Fr. Carlos Raines
The ACNA is preparing to release a new prayer book. This is a good and essential thing! Of course we cannot keep using Episcopalian
prayer books. However, my hope is that
the ACNA does not give up on liturgical renewal if by that we mean
pursuing the goals of many of the English reformers; the desire to reform the
liturgy to the practice and faith of the early church. To that end, I would say not everything
about the 1979 Prayer Book was a disaster!
(Though some almost make it sound that way). In fact, we orthodox believers probably
greatly outnumbered the liberals in the '60's
and early '70's when that prayer book was composed. It is hard for me to think, for example, that
using the liturgy of Hippolytus for the foundation of “Prayer A” was a stunning act driven by secularized
liberals!
One vital, life-giving effort wonderfully expressed in the
'79 Prayer Book was the contemporary language rites of prayers A, B and D. In these prayers, the Episcopal Church
reached past the time of Cranmer for examples of ancient Western rite prayers
to revive our worship. Personally I
believe this effort was successful. For
example, despite the way the Prayer Book was shoved down the throats of the
faithful by the bishops of the time, it is astounding how many clergy and laity
chose for their principle worship
services Rite II, Prayer A! My personal
experience was that most converts and families, having tried both of our
services (Rite 1 at 8:00 and Rite II at 10:30) found the Rite II service much
more to their liking. Currently I
celebrate (or attend) the Eucharist Sunday through Friday every week using
almost exclusively Prayer A Rite II.
Except for some awkward (somewhat unbiblical) wording in the very last
phrase, it simply does not grow old. (I
believe the other Rite 2 services would have been used more often had the
Prayer Book not suffered a poor publication design that required yet more page
turning to use prayers B-D. Prayer D in
particular is deep and majestic).
Let me say again how astounding this is! There should have been every reason for
Episcopalians to stay with Cranmer's words, as measured and beautiful as they
were (Cranmer certainly was a consummate word-smith!). Yet by a great majority, the priests and
people of the Episcopal church quite voluntarily “voted” to worship with a
liturgy based on an ancient rite that predated Cranmer by about 1200
years!
Why did this happen?
Why did so many people who clearly were orthodox prefer a more ancient
liturgy to some version of the 1662 Elizabethan Prayer Book?
Here are some simple reasons that occur to me as to why they
did so and why we should continue to provide these or similar ancient liturgies
in the new prayer book and not exclusively return to using some version of the
1662 Book, either in original or contemporary language.
ñ Ironically,
I believe excluding these ancient rites betrays the intentions of the original
Reformers, especially as elucidated in John Jewel's Apology. Their efforts were directed at reforming the
Western Catholic Church to its ancient roots predating the rise of the Papacy
and the tearing of the fabric of unity in communion that occurred in A.D.
1054. It is speculation on my part, (but
not entirely uninformed) that these Reformers would be astonished and even aghast
at efforts to make them and their writings the bench mark of
Anglican church renewal. I do believe
they would point beyond themselves humbly and beg us to look to the benchmarks
they followed in their day; the Holy Scriptures
as interpreted by the Early Church Fathers, and the ancient practice of the
undivided Church. I worry that those who think our sufferings of the past 40
years can be directly attributed to having left the exclusive use of the
Traditional Prayer Book Liturgies and Ordinals are leading us to a kind of
liturgical fundamentalism, making us truly a Protestant Church, living as
though everything before the 16th Century has no meaning to us!
ñ Originally we were one of the first churches
in the West to produce a liturgy and a Bible in the language of the
people. If my church, St. James'
Anglican Cathedral, were required to use classical prayer book worship at all
services, the Anglican Church in my neighborhood would instantly become, of all
the English speaking churches in the community, the church with the least
understandable liturgy! Again, the irony is crushing! The medieval church had commentaries to
explain the alien Latin terms to the people who could afford such texts (and
who could read!). We will need classes
to explain to the people the meaning of such terms as oblation, satisfaction,
remission, substance, meet, vouchsafe and merits before most of them can make
much sense of our liturgy.
ñ Liturgy
does not have to be composed of classical sixteenth century English to be beautiful,
timeless, profound and formational. The
Gospel of John, written in laughably simple Greek is arguably the most profound
of the four. Effective liturgy need not
be erudite; it must be deeply symbolic.
ñ Along
with the liturgy found in the Anaphora of Hippolytus (3rd
century...from which we get the '79 Prayer Book Eucharistic Prayer A), there
are other ancient liturgies available, some of which were used by Celtic and
even Anglo-saxon churches. Some of these
are no longer in use precisely because the imperialistic mindset behind the
growing ecclesiastical hegemony of the Papacy forced the suppression of all
other liturgies besides the Roman Rite.
Contrast this impulse with the very words of Pope St. Gregory the Great
who re-founded the English Church with the following words found in a letter to
Augustine of Canterbury: “If you have found customs, whether in the Roman, Gallican,
or any other Churches that may be more acceptable to God, I wish you to make a
careful selection of them, and teach the Church of the English, which is still
young in the faith, whatever you can profitably learn from the various
Churches. For things should not be loved
for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things.” The Gallican liturgy, long suppressed by
Rome is a Western liturgy closely connected with Patrick of Ireland and the
Celtic Church and of considerable appeal in beauty and poetic theological
vision. Perhaps this could be modified
for Anglican usage? (See http://web.archive.org/web/20030329153729/members.truepath.com/Ben_Johnson/Germanus.html)
ñ Already
many, if not most churches either use worship pamphlets or extensive bulletins
or even projected programs containing the Sunday Liturgy. Most of our churches are no longer wedded to
any particular book for Sunday worship and so, in a way strangely
similar to much earlier times, we could well be in a time of creative
flux. This is not necessarily a bad
thing in my estimation; like deceptively simple folk music, great liturgy is
developed by many hands over the passage of time. This is why ancient liturgies never grow old;
they are refined through divine-human interaction into truly “common prayer.”
ñ Returning
to the original intentions of the English Reformers, could we not now “finish
the Reformation?” By that, I mean, what
if we went beyond the 16th Century, reviving a long-suppressed
liturgy (or liturgies), with Celtic roots, finding our place, along with the
Orthodox, in a patristic church, challenging our brothers and sisters in Rome
to join the journey? Standing with the
Orthodox, regaining our truly patristic roots, could we not together turn to
Rome and join in the call for the 8th Ecumenical Council? (Failing that, I wonder what kind of
celebrations will greet the Millennial anniversary of the first, greatest and
most devastating of schisms as A.D. 2054
arrives?)
ñ There
was a time when the Church, both East and West, was very comfortable with
Christians worshiping with multiple liturgies in myriad languages (still the
practice in the East). Yet this church,
so free in expression, for over a thousand years had a profound unity we can
only long for today. A single liturgy
was not the fountain head of that unity, rather a recognized apostolic
succession was; both in it's faith expression and in it's collegial structure. As the Eastern Orthodox have proven for 2,000
years, our unity need not necessarily be in a single book, but in a common and
ancient faith overseen by faithful bishops unafraid to correct each other. The benchmark of that faith was in the faith
of the Church planted by Jesus and the Holy Apostles as revealed in Holy
Scriptures and interpreted with great respect to the early fathers.
ñ I
am not advocating the removal of 1662-derivative prayer book liturgies. It may be that many or even most of our
churches will happily use them and to great effect for the Kingdom. I am only asking that the opportunity to
reach even further back than 1662 be allowed for clergy and people who wish to
let more ancient liturgies sing again.
These liturgies were composed and developed long before the sad
divisions and controversies of the late Middle Ages and they fed the hearts and
souls of countless saints. Why not allow
for a season of creative flux, carefully overseen by Anglican bishops so that
we may see what direction the Holy Spirit and the faithful may take in the
years ahead. Do we seriously want to
lock ourselves into 16th or 17th century Anglicanism as
our only benchmark? Recognizing that
their language and their issues are now almost as strange and alien to us as
Latin to an English peasant, we the sons and daughters of these amazing
reformers should continue to mine the riches of the ancient Church, and speak
powerfully to this and future generations, fulfilling the words of Jesus about
the wise scribe of the Kingdom reaching into his treasure to bring forth things
old and new. There are thousands of
people all across North America who are searching for a church to believe in. I sincerely believe a liturgy based on an
ancient Western Catholic liturgy will find more favor with them than a liturgy
requiring a history lesson and a dictionary!
I respectfully and humbly submit these thoughts for the sake
of discussion. It is my sincere hope
that these words might be useful as we seek to reestablish Anglicanism in North
America.
The Very Reverend Carlos Lee Raines
St. James Cathedral, Fresno, California
4 February 2012
Cornelius the Centurion
