Collects, the Relative Clause and the 3rd person.

Many of the Collects in The Book of Common Prayer (1662), as in the Latin Missal, make use of the relative clause in the address to God as a reverent means of recalling before God aspects of his revelation, attributes, character or will before making the petition. For example, “ O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only-begotten Son to the Gentiles: …”

With the advent from the 1960s of “you” for the second person singular, the use of the relative clause in this manner has virtually ceased. The reason is that in most circumstances it is judged to sound strange and awkward. (One person stated: “In contemporary usage such – originally Latin – syntax cannot be employed without incongruity.”) So it has usually been replaced by the structure, “O God, by a star you led the wise men….” One problem with this style is that it sounds as though God is being told what he already well knows and thus it may be judged an irreverent address by sensitive hearts.

Around 1970 in South Africa, Leonard Lanham, professor of Linguistics and Phonetics at the University of Witwatersrand and a prominent member of the Liturgical Committee of the Anglican Church of the Province, persuaded that Committee and sought to persuade the Liturgical Commission in England of a new way of using the relative clause.

He argued for the use of the relative clause introduced by “who” with the third person verb, although retaining the second person in the rest of the prayer. For example, “Almighty God, who has taught us, give us…” It was his argument that this form was a paraphrase of, “You, Almighty God, who has taught us…”, and that “usage rather than traditional grammar” is to be followed here. (His correspondence with the Liturgical Commission is in the records of the Commission at Church House.)

Apart from the Modern Collects (1972) published in South Africa , another source where this Lanham technique may be seen is in some of the Collects of the Book of Common Prayer for Wales (1984) – see Septuagesima & Trinity 20 for example.

Apparently there had been a debate in the USA amongst Roman Catholics and some Anglicans in the 1960s concerning “You who…” Jokes were common about “The You-Who Missal” which sought to follow traditional Latin syntax and employed the style, “Almighty God, you who have taught us, give us….”. It is perhaps to be regretted that the “You who” form has not been followed by modern Roman Catholic translators of the Missal and Breviary.

[Note that in his important essay “The Question of Style” Ian Robinson has some important comments on “You who” and he shows that it is commonplace in novels and plays. See The Real Common Worship, edited by Peter Mullen, Edgeways Books, 2000, pp.99ff. ISBN 0-907839-67-3]

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