friendship. God himself does not need much we have failed God. forgiveness for he is glorious in holiness, beauty and goodness; but, he is the source of all forgiveness. In contrast, sinful human How can man forgive sins? beings desperately need forgiveness from God and also forgiveness God alone can forgive sins committed against his honor, his from fellow human beings, who have themselves been touched by justice and his law. Thus only God can cancel the debt of offences God's mercy. Only forgiven man can be in a right relation with God against the First Table of the Law (idolatry, blasphemy, not loving the Father and only a forgiving man can be in right relations with God with the whole heart); and only God can cancel the debt of his fellow men. offences against the Second Table (disobedience of the command­ Jesus gave this Prayer of prayers to his disciples knowing that ments to honor parents, not to lie, not to steal and not to commit he would soon become the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of adultery). Since the Law is God's revealed will any offence against the world by his sacrificial death on the Cross at Calvary. His Fa­ the Law is an offence against him. ther forgives sin because of this Atonement and "we have redemp­ Where then does forgiveness of man by man come into the tion through his blood" (Ephesians 1:7). picture? He can forgive the wrong done to himself (e.g., forgive the thief who from him and the murderer who killed his brother) Debts and sins but not a wrong done to God. By his disobedience of God, Adam made the whole human In many human sins, transgressions, trespasses and offences, there race debtors and saddled them with a debt they can never repay. is the primary sin against God and then there is the real sin against The debt owed is a full and free obedience of creatures to their man, where man suffers because of the action of his fellow man. Creator. As each human being fails to obey his Maker so his debt increases and he has no way of paying it back. This is so because Jesus taught that God the Father is only ready to extend his even his best efforts at pleasing God are tainted with human pride great mercy to disciples who sin against him by canceUing their or selfishness and therefore fail to be true obedience and so instead debt and wiping away their sin if, and only if, they have a forgiving of reducing the debt they actually increase it. spirit. In fact Jesus also taught: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them To be in a right relation with God and to have communion with which despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your the heavenly Father, man as a sinner needs his debt to be cancelled. Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil He can never reduce it or cancel it by own effort or negotiations but and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (Mat­ it is cancelled and, as it were, the slate is wiped clean in heaven, thew 5:44-45). when he is united in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. The beginning of discipleship means beginning a new life of The origin of "the Peace" in the Divine Liturgy or Holy Eu­ grace, free of debt to God the Father almighty. The merit of Jesus charist is in the need for disciples to forgive one another and be Christ pays the debt. reconciled to each other before they approach the holy table for the Body and . "First be reconciled to thy brother [who Yet even as a disciple of Jesus Christ, maturing in faith, hope has been offended] and then come and offer thy gift" said Jesus and love, debt is incurred. There is the need for daily forgiveness. (Matthew 5:23-24). #

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 Peter, "because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist..." (1 Peter 5:8). LEAD US Satan, the devil, has power as a spiritual being to enter the heart, the mind and the imagination. He can stir up the sinful tendencies left within us and he can present to our mind's eye pleasing but NOT INTO forbidden objects in order to raise desire in us for them. He can blow a spark of lust into a flame! And he is so experienced in his invasion of our inner being that we often do not recognize that he is TEMPTATION active. We may even think that what he is suggesting is that which BUT DELIVER God is inspiring us to think and to do! Satan is exceedingly subtle! He knows when to tempt, how to tempt and where to tempt us. He tempts when we are at our US FROM EVIL. weakest and in areas where we least suspect and expect tempta­ tion. He excels in giving us all kinds of good reasons for not do­ ing our duty in prayer, bible-reading and keeping God's holy law. isciples are instructed to pray that God their heavenly He makes the second best seem to be the best and the unlawful to Father will not cause or allow them to enter into tempta­ be lawful. He misrepresents true holiness and leads us to love Dtion so that they will neither be overwhelmed by, nor suc­ error instead of truth. cumb to, it. Here temptation can mean "trial" or "test" in the sense of suffering, persecution and martyrdom. It is prayer not for pres­ If all this is so, why does God allow his dear children to be ervation from temptation but rather for preservation in temptation. tempted by the devil? What is promised to disciples in this evil age is not freedom from temptations but rather God's help in overcoming them. For no-one It has been well said that the devil tempts that he may deceive can possibly obtain the kingdom of heaven who has not passed us but God lets us be tempted in order to try or to test us. through temptations. God our Father tests our sincerity in our profession of faith, Since St. James urges, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I our love for him and our courage in confessing him before men. am tempted of God, for God tempteth not any man" (1:13), then Further, he allows us to be tempted in order to keep us from pride we must conclude that God does not tempt (as the devil tempts) and to make us long for heaven where there is no temptation. And, man. God permits sin but does not promote it: God allows his chil­ if the saints have not faced temptations how can they minister to dren to be tested by trial and tempted by Satan or then own lusts and help others in the way when they are also tempted? Finally, we (James 1:4), but he, himself, by his very nature of holiness, could have the example of Jesus Christ, our great high priest, who was and would not lead, that is seek to persuade by temptation, anyone himself tempted and who resisted the visitations of Satan and who to commit sin. now hves and reigns to make intercession for us (Hebrews 4:15).

In the second part of this request disciples are told to ask that they be rescued from and protected against spiritual and moral evil Deliverance in the world until they are released from this world and enter into the life of the age to come, where there is no evil. Disciples pray for deliverance from evil, which means prima­ rily the evil of sin but may also include what we call natural evils. That is they pray for deliverance from the evil of their own hearts Temptations (Hebrews 3:12), from the evil of Satan, who is the evil one (Mat­ thew 13:19) and from the evil of the world (Galatians 1:4). From There is no escape from temptation in this world for the dis­ any or all of these sources they are able to be led away from the ciples of Christ. From within their own nature, as sinful creatures kingdom and from Jesus Christ back towards the kingdom of dark­ not yet finally perfected, evil desires and temptations arise. Then, ness from which they were delivered. as they seek to be genuine disciples of Jesus Christ, the great en­ emy of God, Satan, makes them particular targets of his arrows of And as this is the last petition in the Lord's Prayer, then it temptation. Thus disciples pray that God would not allow them to surely includes a request for deliverance from anything and every­ be overcome by temptation, that is, they ask that they be not left to thing that may occur at the last days and that may prevent the entry themselves and their own power so that they fall prey to tempta­ of every disciple into the glorious liberty of the kingdom of God of tions which are sure to come to them daily. the age to come.

The whole world is the parish or diocese of Satan, the evil We do not want to fall away into partial or total rain or into angel, and he is sure to be watching disciples of Christ wherever partial or total apostasy. Thus this petition to be delivered from evil they are and whatever they are doing. "Be sober, be vigilant," wrote so that we attain unto everlasting life.

MANDATE: September/October 1999 The Prayer Book Society with what was known as a "seal", a sentence of praise freely cre­ ated by the man who was praying. FOR It is highly probable that Jesus expected this to happen to the Prayer of prayers which he gave to his disciples. Whoever prayed this Prayer or led others in the praying of it concluded it with a THINE "seal," a to the Father. As time went on a certain doxol­ ogy became common and this is found in the Didache and was added by scribes to the text of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew but not IS THE in Luke. Thus we affirm that the use of the doxology is according to the mind of Christ and we ought to end the Lord's Prayer with it. KINGDOM Kingdom Here the kingdom is said to belong to the Father but in the Jesus Christ is called "the King of kings and Lord ven as the Lord's Prayer begins by hallowing the name of of lords." Is the Father the King of the kingdom or is the Son the God, so it ends with a doxology to the Father, to whom be King of the kingdom? F longs the eternal kingdom, the almighty power and the ever­ lasting glory unto ages of ages. The most noble and the purest thing In the Old Testament Yahweh (Jehovah), the "I am that I am" that creatures can do is to praise, worship, magnify and adore the and the LORD, is both presented as the King of Israel and the King almighty Father through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the of the universe. What is said of Yahweh, the LORD, in the Old Holy Spirit. Testament is then said ofthe Father in the New Testament. Thus the A textual question Father is the King of all creation. However, we leam from the New Testament that the Father is not alone for he is the Father of the In the King James Bible of 1611 the Lord's Prayer as given by only-begotten Son and from him the Holy Spirit proceeds: thus St. Matthew ends, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and God the LORD is the Holy Trinity and the Holy Trinity is the King. the glory, for ever. Amen." In the Book of Common Prayer {1662 & 1928) the ending has an extra "for ever" and reads, "For thine is the Jesus Christ in his Deity as the Second Person of the Holy kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." Trinity (together with the Father and the Holy Spirit) is traly the However, when we tum to the Revised Standard Version (1946) King of all creation. Further, as the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ is and later translations we find that this doxology is either placed in the King specifically of what we may call the mediatorial kingdom, a footnote or is omitted altogether. that is the kingdom God as known in space and time in this world The reason why it is omitted from modern translations is that it for the sake of the salvation of sinners and the regeneration of the is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the New Testa­ whole cosmos. In Jesus, as the Mediator and the last Adam, the ment of which scholars are now aware. The English translations of kingdom of God was redemptively and creatively present upon earth the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used the text of the New in space and time. He remains King of this phase or aspect of the Testament which was preserved in the Byzantine Church at the end kingdom until the Father's saving, redeeming, reconciling and re­ of the fourth century. Modern translations work with Greek texts generating work is completed. Then the kingdom will enter its final from a century earlier and in these texts the doxology is not found and never-ending phase and it will be the kingdom of the Father, either in Matthew's or St. Luke's versions of the Lord's Prayer. In together with his Son and his Holy Spirit. fact it is not found in any of the major Greek texts of St. Luke's After speaking of the Second Coming of Christ and the resur­ Gospel and is not therefore in the (Luke 11:1-4). rection ofthe dead, St. Paul explained: "Then cometh the end when The first occurrence of the doxology as the ending of the Lord's Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; Prayer is found in the document called the Didache or The Teach­ when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. ing of the Twelve Apostles which belongs to the latter part of the For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The first century. Here, in chapter 8, the Prayer ends with the doxology last enemy that shall be destroyed is death...And when all things which we know from Matthew's Gospel (6:13) and is followed by shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be sub­ the instruction, "Three times a day pray thus." ject unto him [the Father] that put all things under him [the Son], that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). Is therefore the addition of the doxology in Matthew to be seen as untruthful and false? No, because the Lord's Prayer would never Of this final phase of the kingdom of God, St. Augustine wrote: have been prayed without some closing words of praise to the heav­ "There we shall be still and see; we shall see and we shall love; we enly Father, our Lord God. No pious Jew or baptized Christian would shall love and we shall praise. Behold what will be, in the end, ever close a prayer to the LORD with the words "and deliver us without end! For what is our end but to reach that kingdom which from evil." We know that in Judaism prayers were often concluded has no end?" (Bk XXII, Chap.30). #

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 THE PRAYER BOOK IN AUSTRALIA

ustralia is the sixth largest country in the world. It is mostly a land of burning deserts and dry scrub. Two of its unique A animals are the kangaroo and kookaburra. In the far east there are the more fertile regions where crops are grown and cattle and sheep raised. It is in this area that the largest cities have gown up. Australia is divided into six states and two territories. The na­ tional capital is at Canberra but the largest city is Sydney in New South Wales. Virtually all the small population is settled around the coastline. There is no state church but the Anglican Church is present throughout the land. Until the 1960's it was known as "the Church of England in Australia." Mrs. Gwyneth Smith The classic Book of Common Prayer of 1662 is the official at the PBS Bookstall _ in Melbourne Prayer book ofthe Church but there exist alongside it two books of altemative services, one from the 1970's (An Australian Prayer Topics on which Dr. Toon spoke included: "The nature of the Book) and one from the 1990's {A Prayer Book for Australia). The Common Prayer, 1549-1662"; "The Future of the B.C.P. in the latter is massive, over 900 pages in all and makes use of modem Anglican Communion"; "The possibility of a new orthodox prov­ inclusive language. ince of the Anglican Communion in North America"; "The appeal to the ancient church by modem liturgiologists"; and "Anglicanism While there is no national prayer book society there are societ­ within the Universal Church." ies in five of the States - Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. They exist in order to promote The visit was coordinated by Mrs Gwyneth Smith of Melboume the use and understanding of the historic B.C.P. both as a Formu­ who also hosted Dr. Toon for six of his 14 days in Australia. lary ofthe Church and also as a living liturgical Text. Happily they The Prayer Book Society of America and the Prayer Book are supported by a minority of the bishops in their work and up to Societies of Australia find that they have common goals even though 20 per cent of parishes throughout Australia still use the B.C.P. they are separated by over 7,000 miles. They plan to work together regularly. more closely in the future in the promotion ofthe Common Prayer As in Britain and North America, there have been events of Tradition in the Anglican Communion. + various kinds to commemorate the 450th anniversary ofthe Common Prayer in English and, as part of the celebrations. Dr. Toon of the American Prayer Book Society visited three of the societies in Australia. At their invitation and to help promote the cause of the Common Prayer in the Church, he gave a variety of talks and lectures and preached several sermons in strategic centers. Places visited for meetings included: Adelaide (the Cathedral and St. Barnabas College); Melbourne (Christ Church, Brunswick and All Saints' East St Kilda); Wangaratta (the Cathedral) and Sydney (St. Philip's, St. John's Parramatta, Moore College & St. Paul's College). He had long conversations with several archbishops and bishops as well as a variety of dedicated influential laity. Dr. Toon, the Archbishop of Sydney and Dr. Luw Wheeler (retired physician & founder of the P.B.S. in N.S.W.)

MANDATE: September/October 1999 The Prayer Book Society Why do Episcopalians find it difficult to recognize that the so-called 1979 B.C.P. is not truly an authentic B.C.P. such as the English 1662, the American 1789/1892/1928 and the Canadian 1962 but is truly in structure and content a Book of Alternative Services? A STATEMENT FOR DISCUSSION

Peter Toon

1. Since 1979 the whole machinery of the Episcopal Church, at The Roman introduced a variety of Rites for the national, diocesan and parish levels has called the new Prayer the after the , whereas before there Book produced by the Standing Liturgical Commission and was only One Rite. This has helped to give the impression to approved at the General Conventions of 1976 and 1979 by the some Episcopalians that Common Prayer can have variety of name and title, THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Thus rites within it and remain as the Common Prayer. The latest people have got into the habit of calling it by that name, the edition of the Roman has no less than fourteen title that is printed on the cover and on the title page of the approved eucharistic prayers! book itself. It seems foolish even to question that this Book is 7 Great emphasis has been placed in liturgical studies in semi­ "The Book of Common Prayer" when seemingly every bishop naries and in teaching in parishes on the need to recover an­ and every priest calls it by this name. cient church structures for the services of the Church. This heavy 2. Practically speaking this 1979 Prayer Book is apparently used propaganda has led to the justification for variety in service in most of the socially conservative parishes as was the 1928 books and in weekly worship. B.C.P. before the 1970's. People sit in their pews, pick it up However, one of the things that the liturgiologists gloss over when advised and tum to this or that page, follow the service when the claim that a variety of rites was the "norm" in the there, and then move on to another page. At the end of the ancient Church (defined in whatever way is convenient for them) service they leave it in the pews and continue with their lives. is that by and large each locality or nation had a single rite in (Few seem to use it for daily worship in their homes.) use in that place (in some sort of conformity to The Common 3. This 1979 Prayer Book seems to bejust another Anghcan Prayer Prayer of the whole Church). Book. For in it are services for all the traditional things - daily To say that the church in Egypt and the church in Gaul had prayer, the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, mat­ different rites (and therefore one national church can have dif­ rimony, burials and so on. It contains provision for everything ferent rites) misunderstands or ignores the evidence that the that the classic 1928 B.C.P. provided for. church in Egypt had one rite and the church in Gaul (or some 4. People have gotten used to variety in the culture and in then subset of Gaul) had one rite. The error can be compared to lives; further they recognize that the use of the English lan­ saying that they had one liturgical language in Egypt and one guage is rapidly changing. Thus the fact that there is tradi­ liturgical language in Gaul, so everywhere had at least two lan­ tional and modem Enghsh used and that there are multiple ser­ guages in use in the rites of each place. It is an apples and vices and multiple options within services does not seem to oranges mistake. bother many people at all. That is, they do not seem to think 8 After twenty years and the production of thousands of these that a book which deliberately exists to provide choice in the prayer books and millions of pages of minutes and records content of services (especially the Holy Eucharist) cannot by which refer to the 1979 prayer book as "The Book of Common definition be called The Book of COMMON Prayer, for that Prayer," few people are willing even to consider the possibility which is "common" is no longer present. that the 1979 book is not really and truly a Book of Common 5. Modem Episcopalians know little of their history. The mas­ Prayer but is rather something else well known in the Anglican sive cultural revolution ofthe 1960's had a great impact on the Family, a "Book of Alternative Services," or "An Alternative Episcopal Church and caused the departure of many members Service Book." who were custodians of the received tradition of the Common 9 Not a few Anglo-Catholics have been more than ready to call Prayer. Thus there is httle active MEMORY in this Church of the 1979 book by the title of "The Book of Common Prayer" its own history and traditions. Further, new people have joined because they believe it gave them some of those things (e.g. who know nothing of the received tradition of the Anglican/ the Gloria at the beginning of the Mass and a Rite for personal Episcopal Way. So for them there is no problem in simply say­ confession of sin) for which they had been pressing. Likewise ing what others before and around them say and of increasing the lack of MEMORY of the real Prayer Book thereby! DISCUSSION continued on page 14

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 DISCUSSION continued from page 13

not a few Evangelicals have been more than ready also to do so together liturgies from the 1979 book and elsewhere to produce because they got services in modem English and saw these as services with which they and their congregations are as comfort­ more useful for outreach and evangelism. able as are those using the classic liturgies of the historic B.C.P. 10. Previously this title. The Book of Common Prayer, was used Further, in the name of inclusiveness and diversity, a wider variety only in the Anglican world for such Prayer Books which were of options and doctrines in the parish up the road does not seem to revisions of the English 1662 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER bother them. That is, they do not understand or value the notion (which was itself arevision ofthe 1549/1552 B.C.P.). By revi­ that the cathohcity of the Anglican Way is related to the commit­ sion here is meant minor changes in stracture and content and ment to certain forms, the Formularies, to mould her life, worship adapting to new countries with their own special holidays and and doctrine. anniversaries. Revision does not include removing that which It would seem that the ECUSA has become no more than just characterizes the Book as "of Common Prayer." That is, for it another Protestant denomination much along the hues of modem to remain The Common Prayer there must be one and one only Methodism or Lutheranism. She ignores the Cathohcity of the An­ Rite for each occasion, sacrament and office and there must be glican Way. There is NO vital connection to the Anghcan heritage a uniform doctrine throughout the whole Book. (The 1979 book nor is there ANY real commitment in parishes or seminaries to has variety and relativity in rites and in doctrines and the ONLY teach it. To be Anglican (with a substantial meaning from the Com­ reason it is called The B.C.P. is because the General Conven­ mon Prayer Tradition) simply is not important anymore for most of tion has so ruled!) the leadership and people of the ECUSA. What is important, we Is it important to limit liturgical and doctrinal options? Yes it are told, is our "connectedness" to this culture and this time. All is right to have limits for when there are no hmits the Anglican else, save those parts of early church and early anghcan liturgies Way becomes as it were one manifestation of the generic way of that can be made to fit well with modem "connectedness," is appar­ modem American Protestantism. The standards should be set by ently secondary or dispensable. the Formularies (classic B.C.P, Ordinal & Articles of Religion) and all new liturgy must be within the doctrinal possibilities set by A Church of the Anglican Way - as the majority of them in order to remain in the Anghcan Way. Now some in the ECUSA who view themselves as orthodox. the provinces in Africa - has both the Book of Common Biblical Christians believe that their priests can and should cobble Prayer as a formulary and as a daily/weekly liturgy.

THE FORMULARIES OF THE ANGLICAN WAY

he Anglican Way, like the Roman Cathohc Way and the Anglicans can look like Roman Catholics or Lutherans in cer­ Orthodox Way, as a jurisdiction of the one, holy, catholic tain respects but they are distinguished as Anglican Christians by Tand apostolic Church has its own particular formularies. It reason of the distinctive Formularies of the Anglican Way. Regret­ shares with them the primary and non-reformable Formulary which tably, there have always been within the membership of the Angli­ we call the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God written. It also shares can Churches those who wanted to ignore the Formularies and pre- with them the and the doctrine, dogma and polity set | tend that their parish or diocese or province was, on the one side, forth in the decrees and canons of the Ecumenical Councils of the Roman Catholic in all but name or , on the other side, generically Early Church. Evangelical or generically Charismatic in all but name. However, the Anghcan Way includes the latter in translation The Formularies of the Anglican Way are the Book of Com­ into English within its own distinctive secondary English Formu­ mon Prayer (in one of its classic editions), the Ordinal (1662) and laries, which have been in place since the mid-sixteenth century the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571 & USA 1801). In principle, these when the Ecclesia Anglicana by , renewal and change can be in any language, translated from the originals in English of primary language became the Church of England, a free national (and the scholarly text in ), and they exist in over 150 lan­ Church. The same Church of England has bequeathed to the Angli­ guages of the Anglican Communion. can Churches, which have grown from her, precisely the same For­ At one level the Anglican Formularies are signposts pointing mularies. the Church through the controversies and upheavals of the Refor­ These Formularies are the distinctive, unique statements ofthe mation ofthe 16lh century. At another level they are (a) the means Anglican Way and therefore the doctrinal, liturgical and by which the Church approaches, reads and interprets the Word of ecclesiological basis of each of the Provinces and thus of the whole God written (the primary Formulary) (b) the stracture and content of the Anglican Communion of Churches. Anglicans do not com­ in and by which the Church offers the sacrifice of praise, adminis­ mend as their full message just "mere Christianity," but Christian­ ters the Sacraments and preaches the Gospel. By them all later lit­ ity in an Anglican form. urgy and doctrine is tested. +

1 i MANDATE: September/October 1999 The Prayer Book Society Another feature of this first Enghsh THE SERMON BY Prayer Book of 1549 was the provision for the reception of Holy Commumon in both THE ARCHBISHOP i kinds and a clear Exhortation as to the wor­ thy reception of Holy Communion. "My duty," says the priest " is to exhort you to OF YORK IN consider the greatness of the thing...to search and examine your consciences...a YORK MINSTE thing (that is, the receiving of Holy Com­ munion) so comfortable to them that receive JULY 24, 1999. it worthily and so dangerous to them that will presume to take it unworthily..." And to those who cannot be recon­ come let us worship and fall ciled in their consciences there is the ad­ down: and kneel before the vice to seek out "the priest or some other "O Lord our Maker" (Psalm 95:6). discreet and leamed person, taught in the We are here to celebrate the four hundred PBS Chairman Anthony Kilmister (right) law of God" and to confess the sin and and fiftieth anniversary of the first Prayer Book presents to the Archbishop of York a receive counsel, advice and absolution. of Edward VI, The Book ofthe Common Prayer specially-bound copy of The Word in the How many of us have prepared our­ and Administration ofthe Sacraments and Other Desert by Dr Barry Spurr of Sydney, Australia. selves this moming to make our approach Rites and Ceremonies ofthe Church according to these sacred mysteries? to the use ofthe Church of England, which received Parliamentary Quite rightly, there has been teaching about the "meal" aspect assent within the First Act of Uniformity on January 21, 1549, and of the Lord's Supper, but - and it has been said before - we have which was to come into general use no later than Whit Sunday June developed too much a "chips [french fries] with everything" ap­ 9, 1549. proach to this Holy Sacrament. If we are not careful familiarity will What is it that we celebrate today? First of all surely the sheer certainly breed too much contempt. So here is a real reminder of achievement, chiefly by Thomas Cranmer (without the assistance what it is - of Who it is - that we come for in Holy Communion. It either of a Liturgical Commission or a General Synod!) of produc­ was not for nothing that the very first note in the Order for Holy ing this new service in language of such elegance, beauty and dig­ Communion of the Alternative Service Book (1980) was Prepara­ nity - language which has stood well the test of time, and language tion. "Careful devotional preparation before the service is recom­ which speaks to us so powerfully both of the human condition and mended for every communicant." yet at the same time elevates heart and mind and soul to the things "0 come let us worship and fall down: and kneel before the of God - truly a language of grace and glory. Lord our Maker." There are, however, three particular aspects of this Book In the third place at the heart of Cranmer's endeavors was the which I believe are of as much relevance for the Church now as very nature of worship itself. Yes certainly that it should be they were four hundred and fifty years ago - the very reasons why understanded of the people, but above all that it should at all times the Book was produced in the first place, speaking as it does across and in all places be directed Godwards - the giving to God his the years both to address and confront us today. worth "to render thanks for the great benefits we have received at In the first place, as The indicates, the Book was pro­ his hands.. .to set forth his most worthy praise." Worship can never duced in the service of Unity: "And where heretofore, there have be entertainment, and it can only be a distraction when it is that been great diversity in saying and singing in churches within this distraction from ourselves and our own self-centered desires and Realm: some following Salisbury use, some Hereford use, some concems towards the things of God. the use of Bangor, some of York, some of Lincoln: now from hence­ Accessibility, yes of course, but not at the expense of awe- forth, all the whole Realm shall have but one use." someness. "A man that look on glass," wrote George Herbert in that Here is a real challenge to the contemporary process of liturgi­ well known poem/hymn, "on it may stay his eye; or if he pleaseth, cal revision, and in particular to the considerable degree of diver­ through it pass; And then the heaven espy." sity which currently here is in the form and shape and order and Here we are given that glimpse of glory - the possibihty of trans­ content of services for use in our Church. Liturgical texts abound; formation of change from glory into glory. This is the real meaning but, where is that keeping of the "mean between the two extremes and purpose of worship — till in heaven we take our place and with of too much stiffness in refusing and too much easiness in admit­ those angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven we ting any variation" in current forms of service of which Cranmer so also shall have place and part in the ceaseless praise of God. clearly speaks in the opening sentence of The Preface to The Book To conclude. It would be very easy yet totally self-indulgent ofthe Common Prayer (1549). on an occasion such as this celebration is, simply to allow our­ We need to preserve more the norm of that family likeness which selves to be carried away into the past and by the past. The urgent has typified worship ofthe Church of England. For in a very subfle yet task before us is to ensure that especially in these three areas that sure and certain way, the liturgy shapes the very life and being of the have set before you this moming, the fundamental instincts of the Church. Moreover, at a time when akeady there are too many words 1549 Prayer Book remain as part both of the heritage and for the we need I beheve less rather than more in the words for worship. future of this Church of England, so that "the people should con­ "O come let us worship and fall down: and kneel before the tinually profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the Lord our Maker." more inflamed with the love of his true rehgion." H

The Prayer Book Society MANDATE: September/October 1999 NEW EDITIONS OF CLASSIC PRAYER BOOKS

he Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552 have for some time been out of print. Thanks to the publish­ ing division of the English Prayer Book Society these books (from which descended the T English Prayer Book of 1662 and the American Prayer Book of 1789) are now available in a new edition of the text originally published in the Everyman's Library earlier this century. The original spelling is preserved for both books and they are introduced by Professor J.R. Porter, a distinguished English theologian who is on the Board of the English Prayer Book Society. This is a volume for all lovers of the Common Prayer Tradition to possess.

The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VL 480 pages. The Prayer Book Society, London, England. ISBN 0.9535668.03 (Call 1 800 PBS 1928 for help in obtaining a copy.)

The Everyman's Library (which is no longer printing the 1549/1552 Prayer Books) has now released The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, with an introduction by Dr. Diarmaid MacCulloch, the biographer of Thomas Cranmer. This book has 592 pages and is excellent in every way and is heartily commended as a book to possess and study. It can be purchased only through American booksellers. The ISBN is 1.85715.241.7

From Oxford University Press in New York City can be obtained the 1928 BCP and also the 1662 BCP. Call 1-800- 334-4249, ask for the Bible Department, and be sure (a) to specify 1928 and (b) to ask for a discount when the order is for a church.

The Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer NON-PROFIT. ORG. (The Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church) U.S. POSTAGE P.O. Box 35220 PAID Philadelphia, PA 19128-0220 LOUISVILLE. KY Permit No. 879