Last week it was my privilege to attend the Prayer Book Society USA's two and a half day 2018 Conference in historic Savannah Georgia. I was there last year as well, and while this year's attendance was smaller than last year's, I think the overall quality of the papers presented was better than those I heard in 2017.
We met at St. John's Episcopal Church in Savannah whose keeping and teaching of the Faith allows me to use the word, "church" in the same breath as the word "Episcopal", something I have not been able to do of late. St. John's has stuck to the 1928 American Prayer Book and the 1940 Episcopalian Hymnal for use in worship, and this makes them an odd duck in the Episcopal organization. Their average Sunday attendance of 400 souls in 2016 is very healthy by Episcopal standards, but it is down from over 500 in 2006.
I took some notes which I will share with you over the next few weeks.
The theme for the 2018 Conference was, "The Prayer Book: Doctrine Liturgy and Life"
Beginning on Wednesday afternoon, the Presidential Address,
Everything changed in 1970 after an entirely new Roman Catholic lectionary, the OLM, was introduced. The Common Lectionary (CL) began being adopted by Protestant churches and found its way into the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer in 1979. In 1992 the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) was published and is used by many denominations and Episcopal churches today..
The aim of the CL and the RCL was to increase the amount of scripture read by creating a three year cycle instead of the earlier lectionaries' one year cycle. What we lost was continuity and repetition as well as significant chunks of teaching (as documented many times on this lowly blog). The RCL also disconnects the Old Testament reading and the Epistle from the Gospel selection leading to a lack of cohesiveness and teachable points. One example of the loss of chunks of scripture is the loss of much of Romans Chapters 1, 2, and 3 which contain teachings on condemnation without which there is little need for the instructions on justification by faith to be found in subsequent chapters. "The RCL presents a buffet service of the Bible, the quantity is larger but the quality is not so good."
In summary, the RCL is like a multipurpose kitchen gadget that tries to do a lot of things well but does not do any of them well enough.
This was followed by,
The idea that we do not need to have the requirement for repentance recited on a daily or weekly basis in our Prayer Book puts us in the same position as the secularists, "They are not led by God to think they might be wrong".
Following Evening Prayer (1928) there was a reception at the adjacent Green Meldrim House which was General William Tecumseh Sherman's headquarters when the Federal army occupied Savannah during the Civil War .
Following that, those who didn't get their fill at the reception retreated to their favorite restaurant for dinner.
Thus endeth the first day.
We met at St. John's Episcopal Church in Savannah whose keeping and teaching of the Faith allows me to use the word, "church" in the same breath as the word "Episcopal", something I have not been able to do of late. St. John's has stuck to the 1928 American Prayer Book and the 1940 Episcopalian Hymnal for use in worship, and this makes them an odd duck in the Episcopal organization. Their average Sunday attendance of 400 souls in 2016 is very healthy by Episcopal standards, but it is down from over 500 in 2006.
I took some notes which I will share with you over the next few weeks.
The theme for the 2018 Conference was, "The Prayer Book: Doctrine Liturgy and Life"
Beginning on Wednesday afternoon, the Presidential Address,
“The Ancient Catholic Lectionaryat the heart of a Reformed Liturgy”.was delivered by the Revd. Fr. Gavin Dunbar, President of the Prayer Book Society. He spoke about the ancient origins of lectionaries. Continuous reading of the Gospel may have been the custom with the exception of Easter when a "proper" lesson fitting the season would be selected. In post-Nicene Rome, the Bishop selected the scripture. By the end of the 6th century, non-continuous reading was becoming common with scriptures befitting each liturgical season. By the 8th century, readings, chants, and prayers were formalized as seen in the Romano-Frankish lectionary. The Papal court was one exception.
Everything changed in 1970 after an entirely new Roman Catholic lectionary, the OLM, was introduced. The Common Lectionary (CL) began being adopted by Protestant churches and found its way into the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer in 1979. In 1992 the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) was published and is used by many denominations and Episcopal churches today..
The aim of the CL and the RCL was to increase the amount of scripture read by creating a three year cycle instead of the earlier lectionaries' one year cycle. What we lost was continuity and repetition as well as significant chunks of teaching (as documented many times on this lowly blog). The RCL also disconnects the Old Testament reading and the Epistle from the Gospel selection leading to a lack of cohesiveness and teachable points. One example of the loss of chunks of scripture is the loss of much of Romans Chapters 1, 2, and 3 which contain teachings on condemnation without which there is little need for the instructions on justification by faith to be found in subsequent chapters. "The RCL presents a buffet service of the Bible, the quantity is larger but the quality is not so good."
In summary, the RCL is like a multipurpose kitchen gadget that tries to do a lot of things well but does not do any of them well enough.
This was followed by,
"Justification in Anglicanism and the Prayer Book"delivered by the Rt. Revd. C. Fitzsimons Allison, Retired Bishop of South Carolina. Fitz described the definition of and the importance of repentance. Repentance is "a renewal of love" (Ashley Null) and is a change of heart not a change of mind. We cannot understand justification without repentance and vice versa. Older Prayer Books contained a stronger message of the need for repentance. When this language is removed or watered down as we see in the 1979 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, we can easily fall under the spell of the Pelagian heresy. To quote Fitz, "Pelagianism is the banana peel on the cliff of Unitarianism."
The idea that we do not need to have the requirement for repentance recited on a daily or weekly basis in our Prayer Book puts us in the same position as the secularists, "They are not led by God to think they might be wrong".
Following Evening Prayer (1928) there was a reception at the adjacent Green Meldrim House which was General William Tecumseh Sherman's headquarters when the Federal army occupied Savannah during the Civil War .
Following that, those who didn't get their fill at the reception retreated to their favorite restaurant for dinner.
Thus endeth the first day.
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Thanks for your report. I look forward to the sequel.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, the Sunday lectionary in the 1928 BCP is mostly ancient, as are a large number of the collects. They form, over the course of the year, a coherent Gospel story.
Cranmer supplemented this with a daily lectionary, which if followed takes the faithful through most of the Bible in one year.
The RCL tries to repair the fact that most people today don't read the Bible regularly, but it sacrifices the coherent Gospel message.
I agree. The enemy is us. We need to read and re-read the Bible on a daily basis especially if we are not doing the daily offices.
DeletePewster,
ReplyDeleteThanks, I believe the 1928 BCP was the best of our prayer books.
It is going to be hard to top. ACNA may be rushing it a bit if they think they can do it quickly.
DeleteAnd there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
ReplyDelete"Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen." - 1928 BCP Daily Morning Prayer
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between the 1928 and the 1979 is stark when we look at reverence, acknowledgment of sin, and prayers for repentance. I was a frog in warm water with the heat being turned up when the new book came in. Rite 1 wasn't so bad, I thought. But we gradually started using it less, and the implications of the lectionary change, which our Pewster so clearly points out, are large.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst changes was the baptismal rite. How many times have we seen radicals saying that some political agenda or other which embraces heresy is the living out of our "baptismal covenant?"