Posted on by Fr. Brench

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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Book Review: Ritual Notes (11th ed.)

Welcome to Saturday Book Review time!  On most of the Saturdays this year we’re looking at a liturgy-related book noting (as applicable) its accessibility, devotional usefulness, and reference value.  Or, how easy it is to read, the prayer life it engenders, and how much it can teach you.

Ever wondered when and how to make the sign of the cross during the Communion prayers, as the celebrant?  Or what the order of the procession and recession should be?  How do we know when to wear a cope, or which liturgical colors to use.  How do you cense an altar, and when is it appropriate to do so?  These are questions of ritual, and although the Anglican tradition has virtually no official ritual directions whatsoever, there is widespread custom insofar as such rituals are observed at all.  To learn these customs, we turn to books called customaries which attempt to put into words the ritual actions of church tradition.  Among the classical high church Anglican customaries is the book Ritual Notes, originally published in 1894 (available online), though there are a few other classics out there.  Ritual Notes underwent a total of eleven editions, the last being published in 1964.  Once the 1979 Prayer Book came out, the break with pre-established liturgical tradition was too great; either a new or hybridized approach to ritual and ceremony had to be devised, or a Ritual Notes -using parish would have to stay with with the 1928 Prayer Book.  And indeed, many did, including the churches of the Anglican Continuum, who are primarily responsible for the recent re-prints of Ritual Notes, especially its 11th and final edition.  That is the copy that someone gave to me, and thus the copy on which I am commenting.

Written theoretically for the 1662 Prayer Book, its expectations work better with the American 1928 Prayer Book, or better yet, with some sort of Anglican Missal that brings the language and practice of our worship more in line with that of Rome.  This book, therefore, is scorned by many lowchurchmen as a crypto-Papist abberation.  Such an accusation may not be applicable to its earlier editions, but in the 11th edition the Roman language and terminology is used throughout.  Low Mass, High Mass, Solemn Mass, requiem masses, the exposition and benediction of the blessed sacrament, supplemental Kalendar laws that flesh out the Prayer Book calendar with Roman observances, all this and more smacks of Romanism.

Despite appearances and language, however, this book does bring Roman elements into an Anglican context.  Although the Prayer Book is supplemented more than some would like, the Prayer Book remains the center of the ritual and liturgy that Ritual Notes constructs.  The aim is not to make Anglican more Roman, but to promote Western Catholicism in general.  In that spirit, there is quite a lot in this book that can be a useful resource to all Anglicans, regardless of liturgical and theological partisanship.  In that light, let’s take a look at the Table of Contents.

Part I: General Considerations

  • ch. 1 The Church’s Ornaments
  • ch. 2 Vestments
  • ch. 3 Liturgical Colours
  • ch. 4 Ceremonial Actions
  • ch. 5 Concerning the Church’s Worship

Part II: The Holy Mass

  • ch. 6 General Considerations Concerning the Mass
  • ch. 7 The Parts of the Mass
  • ch. 8 Low Mass
  • ch. 9 High Mass
  • ch. 10 Sung Mass
  • ch. 11 The Canons of Certain Provinces
  • ch. 12 Various Modern Adaptations of Ceremonial
  • ch. 13 Mass on Certain Special Occasions
  • ch. 14 Votive and Requiem Masses
  • ch. 15 Certain Ceremonies Associated with the Mass

Part III: The Divine Office

  • ch. 16 General Considerations Regarding the Office
  • ch. 17 The Parts of the Office
  • ch. 18 The Ceremonial of the Office
  • ch. 19 Other Matters Concerning the Office

Part IV: The Christian Year

  • ch. 20 The Kalendar
  • ch. 21 The Church’s Seasons
  • ch. 22 The Ceremonies of Certain Days of the Year

Part V: The Occasional Offices and Other Services

  • ch. 23 Holy Baptism
  • ch. 24 Holy Matrimony
  • ch. 25 Certain Pastoral Offices
  • ch. 26 The Offices of the Dead
  • ch. 27 Exposition and Benediction
  • ch. 28 Processions

Part VI: Pontifical Services

  • ch. 29 General Considerations
  • ch. 30 Certain Lesser Ceremonies of the Bishop
  • ch. 31 Common Pontifical Functions in Full Form
  • ch. 32 Simplified Episcopal Ceremony
  • ch. 33 Some Functions of the Pontifical

As you can see, there are sections that may be extremely useful to reference if you want to have a special solemn service, as well as sections that you and your parish might never touch with a ten foot pole.  I would particularly commend the chapters on Vestments and Liturgical Colours as useful reading for all clergymen.  Even if you end up holding to a different custom, it’s important to know one of (if not the) standard customs regarding these things.

A few pictures help illustrate elements of the service, and when appropriate there are multiple parallel columns to help the reader track through either different prayers of consecration or different groups of servers and assistants working in parallel during the liturgy.

The ratings in short:

Accessibility: 3/5
All the “catholic” liturgical terminology is used, but also defined and explained.  If you’re new to high ceremonial, this book will feel a bit overwhelming.  But it’s not overly-complicated, so it’s a great resource.

Devotional Usefulness: 4/5
This isn’t a book you pray with, so in a sense this is an N/A answer.  But if you aim to use high church ceremonial in a worship service, this book is invaluable.  Although some elements of it are “out-dated” according to the 2019 Prayer Book (such as the traditional calendar versus our modern one), other features of it which were less compatible with the 1979 book are actually more applicable to the 2019 liturgy once again.

Reference Value: 5/5
Even if you disagree vehemently with its Anglo-Catholic stance, what it provides is an excellent benchmark of Western Catholic ritual and ceremony.  You may find arguments among Anglo-Catholic priests today over which edition is the best (apparently usually between the 9th and 11th), but the failings of individuals aside, this book is a goldmine for learning about “traditionalist” worship.

Project Canterbury has the first edition available online for free; the link is provided near the beginning of this review.  A reprint of the 11th edition is made available for sale online.  I’m not sure I would say this is a book that absolutely every priest should have on his shelf, but instead perhaps every parish church should have in its library.  For some it’s the gold standard of public worship, but for the rest of us it’s still a marvelous reference.