The Apostolic Succession is the lifeline that keeps the Anglican Church joined to Christ and the whole Catholic Church which He instituted, the Body of Christ. The Book of Common Prayer has preserved for the Anglican Church the whole Catholic Faith as it has been handed down from the Apostles. The Prayer Book is a unique feature of Anglicanism.
In 1534, King Henry the VIII, the King of England, separated the Church of England from the Church of Rome. He did so in order to save (as he saw it) his country by preserving the kingdom. His first wife could not have a son. Without a son, no rightful heir would come to England's throne. The Bishop of Rome forbade King Henry from putting away his first wife and re-marrying, although his first marriage was actually illegal according to Church law. Many people in England were also tired of paying taxes to Rome. At the time, the Pope was a king, a political ruler who required people to pay him taxes if they wished to remain in communion with him. The Pope directed the affairs of the English Church from abroad. With the support of many English people, and by act of the English Parliament, the ancient Church in England separated herself from the Bishop of Rome and began to reform herself. The Church King Henry separated from Rome existed before the Reformation. She has existed since the first century. She is Apostolic and she is ancient. King Henry did not form a new Church at all. He introduced the independence of the ancient Church of the English people.
The Church of England was not a new Church - she was the old Catholic Church in England, which was renewed and restored to earlier and more biblical doctrines and practices. 'Where was your face before you washed it?' Part of the reform of the English Church was allowing Bishops, Priests and Deacons to marry. Another reform was returning the reading and study of Scripture to the people in their own language. Another was the restoration of Holy Communion for the laity under both kinds or forms of Bread and Wine. Yet another, most importantly, was the recovered emphasis on the primacy and authority of Holy Scripture as containing all things necessary to salvation. Another reform was the restoring of the worship of the Church to the people in their own language. Before, it had been in Latin. During the reign of King Edward VI, King Henry the VIII's son, in 1549, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, compiled a book of prayers which includes all the essential services of the Christian Church. The Book of Common Prayer is a Catholic book, because it contains the prayers, rites and ceremonies of the Catholic Church. It is in English so that English-speaking people can understand it and use it in worship. The Prayer Book has preserved the Faith during many hard times in Church history, when people tried to change or even destroy the teaching of the Church of England.
Even when people have tried to impose their own false views on the Prayer Book, it has served to keep together what the Church actually believes. In fact, some people have kept on using the Prayer Book even when they have not believed what it teaches. The Prayer Book contains the official teaching of the Church. Next to the Holy Bible, the Book of Common Prayer is the authority for what Anglicans believe, teach and pray. It is the great responsibility of the Church to make sure that nothing is taught about the Christian Faith which is contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the Book of Common Prayer.
The Church and Prayer Book teach and the Bible proves truth. Anglicans have been able to keep right doctrine (which we call ORTHODOXY) throughout the centuries because of their love of the Prayer Book. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1500s, people who believed the errors taught by a man named John Calvin were corrected by the Prayer Book - as the reformed Catholic Settlement was established. When Puritans, who rejected the Catholic nature of the Church, attacked the King and the Church of England in the 1600s, it was the Prayer Book which preserved and saved for Anglicans the Catholic Faith. In the 1700s the Prayer Book's teaching was ignored by many people - but it remained an unchanged witness to the truth. In the 1800s, the Book of Common Prayer produced the Catholic Revival, which caused the rebirth of Anglicanism. In the 1900s, the Church struggled to preserve the Prayer Book and did so in the Continuing Church. We keep the Prayer Book to this day.
Here are the important versions of the Book of Common Prayer:
1.1549 (English) - compiled by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
2.1552 (English) - never officially accepted by the Church
3.1559 (English) - the Prayer Book of the Elizabethan Settlement
4.1604 (English) - a slight revision made by King James I
5.1637 (Scottish) - issued by Saint Charles I King and Martyr and Blessed William Laud, Archbishop
6.1662 (English) - restored with the Church, official Book of the Church of England
7.1764 (Scottish) - official Book of the Scottish Episcopal Church
8.1789 (American) - first Book of the American Church, based on the Scottish Book
9.1892 (American) - updated version for the American Church
10.1928 (American) - official Book of the Continuing Church
The history of the Prayer Book is really the history of the Anglican Church. In addition to the Book of Common Prayer, Traditional Anglicans also use the Missals, which provide extra collects, epistle readings, and Gospel readings for weekday Masses and special Feast Days.
5 comments:
IMHO, I would add the Canadian 1962 as the last, solid, official edition of the Book of Common Prayer.
As for unofficial versions, the English 1928 belongs -- but the Alternative Service Book produce by Good Shepherd Rosemont is still, in my opinion, the very best Philorthodox Anglican book based on the BCP every produced.
I'm in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, and so use the 1962.
It ought to be noted, however much one may love the BCP and esteem its merits, it has fatal flaws, which have yet to be addressed by any reviser. Most notably is the omission of all supplications to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 100 years after the publication of the 1549 the King of England lost his head. Compare that with the King of France who lost his head 100 years after refusing to have his nation consecrated to the Sacred Heart as requested.
There is tremendous beauty and depth in every ancient Christian Rite, and while we may prefer our own, we do well to be open to others. I could give up the BCP Rite of Mass in exchange for the Traditional Latin Rite as it seems to me a much fuller and appropriate expression of what we mean. However, the Offices of Mattins and Evensong are irreplaceable, albeit we supplement them according to ancient usages up here as alone they can be a bit spartan and puritanesque.
Does not the original, 1549 BCP have a supplication to the BVM in the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ's Church?
And just for diversity of view point, though I see no problem with the Gregorian Canon -- in fact I think it superior to all Anglican Canons -- IMHO, the Counter-Reformation spirituality, which is captured in Tridentine Missal (with Fortesque's ceremonial) is far gone from Apostolic Christianity, as it over emphasizes the Passion (and vastly under emphasizes the Resurrection) as an element of Atonement through Christ. I have in mind here, by way of example. the change from Holy Rood's uniformly adorned with the Christus Rex to those with Christ in Agony, that occurred in the British High Middle Ages and was reaffirmed with a vengeance in the Counter-Reformation. [And, on the secondary matter, I am not sure whether, were I faced with the false dilemma of post-Renaissance images and iconoclasm, which way I would go; because the pre-schism Byzantine and Romanesque spiritually stylized iconography strikes me as the obvious solution of the wise 7th Council. ]
In sum, form my phil-Orthodox p.o.v, I would prefer either the Gregorian Canon, or better yet, the Canons of St. Basil, which I believe is the very best of our Tradition, within the BCP Ordinary (with Cranmer's original invocation of Mary) as well as Dearmer's "New Sarum" ceremonial to escape the imbalanced aspects of Counter-Reformation spirituality and renew a Resurrection spirituality in the West (which is NOT the same thing as VII, I'm-OK-your-OK sociological ethos).
Death Bredon, the 1549 has a brief mention of the Blessed Virgin. Not the same thing as a supplication - a prayer directly addressed to Her as intercessor. In all the whole BCP there is never a prayer addressed to any other than Father Son or Holy Ghost from then until now.
I personally nurture a deeply Marian spirituality, and find it essential for my own life of grace. Mary has truly been a Mother to me, and it is to Her intervention and intercession that I credit any graces manifested in my life.
"Our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope..."
Br. D-M,
Thanks you for the explanation. I learn something new every day! Deo Gratia.
I'd have to do a thorough examination of the Byzantine Communion Rite, but I don't recall off hand any direct, intercessory prayers in the Ordinary to Mary, but rather prayers of comprecation, and many laudatory "calling to remembrance" references. I would not be surprised if Cranmer had this example in mind when drafting the 1549 Mass.
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