Twenty-Five years on: The Irish Church follows the liturgical innovation of the American Church

(The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil., Oxon.
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne’s, Brown Edge, Staffs.)

What is The Book of Common Prayer? The answer until recently was straightforward in the Anglican Communion of Churches. It is an edition in English or another language of that Prayer Book which was approved by King and Parliament in England in 1662 for use in the Church of England and in the British Empire. Later, each of the provinces of the Anglican Communion either prepared its own edition of the BCP 1662 to relate to the public realities of its region & culture, or it simply used the BCP 1662 itself.

From the 1970s another type of Prayer Book emerged in the Anglican Family, that which may be called “A Book of Alternative Services”. This contained multiple Rites for Holy Communion and several for the Daily Office. The Rites themselves were usually offered in both contemporary language and traditional language. In England we are familiar with this new genre through The Alternative Service Book (1980) replaced by Common Worship (2001).

Behind the scenes during the last thirty or so years there has been a determined effort by some liturgists and bishops in the West/North of the Anglican Communion to redefine “Common Prayer” (see for full details Chapter 2, “Common”, of my recent book, Common Worship Considered, a Liturgical Journey Examined, Edgeways Books, 2003). Because of the confidence generated by this process of redefining Common Prayer in terms of structure & shape with basic minimal ingredients, the Synods of some member Churches of the Anglican Communion have decided to transfer the title, “The Book of Common Prayer”, from the historic, classic editions of The Book of Common Prayer (1662 or based upon it) to a modern “Book of Alternative Services”.

It will not be a surprise to learn that it was in the USA that this major and far-reaching innovation began. There appeared in 1979 what was called “The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Episcopal Church” and the publicity surrounding it stated that it was the new edition of the American Prayer Book, which appeared first in 1789 and was minimally edited in 1892 & 1928. However, anyone who opened this new Book dated 1979 knew that it was not a new edition of the historic, classic Prayer Book, for it belonged instead to the new genre, the “Book of Alternative Services”. Instead of doing what the Church of England did and retaining The Book of Common Prayer and placing alongside it, but lower than it, a “Book of Alternative Services”, the Episcopal Church redefined “Common Prayer”. From now on, this expression did not refer to a familiar and historic Book with set texts for public prayer, which had been hallowed by constant use, but rather it referred to a Book in which were certain basic and minimal common structures and ingredients. Further, the Episcopal Church by this innovation dramatically rejected the historic Formularies and adopted new ones (Prayer Book & Ordinal) and thus its doctrinal basis for worship, doctrine and discipline was also changed.

Regrettably, there was little if any condemnation from outside the USA of what was both an act of piracy and an innovation in worship & doctrine, and so it is not surprising that other provinces in part or in whole followed the example of the American Episcopal Church – e.g., the Church in Wales in 1984, the Church in the West Indies in 1995 and the Church in Ireland in 2004.

With respect to The Book of Common Prayer for use in the Church in Wales (1984) it has been said that it is a modern prayer book in traditional language. We may add that there are some grammatical mistakes here and there where new texts have been created in supposed traditional language. Mistakes apart, this is not the traditional Book of 1662; but rather a new Book wherein the services are of a modern structure/shape with a mixture of traditional and modern contents, but everything is in so-called traditional language. The old title is preserved and used because this Prayer Book is now the Chief Formulary of the Church in Wales. Alongside it, there are official Alternative Services in modern English.

The Book of Common Prayer: The Church of the Province of the West Indies (1995) is very different from the BCP of 1662. First of all, it is in contemporary language and secondly the structure and content of its Rites are modern, like the Rite Two contemporary language provision of the American 1979 Prayer Book. Though the BCP 1662 is still used on a few Islands in a few churches by a bishop’s permission, the classic BCP is no longer the Formulary of the Church.

In May 2004, the Church of Ireland will begin to use its own new Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Church of Ireland. Unlike the West Indian Book but like the American Book (and also like the English Common Worship) it contains Rites both in traditional and contemporary language. Thus there are two basic forms of the Service of Holy Communion, one based on the text of the BCP of 1662 and one following the modern structure and contents. The latter has three Eucharistic Prayers and many variations for season and circumstance. The former has dropped the use of “the Holy Ghost” preferring “the Holy Spirit”. Also there are two basic forms of Morning & Evening Prayer, one based on the BCP 1662 and one similar to the modern Rite in the American & West Indian Prayer Books.

At the official website of the Irish Church we read that: “The Church is again to have one unifying Book of Common Prayer, including within its covers material in both traditional and contemporary language. It is to be hoped that parishes which hitherto have worshipped more or less exclusively in one idiom will now, at least occasionally, try out material which is in a different style to what they normally experience.” Here the conversion of the title “Book of Common Prayer” is fully evident. There was a time not long ago when the Irish Church had one Prayer Book, its own edition of the basic BCP of 1662. This went through two editions, those of 1871 and 1926. Then came the era of trial, experimental and new services during which time the Irish Church produced the Alternative Prayer Book (1984) and then the Alternative Occasional Services (1993). Now selections from the two streams, the BCP & the innovative, are bound together into one volume and the old, traditional name of The Book of Common Prayer is used for the new collection. This new Book also becomes the chief Formulary of the Irish Church.

I predict that this trend – of pirating the name – will soon be taken up by provinces in Africa and Asia. When this occurs, the historic use of the title The Book of Common Prayer will be used only by a tiny minority in the British Isles, North America and Australia. We must act now to prevent the growth of this regrettable development!

January 1 2004