Those who seek to commend and defend the received Anglican Way with its tradition of Common Prayer are an isolated group within the western/northern provinces of the Anglican Communion of Churches. On the one hand, the apologetic that they produce and the positive presentations that they offer are apparently rarely noticed – by design or by accident – both by those who belong to another tradition of worship & piety (e.g., the modern liberal, evangelical, charismatic, anglo-catholic use of modern liturgies and styles), and, surprisingly perhaps, by those who claim to be within and support the tradition of Common Prayer, using the classic editions of the BCP.
Let us ponder this for a moment!
First, those who apparently have no interest in the classic BCP. The attitude of some, who lead those who use modern texts and styles for worship, seems to be – “what these traditionalists write belongs to another age and we do not need to read it, even less to begin to answer it.” And where the few in these camps actually do begin to read the apologetic and recognize that there are serious considerations and arguments in favour of the traditional liturgies and style, then by an act of will they decide to put all such thoughts from their minds in order to stay comfortably where they are. The net result in these camps is that those who defend and commend traditional faith, liturgy and style are generally treated as “non-persons” by fellow Christians; it is as though they do not exist. It has even been suggested that they are like those in the final stages of degenerative disease and should be left to die in peace.
Second, those who claim to be supporters of the Common Prayer. It is a strange and disappointing fact that few of those who claim to love The Book of Common Prayer and to be within the tradition of Common Prayer actively & practically support those who, from within their own tradition, seek to offer an apologetic for, and expositions of, the tradition of Common Prayer. It is not as though these many persons are illiterate for they are usually middle-class and reasonably well educated. Rather, it seems to be that they are satisfied if they get their local Sunday service from the BCP; and in getting this they do not see that they have any part in the defence and commendation of the tradition of Common Prayer. If such is necessary then they can safely leave it to others. They apparently do not think of the real possibility that, if they actually buy what the Prayer Book Societies of England/Australia/Canada and the USA, together with other Publishers (e.g., Edgeways Books) produce to propagate this Cause, then they not only encourage those publishers and authors, but they also keep the unit cost per book down and make it more probable and easier to produce further books/booklets/CD’s/tapes etc. Further, they seem to have no evangelistic or missionary sense in that they do not obtain copies to give to their local priest or lay leader.
Perhaps, it will be the joy of a future generation to appreciate what a few members of this generation are doing to commend, defend and propagate the tradition of Common Prayer and to wonder why what they produced in book, booklet, tape, video and CD was so little valued especially by those within this Anglican Way who claimed to love the BCP!
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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