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What’s in a name (or title)?

The title page in books is not typically a source of great attention for the modern reader.  Their role in the modern book is little more than a formality, at best an ornamentation to showcase the fine art of typesetting.  But in years past, the title page was precisely that – a page for the full title of the works following, akin to the abstract of a research paper or the thesis of the essayist.  And it is in this old traditional vein that the Prayer Book’s title page functions today.

Our cultural preference for brevity and compact bundles of information has created a literary world full of acronyms, and the Prayer Book is very much bundled into this phenomenon.  “BCP” is the standard abbreviation for this book, though as with all acronyms it has its shortcomings.  For many curious observers from the outside of the Anglican tradition, BCP is often thought to stand for “book of common prayers”.  While this may seem like a small error, simply pertaining to grammar, the difference between common prayer and common prayers speaks to a fundamentally different understanding of liturgy and worship.  The term “common prayers” evokes an image of an anthology book – a resource containing a number of prayers that can or should be used regularly and widely.  For those not formed by the church’s historic liturgical tradition, this is closest understanding they have of what liturgy is: a collection of prayers that a church or individual uses in certain times and in certain ways.

“Common prayer”, however, denies the punctiliar or isolated view of the contents of the book, and takes it as a whole.  The Eucharist is not only the object of the sacrament, it is an entire worship service.  The Daily Office is not only a string of scriptures and prayers, it is a devotional whole.  Liturgical worship is not only a slavish pattern of how, when, and what to pray together, but a coherent lifestyle of worship, prayer, devotion, and ministry.  The goal of liturgy is not to orchestrate a monotonous chorus of voices speaking in unison, but to unite hearts and minds in the knowledge, love, and proclamation of the triune God (cf. Romans 15:5-6, Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 1:27, 2:2, 1 Peter 3:8).

And yet, the Prayer Book is more than about unity through prayer.  The full title is far more expansive.  Consider the five parts in turn:

The Book of Common Prayer

This primarily refers to the Daily Office, historically Morning and Evening Prayer but also now to Midday Prayer, Compline, and Family Prayer.  The common prayer of the Church is her daily sacrifice of penitence, praise, and thanksgiving, which spiritually continues and fulfills the ancient daily sacrifices under the Old Covenant of Moses.  As the pious Hebrew in those ancient days united their times of prayer with the daily sacrifice in the Temple (cf. 1 Kings 18:36, Ezra 9:5, Psalm 5:3, 141:2, Daniel 9:21, Amos 4:4), so too does the Christian now join in spiritual union with the whole Church in the act of Common Prayer.

And Administration of the Sacraments

The Sacramental ministry of the Church is also Common Prayer in the sense that it is the prayer of the Church gathered, but it stands apart in that it is a priestly liturgy.  Just as only authorized priests could offer certain types of sacrifice at the Lord’s Altar under the Old Covenant, so too is the work of feeding and teaching the flock limited to those who are duly called and ordained for the task (cf. John 21:15-17, Titus 1:5-9, James 3:1, Article XXIII). 

With Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church

The language of Article XXV has been understood in different ways, namely that either (1) there are two Sacraments and five sacred rites which used to be called sacraments before the reformation, or (2) there are two Christ-given Sacraments and five Church-given Sacraments.  Whichever side of this debate one finds oneself upon will dictate where the line is drawn between “Sacraments” and “Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church.”  But in either way of grouping them, the Prayer Book contains liturgies for all of them.  The Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child is a sacred rite; the Consecration of a Place of Worship is a sacred rite; the anointing of the sick and the marriage ceremony are at least sacred rites, if not also sacramental.

According to the Use of the Anglican Church in North America

As Article XXIV asserts, “It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly [a]like; for at all times they have been divers[e], and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.”  This honest commitment to the historical reality that liturgy is changeable protects us against “Prayer Book Fundamentalism”, insisting upon extreme forms of uniformity that have never existed in the history of the Church.  This phrase in the book’s title identifies the part of the Church that uses this liturgy.  Thuse the Use of the Anglican Church in North America stands alongside the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Use of the Church of England, the Use of Sarum, the Lutheran German Mass, the Tridentine Mass, the Gregorian Mass, the Liturgy of Saint James, and countless other variations of the One Church’s liturgy throughout the ages.

Together with the New Coverdale Psalter

Finally, the largest section of the book is actually simply Scripture, namely, the Book of Psalms.  Traditionally this line identifies them as “The Psalms of David,” though in this 2019 edition of the Prayer Book it was deemed appropriate to identify the new translation used for the Psalms.  The inclusion of the Psalms in the Prayer Book itself, rather than resorting to reading them from the Bible, is for several reasons.  First, they are specially notated in the Prayer Book, or pointed, for congregation recitation or chanting, which is not a feature of regular translations of the Bible.  Second, there are multiple translations of the Bible currently in use throughout the Church, which would cause difficulty when different groups come together.  Similarly, third, from an historic perspective the first Prayer Book did use a then-current Bible translation (The “Great Bible”) for its Psalter, and once it was established in common use it was better to retain that translation rather than replace it with the Geneva Bible in 1560, the Bishops’ Bible in 1568, or the King James Bible in 1611.  This leads, fourthly, to the present day, in which a modernization of liturgical language is desired.  Rather than creating an entirely new translation (as was the case in the American Book of 1979), it was deemed better to use the historic Prayer Book Psalter (originally translated by Miles Coverdale) as the basis for the present modernization.  This way our language of worship resonates more closely with the language of our forebears, and those who look back into the historic books will find familiar turns of phrase there.

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A brief glossary index for the BCP 2019

For those who are new to the Christian faith, or at least to Anglicanism in particular, simply handing them a Prayer Book can be a bewildering experience. This brief article has been written to serve as a sort of pamphlet to provide a brief topical introduction to the value and use of the Prayer Book (2019 version).

CONVERSION

The process of becoming a Christian is often portrayed as a moment of instant clarity and change.  While there certainly are break-through moments along the way, conversion is a process that can take a long time.  In the Prayer Book we summarize it as a three-fold taking off and a three-fold putting on.  It’s found on pages 164 (Baptism), 177 (Confirmation), 185 (both), and 194 (Renewal of Baptismal Vows).  We reject the world, the flesh and the devil (the proximate, personal, and cosmic dangers) and replace them with Jesus, the biblical faith, and God’s commandments.  The repetition of these baptismal vows at our subsequent confirmation and periodically thereafter reminds us that the Christian is both once and always converting from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God.

DOGMA

That which is absolutely required for true Christian faith is called dogma.  These are the non-negotiable points of belief which unite Christians of all stripes, the rejection of which identifies ancient (or renewed) heresies.  The holy Trinity and the two natures in the one person of Christ Jesus are the two primary centers of Christian dogma.  The full statements are called Creeds, of which we have received three: the Apostles’ (page 20 et al), the Nicene (page 109), and the Athanasian (page 769).

DOCTRINE

From the basic dogma of the Church spring a great many other teachings, also called doctrines, which are elucidated to safeguard the core biblical faith.  Sadly, different church traditions (or denominations) differ in doctrine to various degrees, yet despite this disunity it remains necessary for Christians to know what they are invited to believe and for ministers to remain faithful to the standards they have professed.  For Anglicans, our basic doctrinal statement is a set of Thirty Nine Articles of Religion (pages 772–790).  Other “documentary foundations” responding to more recent issues in the Anglican Church are provided on pages 766, 768, and 791–793.

LITURGY/WORSHIP

But the Christian faith is not primarily a set of points to believe or disbelieve, but rather a life that is lived, and expressed first and foremost through prayer and worship, not didactic statements.  As such, the Anglican tradition has retained the liturgical wisdom of the Early Church in the Prayer Book.  Rather than simply reciting points of doctrine, we express our beliefs through our very prayers and worship services.  Liturgy (literally, a ‘public work’) is thus an integral piece of Anglican identity, uniting our practice, faith, and ethos in a single volume.  Conforming to one another in Christ with the Prayer Book liturgy, we are thus given a common language of worship and belief, spiritually shaped and formed into One Body, and directed into our respective lives beyond the church’s walls.

SACRED TIME

With our inheritance of the liturgical tradition comes a conception of time itself that differs from that of the world’s.  Just as the Old Testament shows us that all of history is guided by God’s providence, so too do the Church’s liturgy and calendar show us that every hour, day, week, season, and year is oriented around the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There are prayers for morning (page 11), noon (page 33), evening (page 41), and night (page 57).  There are prayers for Sundays and Holy Days (page 104).  Within each of those liturgies are variations for different seasons of the year, and the calendar as a whole is explained beginning on page 687.  Seven principle holy days outline the Gospel throughout the year: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and All Saints’.  The various seasons are built around these holidays, and a number of other feasts and fasts punctuate the year.  This reflects the biblical witness wherein the Law of Moses taught the observation Sabbath and the three main holidays, while allowing for the creation of additional holy day observations according to custom and need (cf. Esther 10).  A handful of special liturgies for certain holy days is also provided on pages 542–595.

PSALMS

Arguably the very heart of all Christian liturgy are the Psalms.  This book of the Bible contains 150 song-prayers which have been on the lips of the people of God for thousands of years, and they are so vital to the Christian spiritual life that the Psalms in their entirety have always been printed as a part of the Book of Common Prayer – indeed, the longest section of the book (cf. pages 267–467)!  All attempts to learn the Daily Office of prayers in any liturgical tradition ought to begin with the Psalms: learning to read God’s word, praying it as man’s word, and thus pursuing union with Christ in spirit and soul.  Along with the Lord’s Prayer, there is no liturgy in the entire Prayer Book that omits at least something from the Psalms.  The Anglican tradition invites the worshiper to pray through the Psalms every month (page 735).

BIBLE

Also known as the sacred scriptures, holy writ, the word of God, the Bible is the full compendium (or library) of authoritative texts which the Church upholds and guards according to the direction of the Holy Spirit.  It has three parts: the Old Testament (written before Christ), the New Testament (written after Christ) and the Ecclesiastical Books (also known as the Apocrypha or Deuterocanon, also written before Christ).  Each of these sections of the Bible have their own functions (cf. Articles VI and VII on pages 773–775) and are further divided into smaller specific groupings.  Every Prayer Book has come with its own daily lectionary (Bible-reading plan); ours is introduced on page 736, and detailed on the subsequent pages.

BAPTISM

The Anglican tradition is sacramental.  This means that we receive the historic teaching regarding certain rites and ceremonies of the Church wherein God blesses us with his grace in real and tangible ways, as he promised in sacred scripture.  The first and fundamental of these sacraments is Holy Baptism (pages 160, 781–782).  In this sacrament, God regenerates the recipients, giving them birth into a new life, his Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and entrance into the covenant community of faith.

CONFIRMATION

Where Baptism is the beginning, Confirmation is a continuation, a strengthening, a personal affirmation that the faith persists in the recipient (cf. page 174).  Typically an Anglican is baptized as an infant and confirmed as a young adult once he or she has taken personal hold of the faith.  Confirmation is also the Church’s acknowledgment of the individual’s sincerity of faith, marking him or her with the laying-on of hands by the bishop (the pastor’s pastor who thereby represents the universal church rather than merely the local).  This rite is very much like one’s ordination to mature Christian service, receiving new gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer merely to cling to faith but also to pass it on to others (page 176).

COMMUNION

The highest mystery, or sacrament, of the Church is the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, or the Eucharist.  In the species of bread and wine God’s people feed upon Christ’s own body and blood for their own life and salvation.  Where Holy Baptism is the new birth into a new life, Holy Communion is the food that nourishes that new life towards eternity.  The worshiper is exhorted to approach the Lord’s Table with reverence and thorough repentance (pages 147–148).  Two versions of the Communion service are provided in this Prayer Book (starting on page 105 and page 123); the first is the more historic form and the second is more modern.  Additional directions permit further variations to the order of service to match even more historical Prayer Book orders, but it should be emphasized that amidst this diversity of form lies a unity of doctrine.

HEALING

Although the Lord’s Supper has traditionally been termed “the medicine of immortality”, the Church has received two other ministrations for the work of healing in individual Christians’ lives.  The first is the power of the keys (Matthew 16:19 & John 20:21-23) to forgive sins.  Although the primary worship services do include the people’s confession and the priest’s absolution of sins, an additional rite for ministering to the penitent is provided on pages 222–224.  Alongside this ministration to the sin-sick soul is a second pair of rites for ministering to illness of the body (pages 225–235) involving both anointing oil and the laying-on of the priest’s hands, as taught in James 5:13-15.  There are additional prayer resources to minister to the dying, for when the time comes (page 236–242).

FAMILY LIFE

The propagation of life is one of the very first commandments of God in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.  The sacred call to furthering life is provided for in the Prayer Book tradition.  The primary liturgy to this end is Holy Matrimony (page 198 et al), which now includes a betrothal statement to help couples prepare for marriage (page 213).  Another rite that supports family life is the Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child (pages 215–221).  Often overlooked in today’s culture is the need not only to live well but to die well.  The Prayer Book therefore provides prayers for a wake or vigil and for the funeral and burial itself.  Pages 246 and 248 set out the basic parameters and directions that guide how Anglicans are to handle end-of-life memorials.

CHURCH LIFE

Just as human biological life is propagated through families and safeguarded in marriage, so is the Church’s spiritual life propagated through Baptism and safeguarded by specially ordained ministers.  The Ordinal (beginning on page 470) sets out that requirements and manner in which ministers should be ordained.  As per New Testament witness and Early Church practice, Anglicans have three ordained offices: Deacons (servers), Priests (presbyters, elders), and Bishops (overseers).  Each order of ministry has its own liturgy for ordination with specific requirements, instructions, and examinations, as well as distinct Scripture lessons and prayers.  Deriving from this are additional rites for the Institution of a Rector (page 513) and the Consecration and Dedication of a Place of Worship (page 523 et al).

PRIVATE PRAYERS

Alongside the liturgical tradition guiding the way Anglicans prayer when together is, of course, the need for individual devotion, worship, and prayer.  The daily liturgies of Morning, Midday, and Evening Prayer, and Compline (night prayer) are certainly robust and valuable resources for private devotion but can also be time-consuming and non-portable (online resources such as dailyoffice2019.com notwithstanding).  The Prayer Book tradition has therefore developed over the course of time various resources to aid and equip families and individuals to pray.  The Daily Offices in miniature are provided on pages 66–75, and over 100 prayers and thanksgivings are catalogued on pages 642–645.  One frequent tradition throughout Anglican history has been for laymen to take up a handful of such brief prayers and use them in various situations: before and after church, during Holy Communion, at mealtimes, at work, and so forth.

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Balancing Stability and Variety in the Eucharistic Rite

This can be a touchy subject. Some people are very passionate about their liturgical sensibilities; some people literally couldn’t care less. Some people insist that variety is the spice of life and the worship service must be constantly changing lest it become stale and mindlessly regimented. Others insist that variety is vanity and stability in the liturgy is superior, providing consistent discipleship and formative value that would be undermined by constant changes. And of course there are ways that others still attempt to balance these conflicting poles of thought.

On the whole I am largely in the “stability” camp, and I don’t want a given church to be constantly reinventing its liturgy. I do believe that repetition is essential to growth – this is how we exercise for physical fitness, this is how artists get better at their art, this is how students learn things. Inconsistent worship breeds an inconsistent approach to theology, as worship is really the front line of theology – how we approach and interact with God in prayer is the first step of articulating actual doctrine and teaching. Thus I am very much a Prayer Book loyalist: stick to the text, and keep variation to a minimum.

But therein lies an awkward question: stick to which text?

I’ve heard it joke that the Joy of Anglicanism is getting to argue about worship for the rest of your life. And the potentiality is certainly there: every province has its own version of the Book of Common Prayer, and some are more different than others. And besides the Prayer Book there have been many edits, supplements, occasional services, missals, and alternative lectionaries, such that 100 congregations could each have a different eucharistic service order. Not to say that this is a unique feature: there are multiple versions of the Roman Rite, both historically and in the present day; the Lutherans have long since branched out from Luther’s original German Mass; Presbyterians rarely offer more than “guidelines” for structuring a worship service, and the rest of the Protestant world is largely in do-whatever-you-want mode, which usually means the congregation is at the mercy of their pastor’s private sensibilities.

So if I want a stable, formative, orthodox, and coherent Anglican Prayer Book service every Sunday morning, where do I turn? How do I decide what is best?

STEP ONE: Conformity

“Conformity” is such a bad word in modern American culture, but in terms of church worship it’s very much a value. It is good for churches to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ and to be on the same page as one another. If we are indeed one body then we really ought to be growing together in roughly the same ways. Conformity in my case means using the edition of the Prayer Book that my province of the church (the Anglican Church in North America) has promulgated, the Prayer Book of 2019. 

STEP TWO: Utilizing the Basic Options

In that book there are two Communion rites (the Anglican Standard and the ‘Renewed Ancient’), and of that book there are two version (contemporary language and traditional liturgical English). Therefore there are four choices for Holy Communion. Here’s how I treat them:

To explain, the Anglican Standard Text is the first Communion Rite in the book, and should be understood to be our standard (hence the name), so I give it pride of place. The second rite, somewhat anachronistically called the Renewed Ancient Text, is a consolidation of the liturgical experimentation of the 1960’s and 70’s which became regnant in the Episcopal church, so its place in the Anglican tradition is widespread yet still very recent. I currently only use it on the Sundays from Christmas through Epiphanytide, largely on account of the fact that the eucharistic prayers mention the Virgin Mary, and that’s the time of year most suited to emphasizing the incarnation of our Lord. I also have it down for holy days commemorating relatives of Jesus (Joseph, Mary, her parents, John the Baptist, and his parents).

STEP THREE: Tastefully Dipping into our History

There’s another feature in our Prayer Book which is easily missed, but of great significance: older orders of service are permitted, using the material in the 2019 Prayer Book. The order of events in the Anglican Communion service got revamped quite a bit in the 1970’s: the Creed and Sermon switched places, the Fraction (or breaking of the bread) was given its own place between the Communion prayers and the distribution, the Gloria in excelsis Deo moved from being an anthem at the end to a hymn of praise near the beginning (as in the Roman Rite), the Offertory moved after the Prayers and Confession. And so, in deference to the majority of our history, the 2019 Prayer Brook allows us to re-order the Anglican Standard Text to match the order of a previous authorized Prayer Book. This gives a few major options:

  1. The order of the first prayer book (1549)
  2. The standard English prayer book (1662)
  3. The first & second American prayer books (1789 & 1892)
  4. The third American prayer book (1928)

There are a few other historical options from England and Canada and Scotland, but they are almost identical to others already listed here.

Would I ever want to make use of this permission? And if so, what would be the justification for such meddling? The downsides are obvious:

  • People get tripped up easily when familiar material gets rearranged
  • I, the celebrant, am much more prone to making mistakes when I do something different from the norm
  • Parents trying to manage small children during the service have a harder time keeping up when their full attention isn’t able to be on the order of service

So if we choose to utilize these other options, it needs to be for a very good reason. After all, the rubrics permitting this change exists primarily to service those parishes that are already used to a different order and want to keep it, despite switching over to the 2019 Prayer Book.

I have two main reasons for wanting to make occasional use of the historic orders.

  1. INSTRUCTION: Both in terms of personal awareness as well as historical honesty, I think it’s good for ordinary worshipers to be exposed to samples of “the way things were” on occasion. It’s good to know that the Modern Way is not the Only Way, and to appreciate at least some of the differences that have arisen in the details of our patterns of worship over the centuries.
  2. FORMATION: Despite my preference for stability over variety, there is a value to “shaking things up” a little bit from time to time. Re-arranging a little bit of the worship service according to an historic pattern forces people to pay attention in a way that they normally may not. Hearing and saying familiar prayers in a different sequence than usual can help bring out different emphases that would be missed otherwise.

To implement the inclusion of these alternative orders, though, it struck me as too arbitrary to assign certain orders to certain Sundays of the year. So instead I assigned them to certain groups of minor feast days:

  1. The 1662 Order is for British Saints
  2. The 1549 Order is for other Western Saints
  3. The 1789/1892 Order is for Eastern Saints
  4. The 1928 Order is for Angels, Eve of All Saints, the Faithful Departed

The general logic behind this is that the 1662 order is the most uniquely English liturgy, so it befits the British Saints, the 1549 Eucharistic Rite is more generically Western, the early American Prayer Books (influenced by the Scottish order) has a slight Eastern element to it, and the 1928 prayers give a little more attention to the departed than its predecessors. Plus, by tying these alternative arrangements of the service order to minor saints days, we get a special way of acknowledging these commemorations when they happen to land on a Sunday without actually directly observing them and interrupting the calendar year.

So for example earlier this year August 20th was on a Sunday, and that was the commemoration of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. So on that day we used the 1549 order of service to denote his commemoration, though the Scripture lessons and sermon remained in the regular Sunday sequence (I was preaching through Romans at the time). The next time this’ll happen for my church is on January 28th, on which day we’ll again use the 1549 order this time to celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas, a giant of Western Medieval theology. And then in March we’ll use this method to denote St. Patrick’s Day as well!

This approach gives you maybe three or four Sundays per year with historic orders, which is rare enough that it’s not destabilizing the congregation’s ability to follow the regular liturgy, but often enough that they kinda-sorta remember “I think we’ve done this before”. That way it’s a little jarring (“oh right, I have to pay careful attention to follow this”) but not overwhelming and having-to-start-from-scratch each time.

SUMMARY THOUGHT

So that’s generally how I go about trying to balance variety and stability. I’m not saying this is a perfect system that everyone should try to emulate, but I think these are sound ideas that provide just enough variation without throwing people off too much. It really matters to me that people get to know our liturgy, grow to cherish its prayers, and make them their own – and sometimes you need both familiar repetition as well as fresh encounters to make that happen.

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Some Modern Issues in Early Forms

I have a back-and-forth relationship with liturgical revisionism. Some changes are good, some changes are bad, and some changes are indifferently suitable to particular times and cultures.

The worship of the Church doesn’t need to be a total and complete time capsule (and indeed in many cases where antiquity of form is most loudly proclaimed, great anachronisms betray the claim). But neither does the Church benefit her members with total and complete innovation into the untested waters of a given rector’s flight of fancy. Good liturgical revision, in my estimation anyway, acknowledges the validity, power, and truthfulness of previous rites and forms, merely presenting “a new spin on an old classic.” If what we celebrate today rejects the forms of antiquity, then we have not reformed the Church’s faith & practice, but replaced it.

I don’t say this to disparage any particular Prayer Book, but to remind myself and others to be honest about the trends of revision and amendment for the past full century. It is all too fashionable to oversimplify our assessments of one or another product along the course of history. For example, we orthodox Anglicans in North America often vilify the Episcopalian Prayer Book of 1979. And it is a deeply flawed book that is extremely revolutionary, rather than reforming of previous liturgical forms. That said, however, several strands of “revolutionizing” ideology can be seen in the promulgation of the 1928 Prayer Book (often beloved among traditional Anglicans).

Many American Anglicans look fondly upon the 1928 Prayer Book as the last edition (and bastion) of historic Anglican liturgy. However, not all of its editors would agree with that assessment. Rather, there was a fair amount of language regarding it as a positively radical correction and improvement upon the old ways. Consider this excerpt from a 1929 booklet:

The revision of the 1892 Book is far-reaching, and in some instances radical. It extends not only to language, but also to theological statement. All passages of Holy Scripture are now taken from the Revised Version and in some cases the marginal rendering has been adopted. There is an entirely new translation of the Psalter correcting many obvious errors. In Psalm XIV these verses are deleted:

5 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues have they deceived: the poison of asps is under their lips.
6 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood.
7 Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

In the judgment of the best Hebrew scholars these verses are a late interpolation and are foreign to the thought of the Psalm. The relaxation of the requirement to read the Psalter for the day obviates the necessity of reciting in the public services those Psalms or parts of Psalms which call down the curses of heaven upon enemies–the “imprecatory” Psalms. No longer will a congregation of Christian people be compelled to say of a fellow man:–

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be vagabonds, and beg their bread….
Let there be no man to pity him, nor to have compassion upon his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be destroyed; and in the next generation let his name be clean put out.

Note the desire for a “liturgical adventure,” a “living liturgy” free of archaisms and medieval theology… this is the exact same trend that yielded the far-more-controversial 1979 Prayer Book!

The Prayer Book of 1892 lasted thirty-six years. It was never satisfactory. The Convention which adopted it was not only conservative, but timid. It hesitated to embark on a liturgical adventure. Revision was reduced to a minimum. Archaic expressions were retained and much of its theology savored of the middle ages. For the most part the painstaking labor of twelve long years was embalmed in the “Book Annexed” which remains a melancholy movement of what might have been done to make a living Liturgy. The consequence was the Church outgrew her own Prayer Book.

Many modern worshipers are accustomed to the Ten Commandments being read in an abbreviated form at the beginning of the Communion service (if they’re read at all anymore). This shortening begins with the 1928 Prayer Book. Was it save time? No, it was because revisionists didn’t want it in there at all!

The growing conviction that the Ten Commandments have no proper place in the service of Holy Communion finds expressions in a significant permission to modify their recital by the omission of the reasons for their observance; reasons which have lost their point and force in modern times.

As for the doctrine of original sin, many of the 1928 revisers wanted no part in it:

The opening sentence of the exhortation in the Office of Baptism, reading, “forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin,” has long been deeply resented, so much so that many of the clergy refused to read it. It has happily been deleted in the new Book as having no warrant in Holy Scripture; the old prayer quoting the saving of Noah and the passage of Israel through the Red Sea as figuring Baptism is now omitted, as also the phrase that the infant may “be delivered from thy wrath.” The unhappy prayer, “grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him,” is changed to read, “grant that like as Christ died and rose again, so this child may die to sin and rise to newness of life.”

Old liturgy is gloomy, they said, and a liturgical revolution was necessary.

The Office for the Visitation of the Sick has been so changed as to be hardly recognizable in its new form. As it appeared in the old Prayer Book it was so gloomy, so medieval in its theology and so utterly lacking in any understanding of the psychological approach to sick persons, that it had almost ceased to be used in the church. Its basic assumption was that not only is all sickness sent by God, but it is sent as a just punishment for some wrong done. …In the new Book the whole tone of the service has been revolutionized.

What about all the gender issues in the post-modern church? Even those revisionist tendencies can be seen in 1928:

The most significant change [to the Solemnization of Holy Matrimony] is that the vows and promises of the man and the woman are made exactly alike by the omission of the word “obey.” They both undertake precisely the same obligation. In the giving of the ring the bridegroom is no longer called upon to say, “with all my worldly goods I thee endow.”

Again, I’m not trying to cast shade on the American Book of 1928 – in fact there is a great deal of its material that I appreciate (even including some of its innovations). We’ve got to admit, though, that it is different from the books of 1789 & 1892, and of 1662. Distinct trends of revision and amendment can be seen each step of the way, and an honest assessment must admit that not every change, and reason for change, is wise. It is often popular and easy to fall into a “golden age” mentality, favoring one or another Prayer Book, or epoch of our history, as the Best of Days that we need to return to. Even if we have favorites, though, we need to be able to identify and reckon with the dangerous forces that were present in those days, lest we narrow the scope of our vision, oversimplify the matter, and entrap ourselves in curious quarrels over liturgical matters that will easily miss the point of both past and present needs.

(And again, the source of these quotes about the then-new 1928 Prayer Book is here: http://anglicanhistory.org/bcp/chorley1929/07.html)

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Book Reintroduction: The Brench Breviary

Early in 2022 I released the “Brench Breviary”, which is a companion to the Book of Common Prayer (2019), but after a year of use I found ways to improve it. I am now happy to announce The Brench Breviary, revised & corrected, available once again from Lulu.

The Minor Offices of the 2019 Prayer Book are implemented here into what can be a very rich Rule of private prayer, self-examination, instruction, and devotion. Included are: Personal Morning Devotions, Family Prayer: In the Morning with a Children’s Lectionary, Mid-Morning Office with a Catechetical Lectionary, Midday Prayer with a Supplemental Lectionary, Mid-Afternoon Office with a Pastoral Litany or a Litany for the Church and a Sapiential Lectionary, Mid-Evening Office with Homiletic Lectionary and examinations of conscience, and Compline.

https://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-brench/the-brench-breviary/paperback/product-nejkjd.html

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Personal Morning Devotions                                  1
  • Family Prayer: In the Morning                               12
  • Additions to the Daily Office of Morning Prayer     16
  • Mid-Morning Office                                             36
  • Midday Prayer                                                      40
  • Mid-Afternoon Office                                           44
  • Family Prayer: In the Evening                                58
  • Additions to the Daily Office of Evening Prayer     61
  • Mid-Evening Office                                              82
  • Compline                                                             94
  • Night Vigil                                                          102
  • Select Psalms                                                       110
  • The Calendar & Lectionary                                   187
  • Appendix I: Anglican Prayer Beads                       213
  • Appendix II: On Meditation                                 219
  • A Note from the Editor                                       220                                                      

The main feature and purpose of this volume is to emphasize private or small group prayer apart from the regular and official prayers of the Church. Personal holiness, catechesis, constant prayer – these are the goals that this book puts before the worshiper.

Personal Holiness

For this revision of The Brench Breviary a number of prayers and offices of private devotion by Jeremy Taylor in his classic book Holy Living have been supplied for the Morning Devotions, Mid-Afternoon and Mid-Evening Offices. These lend the worshiper extra doses of repentance and humility before God, as well as prayers of adoration and self-oblation. Most of these prayers are preserved in their original (“traditional English”) language style, such as the following Prayer for Grace to Spend Our Time Well.

Catechesis

Another angle of use in which this book excels is the concern for robust catechesis. Where the standard liturgy of the Anglican tradition always include the basics (the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer) in the regular life of worship, private devotions such as these set forth reading plans for other key documents and writings that build upon the sure foundation of the Prayer Book’s explication of the Bible. This is accomplished via several different lectionaries.

The first and primary of these is the Catechetical Lectionary. It is attached to the Mid-Morning Office in this book (though the individual may of course use it whenever and however else works best), and covers the primary Apostolic Fathers (such as Sts. Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Athenagorus), excerpts from the writings of Sts. Athanasius, Augustine, Chrysostom and Cyril, some of the classic English metaphysical poets (such as George Herbert and Thomas Traherne), as well as the ACNA Catechism To Be A Christian, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, and the other official statements and prose in the Prayer Book.

The secondary catechetical feature in this breviary is the reading of the Books of Homilies, appointed in the Mid-Evening Office. All 33 homilies are listed in a rough seasonally-appropriate order. Unlike most reading plans, however, these are listed only a weekly basis rather than on a daily scale.

Besides these are three other special lectionaries.

  1. The Supplemental Midday Lectionary is supplied for Midday Prayer and covers the entirety of the Scriptures omitted in the 2019 Daily Office Lectionary. This includes the Ecclesiastical Books (or apocrypha) that “the church doth read,” listed in the Articles of Religion.
  2. The Sapiential Lectionary walks through the biblical wisdom literature, now including the 4 Maccabees which is a wisdom sermon based on a story in 2 Maccabees 7. Jeremy Taylor commended meditation particularly on the wisdom books for the purposes of prayerfully nurturing a holy life, so this lectionary is now attached to the Mid-Afternoon Office.
  3. In the Mid-Evening Office special Scripture readings from the 1662 Prayer Book’s daily lectionary, delivering the Sunday sequence of Old Testament lessons into the modern worshiper’s hands.

Constant Prayer

“Pray without ceasing” St. Paul exhorts us. The Apostles, the Desert Fathers, and subsequent Monastic traditions have fulfilled this command in many ways. And although the goal, in part, is to transform all actions of life into acts of piety and prayerfulness, regular occasions of intentional concerted prayer are necessary, and this book continues in that tradition. A maximalist use of The Brench Breviary could look as follows:

In addition to these, a Night Vigil is supplied, allowing for sessions of prayer of varying length in the middle of the night.

Compatibility with Future Releases

An omnibus Altar Book is also in the finalizing stages right now, containing all the material in The Brench Breviary combined with the Daily Offices, the full Psalter, as well as the Communion liturgies. That will be a full 8.5″x11″ in size and spiralbound, making it ideal for use on a bookstand or podium. The content of each of these books will match one another, such that these offices and devotions can be done formally in church settings as well as at home, or alone.

So pop over to the book store and order your copy now!

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Book Introduction: The Brench Breviary 2022

THE BRENCH BREVIARY 2022 is the product of several years of liturgical tinkering, experimentation, subsequent conformity to the new Book of Common Prayer (2019), interest in Benedictine spirituality, attempts to organize private study and devotion, and a pastoral attention to the spiritual and catechetical needs of others.  It is my strong contention that the average Christian today desperately needs two things: a robust life of ordered prayer and Scripture-reading, and the development of an authentically Christian instruction and spirituality.  The former is amply supplied in the Book of Common Prayer, if any dare to “take up and read.”  The latter can at least be begun with a book such as this.

The Brench Breviary 2022

Honestly, if you poke around this blog site, especially the Customary pages, you’ll find most of the special additional material that makes this book a unique companion to the Book of Common Prayer. But what you get for your money, with this real-life physical book, is clear, neat, organized, and purposeful access to some of the best resources that I’ve produced and put online here – plus a couple things I haven’t!

As for the name, this is the Brench Breviary because it reflects the particular orders, ideals, or devotional practices that I (Fr. Brench) have aspired to, in part or in whole. There may someday be a Saint Aelfric Breviary, but the biggest issue there is how much Prayer Book material would be re-printed. It it more likely, economical, and in line with my educational intentions that a set of bookmarks or leaflets outlining this Customary’s implementation of the 2019 Prayer Book. And don’t worry, the 2022 doesn’t mean I’m going to replace this every year. Like the Prayer Book, this is a book that is intended to be supplemented, edited, and updated on a gentle and rare basis.

The Offices and orders in this book are presented in one idealized form, but individuals are encouraged to make these their own according to need and ability.  A maximalist use of this Breviary would look something like this:

For those looking to develop a prayer life with children, the Children’s Lectionary attached to the Family Prayer In the Morning can be used with any of the four “Family Prayer” offices in the Prayer Book.

For those looking to develop their grounding in historic Christianity, the Catechetical Lectionary and the reading of the Homilies can be attached to the Daily Offices themselves.

For those concerned about personal holiness, desiring to take up arms in the work of spiritual warfare, the Personal Devotions at the start and end of the day (which are drawn from the American Prayer Book of 1928) contain valuable prayers to that end, especially with the Examinations of Conscience added therein.

The Catechetical Lectionary, it must be noted, includes two compilations of writings that are not fully listed in this Breviary.  The first is Advent With Anglican Poetry, also published by Brench Publications. The second is Lent Readings from The Fathers, published by Oxford, John Henry Parker, in 1852. A reprint of the latter should be forthcoming within the next couple years.

It is my prayer that, however you choose to use this, with family members or a small group or alone, it may be a blessing that enriches your walk with God, your engagement with his Word, and your love for his Church.

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Book Store now open!

I am pleased and excited to announce that I’ve got an online book store open now, where I can put some of my work here into print so people can purchase real-life actual physical copies! Devotionals, resources for liturgical studies, materials about the Christian calendar and holidays, and even some more doctrinal/instructional books and booklets are on the way.

Check out my 100% scripted and Very Professional introductory video:

Oh, yes, and please do actually check out the Book Store: https://saint-aelfric-customary.org/book-store/
I’ll keep you up to date when new projects are going to be added to the list!

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Book Review: Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2006

I recently saw word that the ACNA Liturgy Taskforce, or a subsection thereof, has a couple more books in production, one of which is Lesser Feasts and Fasts.  Whether that is the final title or not, it is clearly a successor to a group of books put out by the Episcopal Church (USA) which finished (I think) with a 2006 edition.  I’ve heard that its first edition is from the 1960’s, but I haven’t seen it before and therefore cannot comment on the history of this volume.  Here I’m just going to introduce you to Lesser Feasts & Fasts, 2006.

In a nutshell, Lesser Feasts & Fasts exists to give you more resources for weekday Communion services.  Its primary (and titular) angle is to provide more collects & lessons, covering the entire Sanctoral Calendar – that is, the calendar of optional commemorations.  The 2019 Prayer Book also has a calendar of optional commemorations which differs notably from that in the 1979 book, taking away a number of spurious recent and ‘ecumenical’ commemorations, and adding a few more in their place, both historical and recent.

The way these optional commemorations work in the prayer book itself is that there are a set of collects and lessons for different categories of saints (there are 9, in the case of the 2019 BCP) so you can just match the right set to the commemoration.  In Lesser Feasts & Fasts, a unique Collect and set of lessons is assigned to each and every commemoration, allowing a greater degree of personalization and specificity.

Beside the commemoration of saints are seasonal commemorations.  All the days in Lent and Advent are provided for, giving nice seasonally-appropriate prayers and readings for daily communion services.  Eastertide, too, is provided for, mainly by walking the reader through the books of Acts and John during that season.  Furthermore, there are provided for the green seasons both a six-week set of communion propers hitting upon some rotating topics, and a two-year set of communion propers moving through the gospels in a largely sequential manner.

I have not made a detailed comparison, but I do know that some (if not most?) of this material is in harmony with current Roman Catholic practice, where the practice of daily mass is normalized (if sparsely attended by the laity).

Another handy feature of Lesser Feasts & Fasts, perhaps its most useful feature from a pastoral perspective, is the fact that it provides brief one-page bios of each commemoration or saint.  They’re short and focused enough that you can read them at the beginning of a homily, before launching into the meat of the sermon.  In many cases, the attentive preacher can find a connection from the bio sketch to at least one of the provided Scripture lessons.

The 2006 edition of this book reflects the then-current calendar of the Episcopal Church, which includes a few commemorations that an honest Christian cannot justify.  The names in question are of great historical import for sure: Elizabeth Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Harriet Tubman, J. S. Bach, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Kamehameha, Florence Nightingale… the question is whether we are celebrating them because of their achievements or because of their sanctity of life and doctrine.  The progressive mindset tends to esteem “human flourishing” too highly, and indeed non-liturgical evangelical protestants also tend towards a “great achievers” mindset when it comes to commemoration those who’ve gone before (i.e. Adoniram Judson or William Wilberforce), whereas the traditional definition of a “Saint with a capital S” is someone whose life and orthodoxy are impeccable examples to the faithful.  By definition, therefore, it should be very difficult indeed to honor as a Saint someone who is outside of the theological bounds of our own tradition.  For sure, the names listed in this paragraph are great and wonderful people who ought to be remembered in their own rights… but is the Eucharistic assembly the right place for that?

That is why a new version, to accompany the 2019 Prayer Book, is in order.

For what it’s worth, the commemorations from 2006, with additions from subsequent Episcopalian books, can be found online here.  I would only recommend them for comparative reference, however, as the bias of modern Episcopalianism is not entirely amenable to orthodox Anglican (or indeed Christian) sensibilities anymore.

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Book Review: The American Psalter

A couple years ago I jumped on a rare offer: someone was selling a pile of old and out-of-print books of liturgical music and I managed to procure a nice stack.  The downside with them is that they are keyed to the traditional lectionary and calendar, so very little of it is stuff that I can use in my own church without careful adaptation and re-purposing.  But if I do end up in a 1928 Prayer Book parish some day, or start up a traditional service, this vintage materials could be super handy.

The book I’ve ended up using the most, in my own devotions, is The American Psalter, published by The H. W.  Gray Company in 1930, for the Protestant Episcopal Church.

The Preface provides a quick history of Anglican Chant, noting John Merbecke and dwelling particularly on Thomas Tallis, both from the first century of the English Reformation.  Some people accuse Anglican Chant of being an Anglo-Catholic invention of the 19th century; historical information like this helps bust that myth.  The method of “pointing”, that is, matching the text to the chant tune, is outlined, noting its diverse methods over the years since, and works its way toward explaining how the present volume works, and how to sing its contents.

The American Psalter contains chants for the “Choral Service” (that is, the main prayers and responses of the Daily Office), Anglican Chant tunes for the various Canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer, and all 150 Psalms.  A handful of other anthems are provided after, and every chant tune is indexed in the end.  Of course, the text of all these canticles and psalms match the 1928 Prayer Book, but now that we have the New Coverdale Psalter in the 2019 Prayer Book, with verbiage that closely resembles the original Prayer Book Psalter, it is pleasantly easy to line up this 90-year-old book with our brand-new Prayer Book.  I used it pretty frequently this past summer, as I began to settle into the 2019 BCP and got into a chanting mood for a while.

Now, this book is probably hard to find these days, so in a sense writing about it today, in 2020, seems a bit silly.  How are you, the reader, going to benefit from this?  I’ll share an example of an insight from this book that may spark creativity from my fellow modern-day chanters.  Several Psalms are quite long, and using the same chant for fifteen minutes could get monotonous.  What The American Psalter does is break up a long psalm into multiple chants.Psalm 107This isn’t the whole of Psalm 107, but you can get the idea.  It begins (on the previous page) with a cheerful Single Chant in D Major for three verses “O Give thanks unto the Lord…” followed by a somber Single Chant in D Minor for verses 4 & 5 “They went astray in the wilderness…”  Then, on the pages shown in the picture above, the Psalm switches between about three different-but-related chants reflecting the different voices and moods as the narrative of Psalm 107 unfolds.

This is probably the most complex example; other long psalms receive more simple treatment.  Psalm 109 spends verses 1-4 in a pleasant C Major Double Chant, changes to an A Minor Double Chant with a similar melodic contour for verses 5-19, and switches back to the original chant for verses 20-30.  Even simpler is Psalm 44, wherein verses 1-9 are sung with a Double Chant in G Major, and verses 10-26 sung in the exact same chant tune transposed to G Minor.

The underlying lesson here is that chanting does not have to be boring or unimaginative.  The wealth of chant tunes, and the ease with which one can edit them, opens up a world of musical possibilities.  Opting for Anglican Chant in your church does not have to mean that your skilled musicians are out of a job!  Yes, chanting is extremely simple, and you don’t need particularly talented musicians to make it happen (which is kind of the point of chant, really, being something simple for all voices to join in), but there is still room for talent, creativity, and skill to step in.

Anyway, don’t go out of your way to track down a copy of this book unless you’re particularly trying to build a church music resource library.  Instead, keep your eye on the ACNA committee for music’s Psalter Page.  They’re still pretty early in their work of compiling chant psalters for the 2019 Prayer Book, so if you’ve got ideas, encouragements, or questions, now’s your chance to make a difference!

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Book Review: The 2019 Prayer Book

The Anglican Church in North America formally released a new book of common prayer in June, 2019, after making its full text available online in Easter a couple months earlier.  Even before the release date, controversy was flying, some of which even quiet little me shared at the time.  And, of course, once the book was out, book reviews (again with accompanying debates) were flying across the Anglican Interwebs, left, right, and center.  Why a review on this book now, half a year later?

I followed the progress of Texts for Common Prayer pretty closely from 2013 through 2018, keeping my recitation of the Office and my church’s celebration of Holy Communion largely in line with the then-current liturgical texts.  By the time the 2019 book was released, I was largely familiar with its features, changes, and distinctions when compared with the 1979 book and the classical prayer book tradition.  There was little left to surprise me, or shock me; most of the good news to celebrate and the frustrating news to mourn was already known.  So I could have jumped on the bandwagon for a book review in June, too.  But I chose not to, precisely because I’d been familiar with the workings texts leading up to it.  Any attentive reader can make a quick book review.  I fear too many of this book’s critics will not have given it enough use to get to know it well enough to provide well-formed opinions.  Prayer Books, like Bibles, are books that take effect over the long haul.  It’s not a novel with a flash-in-the-pan story experience, or textbook with read-it-and-memorize-it content; it’s a book to be used over the course of hours and days and weeks and seasons.  It was my intention to provide a review of the 2019 Prayer Book that is not simply “aware” or “informed” of its contents, but also experienced with its liturgy.

(That being said, I have put together a functional introductory outline to the new prayer book, which I used in teaching my congregation about what’s in it, why, and a bit of its history and function.  You can download a full copy of that here: full teaching outlines – 2019 bcp.)

Like every group project I’ve heard of, The Book of Common Prayer 2019 came out with a handful of errors in its first printing (June); most of those errors, plus a couple official revisions were corrected in the second printing (September-ish), and a hopefully the last of them have been caught in the third printing (in December I think).  Most of the changes are listed on this page, though I did see a second sheet of further corrections (mostly just grammar and formatting) floating around the internet that I forgot to download and save to share here.  So if you’re looking at a hard copy in front of you, check which printing it is.  I have first printing pew editions, but a second-printing “delux edition” for my own regular use, so I’ve been able to look at both over the past several months.  Plus of course there’s always the official website copy you can read and download for free, and I assume that’s always going to have the latest corrections already implemented.

This prayer book was born in controversy.  The ACNA is a difficult province to serve, let alone please.  Several dioceses use the 1928 Prayer Book or the Reformed Episcopal Church’s version of it; several used the 1979 Prayer Book and not quite all of them are jumping over the 2019 to replace it; some use other more localized or customized books, including (inexplicably) the Church of England’s contemporary liturgy book, Common Worship.  There was no way that this entire province was going to be united under one prayer book.  Even the Anglican Continuum isn’t truly united under the 1928 as they sometimes bill themselves, because some supplement and edit that book with resources like the Anglican Missal.  So the goal for the 2019 book was to make it as user-friendly as possible, taking what’s perceived as the best of modern practice and the best of our tradition, and putting together a liturgy more faithful than we had in the 1979.  A tall order and an impossible task, if ever I heard one!

Reading through the Preface to the 2019 prayer book, you’ll find the editors were highly aware of the difficult circumstances under which this book was compiled.  Their care to outline Anglican liturgical history and highlight the ecclesial milieu in which the ACNA and the 2019 book were born shows just how self-conscious the tradition of this book is.

lectionary woes and weals

From my perspective, the end result has only one flaw that I particularly dislike: the modern three-year lectionary and calendar for Sundays and Holy Days.  Just over two years ago I argued in favor of the traditional Prayer Book calendar and lectionary, and today I still wish it had been preserved, or at least authorized, in the new book.  If you go to the bottom of that page you’ll find a link to a document I’d sent to the task force, pleading specifically to save the old Collects and Lessons, as one of the great gems of the Prayer Book tradition.  Sadly I was in a clear minority, though I still hold out hope that some day the 21st Church may yet rediscover the wisdom of her forebears on this.

That being said, the version of the three-year lectionary we’ve got in the 2019 book is an improved version of the Common Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary – very similar to those in most respects, but some of their shortcomings have been improved.  The restoration of a culturally “problematic” text in Romans 1 is a positive move, as is the restoration of January 1st to being the feast of “The Circumcision and Holy Name of Jesus”, rather than just the Holy Name as it was “cleaned up” in 1979.  It is nice, also, to have most of the original Sunday Collects back, even without most of the Lessons they were meant to be paired with.

The Daily Office Lectionary is a curiosity.  It represents a radical move backward toward the original 1549-1662 daily lectionary, using the secular calendar instead of the liturgical calendar, and having a simpler order of reading the Bible.  In general, daily lectionaries have gotten increasingly complicated over the past two centuries, giving us shorter readings and decreasing coverage of the Bible.  So in many ways the 2019 daily lectionary is “more traditional” than any other lectionary in North America, much to everyone’s awkward surprise.  There are still some questions that can be raised about what was included and excluded, why, and how certain books should or should not have been woven together, but on the whole this is one of the strongest daily lectionaries I’ve ever seen.

two and half Communion Rites

Throughout the latter half of 2019 I wrote about each piece of the Communion liturgy in this new book, and you can find them indexed here.  There are officially two orders (or Rites) for Holy Communion.  The first is the Anglican Standard Text, which is basically the “novus ordo” of the 1979 Prayer Book (and the Roman Rite) combined with the 1928 Prayer Book’s communion prayers.  The second rite is the Renewed Ancient Text, drawing primarily upon the short-and-sweet (and shallow, many would say) prayers of the 1979 Prayer Book, earning itself the name “Renewed Ancient” only because the communion prayers of consecration are a version of some prayers attributed to Hippolytus in the 3rd century.

The “half” Communion Rite comes from the fact that this book authorizes the reconstruction of the 1662 order for Holy Communion (and, by extension, the 1928 and similar orders also).

Some argue that having more than one communion rite destroys the principle of common prayer.  Again, though, the reality of this book’s situation is that because it will definitely NOT please everyone, it needs to be sufficiently pleasing to enough people that it will catch on as much as it can.  I think having two (and a half) rites is a strategic decision: it provides one rite akin to what people are already used to, in the hopes that the massive diversity of uncommon prayer will eventually funnel down into the two parallel rites in this book.

Plus, I believe, the intended theology of these two rites can (and should) be read as being identical.  Even though the precise content is different, they are intended to communicate the same Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I explored this argument in more detail a couple months ago.

daily and occasional prayers

At first glance the Daily Offices look very similar to the contemporary language offices in the 1979 Prayer Book, but as you dig into the text, and especially the rubrics, you’ll find that the 2019 Prayer Book’s Daily Offices actually rival the 1928 book when it comes to conformity with the 1662 standard.  Although additional prayers are printed and authorized, the standard originals are marked and suggested.  Although supplemental canticles are provided, the standard originals are given place of preference.  Where the 1928 and 1979 cut certain suffrages short, the 2019 puts them back together (and even expands them a little).  Even the Great Litany is a bit less invisible than it was in previous prayer books.

The flexibility afforded in the rubrics allows for shortened forms of the Daily Office, which can be pastorally helpful in certain situations, as well as reassuring for individuals reciting the office in private concerned about “keeping up.”  Very little of the modernist phenomenon of “dumbing down” the liturgy has taken hold here; the 2019 Prayer Book has a robust office of daily prayer.

initiation and other sacramental rites

Because of the occasional nature of the offices of baptism, confirmation, ordination, matrimony, ministry to the sick and dying, and burial, I have less to say about them in the 2019 Prayer Book from personal experience.

One of the concerns about the baptismal liturgy in the draft texts was that there was a big step away from using the language of “regeneration” and more toward the language of “born again.”  Technically those are synonymous phrases, the former simply being more technical than the latter.  But culturally the implications can run quite deeply: the more “evangelical protestant” extreme of Anglicanism sometimes doesn’t like to use the language of baptismal regeneration, and chafe against the language of Article 27 and the traditional prayer book baptismal liturgy.  It was a relief, therefore, to see the term “regenerate” brought back into the main text of the final product rather than just hiding as an option in the rubrics.

Another nice feature of the 2019 book is the use of holy oils in Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, and the Anointing of the Sick.  In terms of the “seven sacraments” of medieval accounting, unction (or anointing) is the one that got lost in Prayer Book practice, only making an official comeback in the 20th century.  Having that ministry of healing returned in a liturgical context provides a traditional framework for (and corrective to) the pentecostal extremes in which healing ministry is often most loudly promoted.  Plus by appointing the other two types of holy oil (exorcism and chrism) for their respective traditional roles, the oil for the anointing of the sick is brought into its proper larger historical-liturgical context.  But, of course, all this use of holy oils remains optional.  They were not required in the classical prayer books, so they are not required here, only suggested and provided for.

Perhaps the most noteworthy “innovation” of the 2019 Prayer Book is the Declaration of Intention prefaced to the marriage rite.  The prayer book expectation (in line also with the canons of the ACNA, by the way) is that the couple who wish to be married must sign the Declaration of Intention, which explicitly spells out the biblical purposes of marriage.  Provision is even made for a public signing of that Declaration, allowing what one could call a formal (liturgical) betrothal ceremony, initiating a period of discernment, prayer, and preparation for a couple considering (or preparing for) getting married.  This is very much a response to the state of the world around us, where many people, including many believers, don’t understand the biblical teachings on marriage, and have no idea of its gospel-centered nature.  Christians couples interested in marriage need to be recognized, prayed for, protected, nurtured, and instructed, and all this very carefully in the knowledge that the world is attacking every aspect of their relationship.  The Declaration of Intention is a source of instruction and guidance, and also a safe “out” for the local priest who may need to say a difficult “wait” or “no” to a couple unprepared or unwilling to accept the gospel of marriage.

the non-essentials

One of the last publicity pieces released before the book was released was on the typeset, font, and formatting of the 2019 Prayer Book.  Some people scoffed – rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and all that! – but although these are nonessential features of a prayer book, they can be very high-impact.  The 1979 Prayer Book is hopelessly large and complicated.  The page-flipping required to get through one worship service is intense.  This book, while still not as simple to use as the classical prayer books, is designed more with a “new user” in mind, so page number references are provided, section labels are clear, and the need for page-flipping is reduced from the 1979’s glut.

During the season of Advent I took the risky move of doing away with my church’s service bulletin, in which the entire liturgy was printed weekly, with hymn numbers and the Scripture lessons included, and had my congregation of mostly elderly persons use the new prayer books through the worship service.  This was a risk – people don’t always like new things being foisted on them in church, and when you’re not used to any prayer book, it can be a bit daunting to use them for the first few times.  But, to my relief, the book grew on them!  Just where the 1979 Prayer Book got the most complicated (the prayers of the people through the communion prayers) is exactly the point in the liturgy where the 2019 book became the easiest, with no more page-flipping.  I call that a successful test run of this book!

Another feature of the text that has been inconsistent throughout our 450 years of prayer book history is the handling of marking the priest’s words, congregational responses, and text read by all in unison.  The labelling has always been decent, but not always the same.  Congregational responses in the Great Litany have traditionally been italicised, like rubrics.  Most unison prayers have been in bold, but congregational responses were often in regular text, and simply labeled, People.  The 2019 Prayer Book, finally, standardizes the whole thing: the minister or reader’s text in regular print, everything said by the congregation in bold, and all (and only) rubrics in italics.  Section headings, therefore, are rendered in ALL CAPS in order to keep them distinct from rubrics and congregational responses.  And, by golly gee, this book is so much neater as a result.  To my eyes at least, the 1979 book looks rather clinical, and the 1928 looks really crowded.  From an angle of visual presentation, the 2019 Prayer Book is truly quite excellent.

It has a dignity that strives to elevate it well beyond the controversy and argumentation and pain in which it was conceived and born.

the ratings in short…

Accessibility: 3.5/5
This book, as I already noted, is miles easier to use than its predecessor in 1979.  It’s not as streamlined as the classical prayer books, but it handles the variety of options better than any other modern text I’ve seen.  I almost rated this a 4, but have to acknowledge that its learning curve is still a little steep.

Devotional Usefulness: 4/5
Compared to previous prayer books, this is usually drawing upon the best of the best.  Especially for the lay person praying according to this book, the spiritual life engendered here is as rich as any edition of the prayer book before it.  And while certain features (most especially the communion lectionary) prevent it from an ideal 5/5, this is one of the most devotionally useful prayer books ever made.

Reference Value: 4/5
This is hard to rate… being a brand new prayer book this is of practically zero reference value from an historical perspective.  However, its more faithful use of historic material in contemporary idiom make it a far superior rendition of Anglican spirituality than the 1979 Prayer Book, so that’s a big plus.  Furthermore, it contains a good number of Scriptural references (though not drowned in them like Common Prayer 2011) which also help the reader take note of the biblical grounding of our form of worship.  And, of course, the Preface to this edition, and the fact that this is the “official” book of the ACNA also make it an important go-to reference for Anglicanism in America today.

So, whether your local church adopts this book for its liturgy or not, this is a book I highly recommend for your shelf at the very least.  If you’re using the 1979 Prayer Book I cannot urge you enough to put it away and take this one up in its place; there is nothing in that book that cannot be found matched or improved in this one, I promise you.  And, if you’re a traditional-language-prayer-book kind of person, I would encourage you to look more charitably upon the 2019 Prayer Book.  It is not without its flaws, as are all editions of the BCP, but it is probably a great deal more faithful to our great tradition you give it credit for.

There are bits and pieces here and there that I might someday like to see improved.  But on the whole, I am comfortable with settling into the majority of my priestly ministry with this book in hand.