How common is "Common"?

One fascinating feature of the Anglican Communion of Churches in recent times is the hanging on to the word "common" even when the circumstances appeared to require a different word..

Let me explain.

Historically, first within the Church of England and then also within Churches founded from her, the word "Common" was always and intimately related to the word "Prayer" and to the further word "Book." And thus Common Prayer invariably referred to the Texts/Rites contained in The Book of Common Prayer, which was taken wherever Anglican churches were founded.

So it is not surprising that what eventually became known as The Anglican Communion of Churches was seen - at least until the 1960s - as Churches bound together by Common Formularies and having a commonly recognized Ministry. (Note: the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral was not an internal description of the Communion but its minimum basis for ecumenical relations & unions.)

At the very heart of the Common Formularies was The Book of Common Prayer (into which was bound The Ordinal & often also The Articles) which existed in various editions and in over 150 languages. Wherever one went in the world the local Anglican church had a service, the textual basis & structure of which, were readily recognized - whatever the local language and whatever the churchmanship.

In contrast to 1960, we find now in 2002 that the unity of the Anglican Communion is no longer seen as united through Common Formularies and a commonly recognized Ministry. World travellers do not know what to expect at an Anglican Church, not only in different countries but even in one country! There is much emphasis in 2002 upon the Instruments of Unity - the See of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference every ten years, the annual Primates Meeting and the regular Anglican Consultative Council's meeting. These have appeared in part to compensate for the loss of unity in how we worship together as pilgrim on the Anglican Way to the Beatific Vision.

The commonly recognized Ministry is no longer emphasised because not all Provinces recognize women bishops (or even women presbyters) and the Common Text for worship and the Common Text for Ordinations (= the BCP) are no longer mentioned because they have receded into the background.

Yet the Communion (especially in its Northern or Western part) seems to want to hang on to the word "Common" as though this word belonged to the essential memory of the Anglican Way. Thus our liturgists now speak much of Common Elements in the Liturgy (Lord's Prayer, Gloria, Sursum Corda etc.) and they insist on using the word "Common" for prayer books that do not conform to the logic and structure of the classic Book of Common Prayer.

In England the latest form of alternative services is entitled COMMON WORSHIP, available in print in many forms, on CD's and at Websites. Unlike the BCP 1662 (which remains the official prayer book of the National Church) Common Worship has no common texts but a large variety of texts/rites. And even what are known as the "Common" Elements do not appear in one uniform English version. So what is Common is also in alternatives.

Back in 1979 the Episcopal Church, USA, called its book of Alternative Services, by the name of The BCP, and thereby introduced dishonesty as acceptable into the Anglican Communion. The Province of the West Indies has since imitated the ECUSA in naming its new book, The BCP, when it manifestly is no such thing.

Having lost its unifying liturgical cement/glue from the 1960s, the Anglican Communion is in search of something to replace it. Whether the Instruments of Unity are sufficiently graceful (filled with grace) and sufficiently ordered (filled with divine order) to do this work, only time will tell.

It is interesting to speculate whether down the road the Anglican Communion (like the R C's and the Orthodox) will feel the need for a basic Common Text for the Eucharist, Baptism and Daily Prayer.

Happily, the center of the Communion, the Church of England, despite its Alternative Service Books (ASB, 1980, and Common Worship, 2000), still is bound by her official and traditional Formularies (BCP 1662, Ordinal & Articles) in terms of self-definition and canon law.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon