Consider this -- your dog's puppies were conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, but the Lord Jesus was conceived BY the Holy Ghost!
In Common Worship, the collection of alternative services of the Church of England, there are on pages 302-303 of volume one special provisions for the period “from Christmas Day until the Eve of the Epiphany”. Amongst these are three Prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayer, and in each of them, in referring to the conception and birth of the Messiah, the expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” is used. (E.g., “… by the power of the Holy Spirit, he took our nature upon him…”)
Where does this expression “by the power of the Holy Spirit” come from? It is used in the translation of the Creed that was used in The Book of Alternative Services (1980) and now discarded. “Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit” was dropped for the Creed used in Common Worship, where the expression is simply “by the Holy Spirit”. The latter is what is also found in the translation of the Creed in The Book of Common Prayer from 1549 to 1662 and it is a literal and correct translation of the original.
So it seems that Common Worship has retained material from The Book of Alternative Services when it ought to have revised it in order to be in harmony with the translation of the Creed in the same book. Is this a case of careless editing?
Of course, and very importantly, there is a major theological reason why “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit” is wrong when referring to the assuming of manhood in the Virgin’s womb by the only-begotten Son of the Father (which divine act is also at the same time Mary’s conception of Jesus). All procreation and reproduction in this world is according to the laws of nature and is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God present through the universe. The unique conception by Mary, which is also the Incarnation of the Logos/Son, is directly by the Person of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is directly and immediately present in an unique manner of presence in order to cause this miracle of miracles to occur.
Your cat’s kittens were conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit but the Son of God assumed human nature and Mary conceived Jesus BY the Holy Ghost.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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