And is this legacy a root cause of the present distress of the ECUSA?
Many of us in America, who are committed to the Common Prayer Tradition of the Anglican Way and to the doctrine and ethos of Reformed Catholicism, naturally commend, defend and use sincerely and reverently the last American edition of Common Prayer, the BCP of 1928. However, this does not mean that we necessarily think it is the best edition of the BCP ever produced, or, importantly, that it is the best edition to use as the basis for a future, united, and renewed Anglican Reformed Catholicism in North America in the next decade. We use it as an edition of THE Book of Common Prayer and therefore interpret it within the continuity of editions of this One Book, whose first edition was in 1549.
And some of us face the possibility that, if the future of Reformed Catholicism in North America is to be linked with the Anglican Provinces of East and West Africa, then it will make more sense to return to the English edition of 1662 (or the 1962 Canadian editing of this). Why? Because the BCP 1662 is the most widely used edition in Africa and it has also been translated into 150 or more languages worldwide. In returning to this edition, it is understood, of course, that there will be need for use in the USA to change the references to the government and holidays and so on, and that there will be a few more options here and there to accommodate developments since 1662 in churchmanship.
So one reason to go back to the BCP 1662 (which was used in the Colonies for a long time) is fraternal relations with the brethren in Africa. Another reason will emerge as we proceed with this reflection.
When the Protestant Episcopal Church was formed in the 1780s, a dominant theology amongst its intellectual leadership was what we call “latitudinarianism” or “broad church”. And this made a strong impression on the editing of the Book of Common Prayer (1662) to create, after a bungled attempt, what we know now as the first American edition of the BCP in 1789. This edition is obviously like 1662 but it has the changes one would expect for use in a Republic. Further, and importantly for the future, it reveals its mild latitudinarian flavor in such things as the omission of the “third Creed” known as the Quincunque Vult or the Athanasian Creed, the changes to the Venite in Morning Prayer, the new Preface for Trinity Sunday, the reducing of the Preface in the Marriage Service concerning the purpose of holy matrimony, and the removal of “to obey” from the promise made by the woman, and so on. Further, it adopted the Scottish form of the Prayer of Consecration in the Order for Holy Communion.
It has been said that “the American Prayer Book as ratified by the first General Convention of the whole American Church in 1789 preserved the Church’s continuity with its inheritance without destroying its freedom of growth and development.” If we accept that some of the impetus for growth and development came from Scotland and some from eighteenth century latitudinarianism (within the context of Enlightenment thinking then powerful in the new Republic), then we can move on to suggest that the latter source, in its twentieth century manifestations, actually was a major contributor to major structural and doctrinal changes both in the American Prayer Book – that is, if we see the 1979 “Book of Common Prayer” as a late 20th century edition of the American Prayer Book – and also in the Church itself (now known as ECUSA not PECUSA). In other words, the 1979 Prayer Book has been a major means by which (or instrument through which) the Episcopal Church has moved away from the center of the Anglican Way to the sidelines, there to immerse itself in a denial of much of the received biblical and traditional Faith and Morals of the Catholic Church of God, as it continually embraced a series of innovations in worship, doctrine, morality and discipline.
It may be claimed that the impoverished Marriage Service of the American Prayer Book (1928 & 1979) did nothing to prevent and actually aided the growth of the divorce culture, of serial monogamy and same-sex unions in the ECUSA. It may also be claimed that the absence of the Athanasian Creed [and thus the absence of both a strong Trinitarian dogma and clear teaching on the Person of Christ from the American Prayer Book] opened the door for the entry of such doctrines as Panentheism, Modalism and Unitarianism on the one side, and Adoptianism and, Nestorianism on the other (all in suitably modern forms). Then it may be claimed that the general latitudinarian influence of this Prayer Book tradition allowed the weakening of the doctrine of sin and contributed to the denial of concupiscence and a bias towards evil in the human soul (needed for there to be a change in sexual morality and the loss of the doctrine of chastity).
As there is no obvious latitudinarian & Enlightenment influence within the BCP edition of 1662, and as the African Provinces are committed to this edition, then the proposal that it become the Formulary and the Standard of worship of any renewed, reformed Anglican Province is not without merit!
Of course, until the BCP 1662 is adopted by a renewed North American Anglicanism, those of us who use the BCP 1928 will do so fervently and reverently, but setting it doctrinally within the context of its being AN edition of the classic BCP and expression of Reformed Catholicism!
October 24, 2005 petertoon@msn.com
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