How regrettable on Trinity Sunday

Adelphoi,

On Trinity Sunday, when the Household of God, the Body of Christ, is called to adore, praise and celebrate the identify of the LORD GOD as a Trinity in Unity and an Unity in Trinity, and to utter with humility, reverence and passion, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost", it is extremely regrettable that neither the Collect nor the Post Communion Prayer in Common Worship (the new Directory of the Church of England) do not rise to the occasion.

For over a thousand years in the West there has been a particular style to the one sentence Collect which comes before the Epistle and Gospel in the Eucharist. Regrettably the Church of England has chosen to ditch this hallowed style for Trinity Sunday (the very day when she needed it most) in favour of a new style which carries the implication of arrogance before the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The classic Collect, translated from the Latin in 1549, begins: "Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity:.." Here by the use of the relative clause, the people of God remember in God's presence his self-revelation by which they are able to know and confess his Identity as the Trinity. The wording encourages the virtues of humility and reverence.

The modern Collect, which attempts to maintain the doctrine of the traditional Collect, refuses to use the ancient devise of the relative clause and goes instead for a declaratory statement, a telling the Trinity what the same Trinity knows more perfectly and surely than any man could ever begin to know!

"Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:."

This is like the preposterous - "You are God and we praise You."!

The modern Post-Communion Prayer is even more regrettable because (a) it purports to tell the LORD what he knows absolutely perfectly and experientially, and (b) what it tells him is possibly (by classic patristic standards) heresy!

"Almighty and eternal God, you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:."

Once again we have the declaratory clause instead of the relative clause. Then it is unclear to Whom the prayer is addressed. Is it addressed to the Godhead as One or the Trinity as Trinity? It sounds as though there is One God who is one Person who reveals to us that he has Three Names or Modes of Being? Or is it addressed to God the Father (as most prayers are so addressed?) If so then is it true that the Father has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit? It seems as though - because of the way it ends - the prayer is actually addressed to God as Trinity and if so it does allow, because of careless wording, the interpretation of Modalism, that God is One Person with Three Modes of Being and Three Names.

The biblical way of revelation of the Triune Nature & Name is FROM the Father through the Son and by the Holy Ghost, to which the response of creatures is TO the Father through the Son and with the Holy Ghost.

When we are dealing with the Dogma of the Trinity and the Dogma of the Person of Christ, we moderns need to keep close to the Patristic Definitions which informed classic Liturgy! If we do not then we get into trouble!

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO USE THE ATHANASIAN CREED ON TRINITY SUNDAY

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)