(before I begin this meditation may I say that I think the right posture for all prayer on Sept 11th is prostration and/or kneeling. Standing is hardly appropriate and sitting & lying down is out completely, except for the disabled and sick)
Is there a connection between (a) the late 20th century change from kneeling to standing before God during the Prayer of Consecration (Eucharistic Prayer) and (b) the late 20th century change from addressing God as "Thee,Thou" to "You" in the Order for Holy Communion (The Eucharist)?
Yes there is.
First of all the changes occurred at the same time - from the 1970s or even the late 1960s right into the 1990s.
Secondly, the changes occurred as a result of the teaching of the Liturgical Movement at its most influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
Thirdly, the changes occurred as a result of the new ethos of subjectivity in worship generated by the values of the revolutionary 1960s.
Let us recall that rules provided in italics in The Book of Common Prayer (1662, 1928) alongside the Order for Holy Communion instruct the assembled congregation to kneel during the Prayer of Consecration (and also before it). Now the bodily posture of kneeling can be interpreted in terms of the adorer kneeling before the Adored or the penitent kneeling before the Judge, or both.
The universal custom of the assembly kneeling during the Prayer of Consecration in the West seems to have begun in the early Middle Ages and continued to the late 1960s. And it is very possible that the sense of being a penitential people before God originally guided this posture.
The instructions in contemporary language Rites (generated as a result of the Liturgical Movement) from the 1970s for The Eucharist either state or assume that the congregation will stand for the Eucharistic Prayer. In explanation it is said that this posture was the general norm in the Early Church (especially in the Easter period) and that it is to be interpreted in terms of the Easter people of God, rejoicing in the Resurrection and thus standing up on the Lord's Day to praise the Lord but doing so in a respectful posture (do we not stand in the presence of an authority figure?) rather than a penitential posture (which it is said was reserved for days of fasting etc.).
So far so good. But regrettably both Vatican II and the influence of the Liturgical Movement upon Anglicanism came at precisely the same time as the winds of change created by the revolutionary 1960s were blowing at gale force! Therefore, there was never a serious discussion in the churches at large as to whether there was need to modify the rubrics of the classic Prayer Books and to allow for standing, say in the period from Easter Day till Ascension.
Instead of sensible discussion, standing before God became associated in many minds in the 1970s with cultivating self-esteem, self-respect, self-dignity and self-realization - themes of the 1960s. Kneeling before God was said to create low self-esteem and to make people have a wrong estimate of themselves and of God. In this period the required attributes of God and of Christ Jesus were those that emphasised the divine accessibility, familiarity, intelligibility, relevance, warmth and acceptance. And all this was cemented by the use of the so-called "passing of the peace" wherein community feeling and a sense of self-worth were strengthened.
And to make the point of standing with self-esteem before the God of warmth and acceptance, this Deity was addressed as "You." Both liturgists on their new principles of congregational participation and meaningfulness and the Zeitgeist of the 1960s joined to insist that God must be addressed as "You." So "You" he became.
Thus the "You-God" and standing instead of kneeling became the norm for the ECUSA etc. and any who maintained the old ways were seen by many bishops and priests and heads of seminaries as rebels!
Let us be clear.
Anyone who studies the sacred Scriptures and the holy tradition and experience of the Church in history will know that there are basically four types of posture to be used in holy Christian worship. There is standing, kneeling, sitting and prostration and each of these is suitable for one or more parts or aspects of worship. Further, there is the possibility of differing interpretations of the right posture for a given act of worship or devotion. And because there is difference of opinion in matters of secondary importance, there should be charity in human relations.
Problems arise when an ideology requires that everyone do it the new way because the new way is the only way. Today many churches have removed all the hassocks and kneeling benches in their intention to make everyone conform to the rule - the rule recently invented by those in whose minds the revolutionary ideas of the 1960s fused with certain important insights of the Liturgical Movement.
There is nothing wrong in standing before God if we stand humbly before the One to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given, the Lord Jesus Christ. BUT to stand there in self-esteem full of our own rights and virtues is to stand as a condemned sinner!
There is nothing wrong in addressing God as "You" if we do so in ways that are reverent and that recognize Who He truly is! BUT to address God as "You" because we think that we are on familiar terms with him as our great Buddie is to stand before him as a condemned sinner!
Sept 10, 2002
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America
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