At Holy Trinity we are designating 2012 to be the Year of the Book of Common Prayer. We are reintroducing Evensong for the first Sunday of each month (starting however on 8th January, not 1st January for obvious reasons) at 6 pm. During the last two Advent seasons we have used the Book of Common Prayer for all services, and also this and the last season of Lent likewise. Otherwise we continue to use 'Common Worship' (the modern language service we are all used to at the 10 am service) for the main service. The Book of Common Prayer is always used for 8 am on Sundays and 10 am on Wednesdays.
I was recently talking to Ian Duncan Smith, the MP for Chingford and Woodford and a practicing Catholic. I had just conducted a funeral service at which Mr. Duncan Smith was present. During this service I had spoken how the deceased man, Derek Mullet, had been a Prayer Book man and had come to Holy Trinity for the 8 am Sunday Service because of this. I had reintroduced this service shortly after my arrival at the suggestion of Revd. Eric Porteous, who had been one of two priests who had looked after Holy Trinity after Revd. Anthony Ashdown retired at the end of 1999. I also canvased the opinion of those who attended the 8 am service. They were unanimous in their wish to return to the Book of Common Prayer. The 'new' traditional language service which Holy Trinity started using in 2000 was created to please modern political correct notions. I hated it. And so did the rest. We went back to the original and Derek began attending.
Mr. Duncan Smith said to me, "I can't conceive of why the Church of England, possessing the most beautiful liturgy there is, sacrificed and abandoned it. Its leaving of the Book of Common Prayer has been an unspeakable disaster." And that was the voice of a Catholic.
The doctrine of the Book of Common Prayer, as laid out in the 39 Articles which you may find at the back of the book, held together the English speaking peoples at home and abroad for four centuries. These articles were compiled during the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) but tweaked under Elizabeth I in 1562. There were often stresses and strains, not least during and around the Civil War (1640-62) but up until 1928 this was otherwise decisively the Prayer Book of England. The strength of our nation, throughout wars and upheaval, the Industrial Revolution, the advance of the Empire and democracy during Victoria's reign up to 1928 drew in major part from the doctrinal and liturgical unity of that Prayer Book.
During the Nineteenth Century strains were already apparent. There was from 1833 the advance of the Tracterian Movement in high society which grew into Anglo-Catholicism for whom the doctrine of the 39 Articles was increasingly restrictive and too Protestant. On the other side the rise of Methodism and the Free Church Movement lost to the Church of England large swathes of the Industrial working classes. During the First World War the Church of England became conscious that they had lost much ground and were no longer the voice of all England. They sought to regain this by adopting the practice of more frequent communion from the Catholics (itself a recent development) and also a reform of the liturgy. The reform movement was almost entirely driven by the Anglo-Catholic wing, particularly academic liturgists. When a review was introduced for Parliament to agree in 1927 it was rejected rightly because it was doctrinally heterodox, that is it marked a departure from the 39 Articles. The revision was revised and reintroduced in 1928. That too was rejected with an increased majority. The then Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, a weak and dithering man, took the unprecedented step of choosing to disregard Parliament and the 1928 Prayer Book was permitted to be used on an official 'blind eye' policy. I think this decisively broke the compact of Church and State. Since then the Church of England has been a denomination amongst many, declining year by year as her doctrine has become increasingly optional.
In 1999 Common Worship, the latest incarnation of many different liturgical revisions, was introduced to be mandatory from 2000. This makes the choice open to Anglican Churches so wide that you can now enter Anglican Churches that are indistinguishable from Free Evangelical Churches, or from Catholic Churches and doctrine to suit. The doctrinal and liturgical unity of the Church is now a fiction. The present Archbishops of York and Canterbury preside over a group of church families in England that often have little to do with each other despite a common name.
It must be remembered that the Anglican Communion is much wider than England. In many former colonies such as Nigeria and the Sudan the Church remains what it was. The Book of Common Prayer and its doctrine remain in place for both liturgy and doctrine. In 2008 many of these sister provinces refused to come to the Lambeth Conference due to increasing greyness in belief in practice, meeting in Jerusalem instead. There they unanimously reaffirmed the Book of Common Prayer and called on fellow Anglicans to do likewise. I am in complete agreement with their declaration. You can read this on http://www.gafcon.org/news/gafcon_final_statement. I believe we can show the way to members of the public looking for integrity in worship and belief. We have to do something to stem the decline of the church in the West. Others may advance other causes and solutions. But it is my firm belief that core Anglicanism is the best form of Christianity available for the English speaking peoples and that departure from there has been major grounds for the decline of the Church of England.
So we are making a start. The decision to restart Evensong needs to be supported by the congregation. To start with the choir will have an uphill task to learn the music. We will start where we can and build from there. Without support it will fail. Please support it. The service will be about 35-40 minutes in duration. The vicarage will be open afterwards for those who would like to come in for a cup of tea or even stay for supper.
Father Robert
January 2012
Read Previous Articles: February 2009 / March 2009 / August 2010 / September 2010 / January 2011
