THE MandateMAGAZINE OF THE PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY Volume 34, Number 1 lmighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, Lent 2011 Aand dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins In This Issue and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Reflections from the Amen. 2 Editor’s Desk Collect for Ash Wednesday Ancient and Post- 4 Modern approaches in the Liturgy Father Crouse 6 Remembered The Homeward Journey 7 of our Souls Returning to a 9 Pagan Liturgy The Incarnational 10 Liturgy The Challenge of 11 Our Communion Book Review of 13 Peter Toon: Foretaste of Heaven Amidst Suffering News from the 14 Anglican Way Book Review of John 15 Boys: The Works of John Boys The Place of the 16 Apocrypha in the Canon Reflections FROM THEEditor’s Desk By Roberta Bayer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia The Sunday Lectionary Self-generated and innovative lectionaries invariably The Sunday Lectionary which is found in the his- present the Bible in a subjective, and culturally lim- toric Books of Common Prayer (English 1662, Amer- ited manner. It is precisely this situation that Cran- ican 1928, and Canadian 1962), has been rejected mer and the Anglican Reformers wanted to avoid, mistakenly by the contemporary church. It was, and and did avoid by putting the lectionary of the histori- still is, a very important instrument by which to cal church into use as a practical means of teaching teach the doctrines of the faith, as Fr. Dunbar writes. doctrine over the course of the liturgical year. The ancient lectionary was considered so important to Cranmer that he chose to adopt it without making The Daily Lectionary any great changes. Furthermore, it was equally prized The daily lectionary, as distinct from the Sunday both by Luther and by Trent. A comparison of these lectionary, is composed of Old and New Testament lectionaries gives evidence that they are branches readings read continuously during Morning and of the same ancient tree, a tree which was the very Evening Prayer. The daily lectionary in the 1928 BCP foundation of the church, binding it to orthodoxy does not have the same ancient provenance as the inherited through the councils and the Fathers. Sunday lectionary, but follows a common principle The Sunday lessons found in the BCP are still of reading the whole of the Old Testament once and useful to teach the doctrines of the faith necessary the New Testament twice during the year, and the to salvation, and to show the scriptural basis for doc- psalter every month. The general purpose of these trines related to the Trinitarian nature of God, the daily readings is always the same — it is to read the hypostatic union of Christ, and Christian virtue. entire Bible within the year in an orderly manner. These doctrines can be misunderstood, and mis- Families can take up the practice of saying either understanding will result in heresy. The Reformers Morning or Evening Prayer together. When our chil- witnessed such heresy among radical sects, which dren were very small, Evening Prayer was a rather might loosely be called anabaptists, in their own day. short exercise, composed of the Lord’s Prayer and Ordered reading of the Bible is a means by which to Magnificat, and psalms, as well as general petitions. teach the faith. (It goes without saying that the faith Now we say Evening Prayer according to the Book must be learned; it is an act of the mind as well as of Common Prayer, following the daily lectionary, the will.) and adding special collects for the saints, as appro- There is a clear connection between the loss of priate. This is not a heavy burden at all, rather it is a orthodoxy within the church as a whole and the great blessing to a family to pray and read the Bible loss of historically ordered worship. The current together. fragmentation of the Anglican Church has been accompanied by fragmented Biblical reading and Saying Morning and Evening Prayer the multiplication of Sunday lectionaries; if a pastor In his book Secularism and Moral Change (1967) is theologically orthodox, his choice of Sunday read- philosopher and social theorist Alasdair MacIntyre ings will reflect his orthodoxy, and if he is not, then stated that it is “not the case that men first stopped the Sunday readings will reflect his heterodoxy. believing in God and in the authority of the Church, Mandate Lent 2011 • Volume 34, Number 1 Editor: Dr. Roberta Bayer • Design/Layout: Boldface Graphics The Officers for the Year 2010 are: President: The Rev. Gavin Dunbar • Vice-President: The Rev. Fr. Edward Rix Treasurer: Kathleen Stephans of Philadelphia • Secretary: Mrs. Rhea Bright of Oklahoma Executive Director: The Rev. Jason Patterson Mandate is published four times a year by the Prayer Book Society, a non-profit organization serving the Church of God. All gifts to the P.B.S. are tax deductible for U.S. citizens. Editorial and all other correspondence: P.O. Box 913, Brookhaven, PA 19015-0913. Phone 1-800-PBS-1928. Postmaster: Please send address changes to the above address. Visit the websites of the Society: www.pbsusa.org & www.anglicanmarketplace.com. 2 THE MAGAZINE OF THE PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY and then started behaving differently. It seems clear in Systematic Theology We need your that men first of all lost any overall social agreement from Trinity Evangeli- gifts in order to as to the right ways to live together, and so ceased cal Divinity School. He carry out your to be able to make sense of any claims to moral is presently a candidate authority.” for a Th.M. in New Tes- mandate to On his account, one might connect the loss of the tament studies at West- defend the 1928 practice of saying Morning and Evening Prayer in minster TheologicalBook of parish and home to disunity in the Church because Seminary. it affected the habitual practices of ordinary people, Fr Patterson was Common and therefore their apprehensions about the impor- invited onto the PBS Prayer. tance of prayer in daily life. I mention this as it would board in 2006 by Dr. You may send seem to support returning to the historical practices Peter Toon, former Pres- of the church as a means of regaining ecclesial agree- The Rev. Jason Patterson ident of the society and a contribution ment about the moral authority of the historical faith editor of Mandate. Currently he is rector of Saint in the enclosed within Anglicanism. Faith involves not only assent- Andrew’s Church in Asheboro, NC, a mission church. envelope. ing to the teachings of the true church, but shaping A cradle Episcopalian, Fr Patterson was disillusioned our minds and wills through a set of practices which by the radical liberalism of the Episcopal churches of express that faith, and which also unite Christians in his youth. After attending other churches for a while, Please give a way of living which makes us one. he returned to the Anglican Way by means of a theo- generously. logical education in patristic studies. Finding the his- Please read our rede- Liturgical Worship toric BCP (especially the American 1928) to be both signed website: Caleb Nelson and Colin Cutler, two students biblically sound, patristically informed, and aestheti- www.pbsusa.org from Patrick Henry College, where I teach in the cally beautiful, he became a traditional Anglican. Contact Dr Bayer at Government Department, have contributed spirited The Prayer Book Society is blessed that Fr Patter- editor.mandate@gmail. and original arguments for liturgical worship in the son has agreed to serve us and the Book of Common com or following pages. Prayer. Please watch our website pbsusa.org. Fr Pat- from the PBS website Caleb’s reflections on why we ought to return to terson shall be a frequent contributor. considering our liturgical worship as a public work, as did the pagans, is in some respects ironical and Mere Anglicanism Conference amusing, but in another way, quite serious. The The Mere Anglicanism conference (held this year explicit intention in compiling the Book of Common January 20-22 in Charleston, S.C.) is an important Prayer was that it be a public work for the church, gathering for clergy and lay people who are inter- and offer intercession for the nation as a public act ested in questions of Anglican theology, ecclesiology, (I Tim. ii.1). How else can one explain the rationale and morals. This year’s conference was marked by behind the Prayer for the Church in the service of excellent papers, among which was one by Dr. Gillis communion? In privatizing religion, as we have in Harp, a contributor to this magazine, another by Dr. our liberal regimes, we have lost the idea that liturgy Ashley Null on the writings of Thomas Cranmer, and is a work and has a public role, and that the work there was also an excellent talk on the 16th century of the church and the salvation of the nation are Anglican divine William Whitaker who defended uniquely related — an idea that is found in the Old the perspicuity or clarity of Scripture in an extensive Testament and the pagan world, but which contin- dispute with the noted Roman Catholic theologian, ued to be central to Christian thinking up until the and defender of Trent, Cardinal Bellarmine. I rec- general secularization of the West in the nineteenth ommend listening to the entirety of these talks.