The Anglican Tradition of Common Prayer – Part 2

Do we need the Book of Common Prayer to further the Great Commission?

While giving thought to this question, I saw in my mind’s eye the image of a carpenter’s chest that my grandfather used to own and which he donated to a museum along with the tools it contained. It had belonged to a ship’s carpenter and contained all the tools that he might have needed onboard a ship—saws, levels, drill bits, drill braces, planes, hammers, chisels, files, rasps, sharpening stones, and other tools. With these tools he was not only able to make vital repairs but was able to replace parts of the ship at sea. If he was cast on shore with his tools, he could have also used them to build a comfortable shelter for himself and other castaways or even a small boat. All he needed was a supply of wood. If he had been cast on shore with just a knife, he might have been able construct a rude shelter or a raft. But he would not have been able to do as much as he would have done with the right tools.

First, I must acknowledge that we do not need a Prayer Book to further the Great Commission. Chinese Christians have been carrying out the Great Commission without even Bibles. When they have Bibles, they are able to accomplish more but the lack of Bibles has not kept them from obeying our Lord’s commission to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that our Lord has commanded. They do the best that they can with the tools that are available to them.

With the Bible the Book of Common Prayer has played not only an important role in worship for Anglicans but also in catechizing young people and instructing adults. As Anglicans have always recognized, what we pray also shapes what we believe. Episcopalians in the United States, it must be admitted, are not particularly noted for their evangelistic zeal. When one examines the 1928 and 1979 American Prayer Books, one finds a few prayers for mission and a reference to mission of the church in their respective catechisms but that is the extent of the focus of these books upon evangelism and missions.

On the other hand, when one examines the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Our Modern Services, one discovers a strong emphasis upon evangelism and missions in the seasonal collects, the content of the services, for example, the commissioning of evangelists and the admitting of lay readers, the catechism, and the occasional prayers. One is left with a decided impression that fulfilling the Great Commission is a definite priority for the Anglican Church of Kenya and all Kenyan Anglicans are expected to do their part. On the ground in Kenya the practice of the Anglican Church is congruent with what it preaches in Our Modern Services.

A Prayer Book admittedly cannot make North American Anglicans into missionaries wherever God has put them but a Prayer Book with a strong emphasis upon evangelism and missions can reinforce the missionary impulse in them and help to form them as missionaries to their communities. A Prayer Book that is thoroughly Scriptural in its doctrine can help them in making disciples and in teaching them everything that Christ commanded, including going into all the world and proclaiming the gospel to the whole creation.

God can also use a Prayer Book with a lot of Scriptural content in the same way that he uses the Bible—to impact the individual, the congregation, and the church. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer contains no prayers for mission and its catechism makes no mention of the central task of the Church. However, its content is “the very pure word of God, the holy Scriptures or that which is agreeable to same.” As Samuel Leuenberger draws to our attention over and over again in Archbishop Cranmer’s Immortal Bequest, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is full of revivalistic theology. It is an evangelistic liturgy. Like my grandfather’s carpenter’s chest, it contains the basic tools that a ship’s carpenter needs.

The particular shortcoming of the 1662 Prayer Book—its dearth of prayers for mission and its catechism’s neglect of the Church’s central task—are easy enough to correct. As a ship’s carpenter might augment the tools in his chest with additional tools that he might need on his next sea voyage, we can augment the 1662 Prayer Book with additional prayers. My mother’s Teachers’ College produced a small collection of prayers to supplement the prayers of the 1662 Prayer Book. It is titled Prayers used in Hockerill College Chapel other than those contained in The Book of Common Prayer. It includes a selection of prayers for mission. Every parish or church can develop its own collection of supplementary prayers. E. Milner White’s After the Third Collect, Frank Colquhoun’s Parish Prayers, and John Wallace Suter, Jr.’s The Book of English Collects are on the Internet. The 1926 Irish Prayer Book and 1962 Canadian Prayer Book are also on the Internet.

The 1926 Irish Prayers and Thanksgivings include prayers for Christian missions abroad, for mission districts of the Home Church, for a parochial mission, and a thanksgiving for foreign missions. The 1926 Irish Litany contains this supplication, “That it may please thee to further the work of the Church in all the world, and to send forth labourers into thy harvest….” It follows the supplication for all bishops, priests, and deacons. The rubrics of the 1926 Irish Order for the Administration of Holy Communion permit the saying of one or more Collects after the Collect of the Day or before the Blessing at the discretion of the minister. These Collects include a prayer for missions. The saying of a prayer for mission after the Collect of the Day or before the Blessing is a commendable practice since it does not unduly lengthen the service as does the lamentable practice of saying prayers and other devotions after the Blessing and closing hymn. After the Blessing the service should come to a swift conclusion. The final hymn is to send the congregation forth into the world.

The 1962 Canadian Prayers and Thanksgivings include prayers for the extension of the Church, for the conversion of the Jews, for all missionary workers, for missionary societies, and for a parish mission and a thanksgiving for missions. The 1962 Canadian Litany includes this supplication, “…to send forth labourers into thy harvest; to prosper their work by thy Holy Spirit; to make thy saving health known to all nations, and hasten thy kingdom…” It follows the supplication for bishops, priests, and deacons. The rubrics before the Intercession of the 1962 Canadian Order of the Ministration of Holy Communion direct, “Then shall one of the Ministers ask the prayers of the people, using always either the first or the last of the following Biddings, together with one or more others if so desired; and he may provide short periods for silent prayer. Five biddings are given, including a bidding for prayer for missionaries, “Let us pray for our missionaries at home and abroad.” The Intercession contains this petition. “Prosper, we pray thee, all those who proclaim the Gospel of thy kingdom among the nations…” It follows the petition for bishops, priests, and deacons.

In planning his sermons, the minister of a parish or church can devote a number of the sermons to the central task of the Church and the role of Christ’s people. It may comes as a surprise to members of the congregation that God is a missionary God and he expects his people to be a missionary people. He has placed them where they are so that they can be missionaries to those around them. The minister can equip them for this work by training them in the practical skills they will need to be successful missionaries. These skills will not only make them effective missionaries but also better human beings. They may alter non-Christians’ perspective of Christians. Missionaries are not only messengers of good news, but they are also an important part of the message.

As Anglicans go into the world, they may gain a new appreciation of the Book of Common Prayer that they would have never gained if they had lingered in their churches. Those to whom they minister may gain an appreciation for the Prayer Book that they otherwise would not have gained. What is going to sell the Prayer Book in the twenty-first century is not the incomparable prose of Thomas Cranmer, his wedding of eloquent language and sound theology, but the spirituality that the Prayer Book nourishes. If Anglicans are mature loving Christians whose lives exemplify their Lord’s teaching and set a winsome example for others, their use of a Prayer Book with quaint, old-fashioned language may be viewed in a different light. It may lead to a reappraisal of the Prayer Book and Prayer Book worship. Whether it does or not what really matters is that Prayer Book churches produce mature loving Christians who have taken to heart our Lord’s Great Commission. They obey their Lord out of love for him and out of love for their fellow human beings for whose sins he died upon the cross and who do not know his redeeming love.

The reverse is also true. If Prayer Book churches produce self-centered, immature Christians who take a lackadaisical attitude toward the eternal destiny of their fellow human beings, and who are stunted trees bearing wizened bitter fruit, it will be seen as a telling indictment against the Book of Common Prayer.

In a future article I plan to examine a number of prayers from the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Our Modern Services and render these prayers into the language of the 1662 Prayer Book.