The Anglican Service Book (1991): A Source for the New ACNA Eucharistic Rites

By Robin G. Jordan

When the basic rite of The Holy Communion, Long Form, and The Holy Communion, Short Form, in Texts for Common Prayer are compared with the basic rite of the Holy Eucharist in The Anglican Service Book (1991), the similarity of the two rites are remarkable. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, offers this description of The Anglican Service Book:

 The Anglican Service Book is an edition in traditional language of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church (United States). The book was adapted from the 1979 version as well as other sources such as the Anglican Missal, the Sarum Missal and the Book of Occasional Services. The rubrics of the 1979 book allow for such a work without providing all of the necessary texts. The book is offered to facilitate worship in the traditional language of Anglicanism. The Anglican Service Book is published by the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. The book is principally used by Anglo-Catholics.

First published in 1991, The Anglican Service Book went through its fourth printing in 2007. An online edition of The Anglican Service Book may be found here.

Both the basic rite of the Holy Eucharist in The Anglican Service Book (1991) and basic rite of the eucharistic rites in Texts for Common Prayer are adaptations of the Holy Eucharist, Rite One, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Both incorporate liturgical material from the Roman Mass. The principal differences between the two rites are that The Anglican Service Book uses Tudor English and Texts for Common Prayer, contemporary English. Texts for Common Prayer also adopts the Roman position of the Kyries and the Gloria in Excelsis in the introductory rites and the Roman position of the epiclesis in the Eucharistic Prayer. There are other differences but they do not lessen the remarkable similarity of the two rites.

Like Texts for Common Prayer, The Anglican Service Book (1991) provides further evidence of the movement of the American Prayer Book tradition in the direction of unreformed Catholicism. The Anglican Service Book contains the Asperges and the Vidi Aquam, the Absolution of the Dead, the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Walsingham Blessing—a Form for the Blessing with Water from the Holy Well of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Another service book that appears to have influenced Texts for Common Prayer is the Book of Common Prayer 2011. This service book was compiled by the Rev. Keith Acker for trial use by the Reformed Episcopal Church and for liturgical review by the Anglican Church in North America. Acker is an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church’s Diocese of the West. He is a member of Forward in Faith North America and the Order of the Holy Cross, two organizations committed to the promotion of Catholic faith, order, and practice in the Anglican Church.

The basic rite of Holy Communion in Common Prayer 2011 and the basic rite of the eucharistic rites in Texts for Common Worship are remarkably similar. In Holy Communion in Common Prayer 2011, as in the eucharistic rites in Texts for Common Prayer, the Summary of the Law must be read on all Sundays and feast days, except those on which the Ten Commandments are read. Common Prayer 2011 also adopts the Roman position of the Kyries and the Gloria in Excelsis in the introductory rites. The Salutation, “The Lord be with you; and with your spirit,” must be used before the Collect of the Day and at the beginning of the Sursum Corda. After the Agnus Dei the priest (with the deacon) holds up the elements and invites the people with these words, “BEHOLD, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Common Prayer 2011 is additional proof of the movement of the American Prayer Book tradition in the direction of unreformed Catholicism.

If the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is serious in its commitment to the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies, the organization needs to reassess and rethink its recognition and support of the Anglican Church in North America. As former Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola pointed out, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” He was quoting Amos 3:3, and was referring to the Episcopal Church and the global South Anglican provinces.

The passage of Scripture Archbishop Akinola quoted also has bearing upon the relationship between the Anglican Church in North America and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. The ACNA is, under its present leadership, moving in the direction of unreformed Catholicism. The GFCA is calling the Anglican Church back to the Bible and the Anglican formularies, to the Protestant Reformed faith of authentic historic Anglicanism. By now it should be quite clear that ACNA and the GFCA are not on the same page. They are definitely NOT agreed!

Photo: The Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, PA