Liturgy ECUSA Style

ECUSA $300.000.00 for Liturgy in the triennium (03-06)

Hanging on to "Common"

In Resolution A107 (page 107, link requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) the Standing Commission for Liturgy and Music will ask the General Convention of the ECUSA in August 2003 for Three hundred thousand dollars “to implement the vision for the Renewal and Enrichment of the Common Worship of this Church.”

As in the Church of England, so now in the Episcopal Church of the USA the dominant expression is COMMON WORSHIP. In fact, over the last thirty or forty years we have seen first the attempt to change the meaning of Common Prayer and then the move to use of Common Worship.

Not very long ago, everywhere and by all Common Prayer meant both the Book of Common Prayer (first edition 1549) and the set services from that book (in the USA, three editions, 1789, 1892 & 1928). Then from the 1970s the ECUSA attempted to change the meaning by calling its prayer book of 1976/79, which has a variety of choices for services and a new shape to them, by the title “Common Prayer” – instead of “An American Prayer Book” or the like. This was part of a movement to discredit the classic definition and use of the inherited Prayer Book by claiming that “Common Prayer” really referred to the use of common elements (e.g., Creed, Lord’s Prayer etc), a common shape or structure (into which can be inserted varied ingredients) and to that which an Anglican Province authorized for use in its territory.

This process was assisted ecumenically by the use of the term “Common Lectionary” ( a lectionary that several churches have in common). But more recently, having nearly destroyed the classic understanding of Common Prayer, the ECUSA has preferred to refer to its expanding choice of authorized services as “common worship” where this title seems to mean “that which, despite its great variety and internal inconsistencies, is authorized by the Church for use in all or part of the same Church”. Thus the forthcoming creation and authorization of new liturgies, which will form eventually a replacement for the 1979 prayer book and all other services authorized since 1979, is called “Common Worship.”

In the Church of England, “Common Worship” since 2000 refers to a Directory of volumes (CD’s) that is slowly increasing and offering choices for every kind of service for use in the parishes of the Church. However, it has not officially replaced The Book of Common Prayer (1662) which remains the Formulary of the Church (with the Articles of Religion and the Ordinal). Yet in the first volume of the Directory called Common Worship, services from the Book of Common Prayer (slightly adapted) are included – presumably in the hope that people will not need to use the classic Prayer Book at all.

Thus we find that the ECUSA, as the C of E, is hanging on to the word “common” for something that hardly fits the meaning of “common” at all. With “Common Lectionary” it may be said that here is a List of Sunday Readings which are used in common by several Churches, but “Common Worship” is hardly a Directory of services which are used in common by parishes in one province. Rather the latter means “that which is authorized by the Synod/Convention for use whether or not it is used at all and whether or not it conforms to a basic doctrinal foundation.”

Why does the ECUSA not simply speak of “the Directory” or simply “Worship”? Why does it insist on using “Common”? Perhaps to claim a link with the past; perhaps to offer a legitimisation for introducing new shapes and doctrines; perhaps to help people feel good about the major innovations that are being introduced.

It is entirely possible (if strong requests are made) that within the new Directory or “Common Worship” of the ECUSA, there will be placed the whole of or part of the classic texts of “The Book of Common Prayer, 1928” – just as is so in the C of E’s “Common Worship.” What is now called “Rite One” (i.e., services in traditional language) would then presumably not be needed. Once the definition of “common” has reached its present width, there is no logical reason why what is deemed as the old text cannot be made a part of the present offering of variety.

(See further on this general theme: Peter Toon, Common Worship Considered, Edgeways Books, September 03 – www.edgewaysbooks.com)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HOMILY FOR PENTECOST/WHITSUN FROM THE OFFICIAL BOOK OF HOMILIES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR HEARING -- CLICK HERE. PLEASE MAKE A VISIT AND HEAR THIS CLASSIC HOMILY ON THE HOLY GHOST!

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