Up to the late 1960s and often well into the 70s, the LORD our God was addressed by virtually everyone in public prayer in divine worship, in extempore prayer at mid-week services, in family prayers and privately as “Thou.”
From the late 1960s Bible translations (e.g., NIV) and Liturgies appeared which addressed God as “You” and (in that revolutionary cultural era) people began to think that we should all address God as we address one another, as “You.” To do so was to be relevant and open to evangelism and mission. So-called “experts” told us that in using “You” we were really doing what was done in earlier times, for then people addressed each other as “Thou.”
However, since the whole of the English heritage of prayer and devotion (from the Middle Ages to the 1960s) is and remains in the “Thou-Thee” form, it has not been easy to lose this form altogether, even when big efforts have been made to do so. Many hymns do not easily change into the “You” form of address and the Lord’s Prayer still seems only right when it prays, “hallowed be Thy Name.”
In the late 1970s the Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church USA wanted a Prayer Book that was wholly “You”; but conservatism in the Church required that they include a section of “Thou” [Rite 1] prayer. However, a little later, the Prayer Book of the West Indies (in part modeled on the USA book of 1979) used only “You.” New liturgies of the Episcopal Church since 1979 have all been in the “You” mode.
So what we have today is a majority of clergy which believes that God should be addressed as “You” (in order to be relevant and meaningful) and this is their habitual way of speaking to God when they pray. However, they are prepared to sing hymns and use bits of ancient devotion and liturgy or anthems which still (to them or their congregations) sound best or right in the “Thou” form.
There are a few Ministers and laity left who still use “Thou” out of conviction and understanding for the whole of the services which they conduct and share in; and there are some churches which use only the traditional language in hymnody and public prayer.
How does one tell whether or not a Minister is wholly committed to the use of the historic, classic, English form and way of prayer? The answer is simple: He will address God devoutly as “Thou” not only when using a public liturgy and hymn book and reading ser prayers, but he will also address God as “Thou” when he says grace, when he visits the sick, when he is called upon to lead in prayer, and when he says his own prayers in the solitude of his heart. And he will be prepared to give not only a linguistic and grammatical justification, but a theological one as well! (See the book named below for details.)
Any Minister, who uses the traditional form in public prayer, and who then changes to the modern form on other occasions, is not really committed at all to the historic form of English prayer! Rather, he may be said to be not against it, but only partially for it, since when he is free to choose, he chooses to address God as “You.” Regrettably this seems to apply to most evangelical Episcopal and Anglican clergy in 2005.
[For a readable and serious study of the English language of prayer, see Peter Toon and Louis Tarsitano, Neither Archaic not Obsolete, 2003, available from www.anglicanmarketplace.com or from (UK) www.edgewaysbooks.com or call 1-800-727-1928]
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
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