(Note: the expression Common Worship is now favoured also by the Liturgy & Music Commission of the ECUSA for its developing and forthcoming Collection of Liturgies.... Please send this advert on to your Anglican friends.)
from Edgeways Books of the UK
COMMON WORSHIP CONSIDERED
A Liturgical Journey Examined
Peter Toon
Common Worship is the name given by the Church of England to her replacement for The Alternative Service Book of 1980. It is a multi-volume, multi-media and open-ended series of publications and, being so vast, is not easily considered. In this, the first book-length discussion of Common Worship, Dr Toon makes a notable effort to do so.
The multi-volume collection of Liturgy is considered steadily and thoroughly in chapters on the Preface, the meaning of “Common” and “Worship”, the Eucharist, Daily Prayer, Baptism & Confirmation, Pastoral Services, Prayers & Collects, Doctrine & Style. A brief Epilogue draws conclusions, solidly based on the preceding argument, which may be surprising.
The present liturgists of the Church of England are in intention far less revolutionary than their predecessors a quarter of a century ago. But the drastic redefinition of “common” made necessary by the Common Worship project—so that what is common to the Church of England is not the sharing of one printed liturgy but the use of common shapes, the following of guidelines or the use of an incalculable number of permutations—amounts to a more revolutionary change than any since the Prayer Book of 1549.
Dr Toon demonstrates that such a huge outpouring of optional material has, not surprisingly, led to rather low standards of composition and of theological accuracy.
This moderate and well—argued book is written from the standpoint of an orthodox theologian and a faithful parish priest of the Church of England. Dr. Toon’s criteria are those that have always been accepted in the Church of England: the Bible, the three Creeds and the formularies printed within The Book of Common Prayer (1662). One upshot of the book is a further demonstration that The Book of Common Prayer is (in the title of another recent book of which Dr Toon is co—author) “neither archaic nor obsolete”.
160 pp. royal 8vo hard covers publishers recommended price £16.80.
ISBN 0 907839 78 9 publication September 2003
All Edgeways books can be ordered direct from the publisher and delivered post free anywhere in the world. Airmail delivery add £5.00.
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The book, Neither Archaic nor Obsolete: The Language of Common Prayer & Public Worship, by Dr Toon and Dr Tarsitano (ISBN 0 907839 75 4) is paperback and available from the Prayer Book Society of the USA (www.anglicanmarketplace.com) or Edgeways Books. For help in ordering in the USA call toll free 1 800 PBS 1928.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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