ASSIGNMENT

Assignment

Assignment

This paper examines the attempt by the Church of England during 1927 and 1928 to revise its Prayer Book. Yet, thankfully, some might say, what follows is not a study of Anglican liturgy. Rather, the primary interest of this thesis is the subject of identity. Alongside the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Prayer Book is the closest in Anglican terms to a statement or confession of faith. In the context of the 1920s, before which the Church had not altered its Prayer Book since 1662, revision brought the issue of identity sharply into focus. This occurred in two main ways. Firstly, revision was bound up with the ecclesiastical identity of the Church, both doctrinal and liturgical. As this chapter will explain, by the early twentieth century, the Church of England was divided by partisanship.

A symbol of an instinctive dependence of the Church of church of England in liturgical revision, which has sometimes displayed itself in the past as fearfulness that we, as a small church, might do the wrong thing! In the revisions of services in the 1980s and 1990s, the resultant Church of Ireland liturgies were often very similar to those of the Church of England, but usually with less variety, less novelty, and less theological “risk.”)

However, even with this carefulness, when the APB was introduced in 1984 it was not by any means universally welcomed. For many parishes—those which had used the experimental “booklets” produced between 1967 and 1984—the transition was smooth, and the desire to have a book again for Sunday worship was great. However, many of the new booklets were firmly resisted in more conservative parishes, and sections of the Orange Order condemned some of the new liturgies (especially the eucharistic liturgies) as Romish. This meant that they were firmly resisted by Select Vestries (who had no actual constitutional role in deciding forms of worship, but had great “moral” power in the parishes) in large sections especially of rural Ulster. Stories are still told of clergy who attempted to introduce the APB only to have Select Vestries refuse to pay for it, and people refuse to take the book, or to worship when it was being used. The 1926 Book of Common Prayer then became the symbol of all things “protestant” in these areas, and was held on to by some for grim death.

Churches therefore became either “BCP” parishes or “APB” parishes, and some, trying to steer a middle course with an emphasis on the word “Alternative” in the APB, tried to ride two horses at the same time. This led to a great deal of confusion about whether this was an “And also with you” Sunday or a “And with thy spirit” Sunday!

Alongside this, as the 1990s progressed, it became clear that several aspects of the revised services were wearing thin quite quickly. There was the obvious question of non-inclusive language in relation to people—oddly more pervasive in the “contemporary” liturgies—and a list of suitable amendments had to be issued by the Liturgical Advisory Committee to make ...