By Robin G. Jordan
A wealth of liturgical material is available on the Internet
for examination, comparison, adaptation, and use. The following list and
accompanying links is far from exhaustive. What I have included in this list
should give readers a slight idea as to what is available.
With the exception of The
Book of Common Prayer (1662), this liturgical material dates from the
mid-twentieth century on. I have included the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
because it is not only an authorized service book of a number of Anglican
Provinces but also it is a classical formulary of the Anglican Church. With the
Articles of Religion of 1571 and the Ordinal of 1661, it forms the doctrinal
standard of Anglicanism.
The two Books of Homilies can be included in this standard
as they expound upon the doctrine of the Articles of Religion (Article 11). The
Articles of Religion commend them as containing “a godly and wholesome Doctrine,
and necessary for these times” (Article 35).
The Jerusalem Declaration (2008) upholds the 1662 Book of
Common Prayer as “a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to
be translated and locally adapted for each culture.” Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today, the
official commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration, stresses that the 1662 Book
of Common Prayer is such a standard “because the principles it embodies are
fundamentally theological and biblical.” The 1662 Prayer Book also “provides a
standard by which other liturgies may be tested and measured." While we should
not expect liturgical uniformity throughout the global community of Anglican
Churches, we should expect to find a common theological basis.
A form of corporate worship bears a family resemblance to the 1662 Prayer Book in so far as it reflects the principles underlying the liturgy of that book. Only liturgies that reflect these principles stand in continuity with the 1662 Prayer Book. A liturgy may superficially resemble the 1662 Prayer Book such as use texts from that book but not reflect its underlying principles.
A form of corporate worship bears a family resemblance to the 1662 Prayer Book in so far as it reflects the principles underlying the liturgy of that book. Only liturgies that reflect these principles stand in continuity with the 1662 Prayer Book. A liturgy may superficially resemble the 1662 Prayer Book such as use texts from that book but not reflect its underlying principles.
Among the material that I have listed is material of
particular interest because it illustrates how a number of Anglican provinces
have responded to the particular challenges of developing a liturgy or Prayer
Book. This includes dramatic shifts in the culture of a particular Anglican
province. In a number of cases it confirms my own observations about existing
and proposed rites and services of the Anglican Church in North America or
shows alternative ways of wording a rite or service.
I have also included in the list The Book of Divine Worship, which adapts a number of Episcopal
rites and services for use in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Book of Common
Prayer The Church of England—1662
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the third revision of the
1552 Book of Common Prayer, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s reformed vernacular
liturgy, which represents the mature thinking of the man who has been described
as the architect of the English Reformation. In The Shape of the Liturgy Anglo-Catholic liturgist Dom Gregory Dix
begrudgingly acknowledges:
"Compared with the clumsy and formless rites which were evolved abroad, that of 1552 is the masterpiece of an artist. Cranmer gave it a noble form as a superb piece of literature, which no one could say of its companions; but he did more. As a piece of liturgical craftsmanship it is in the first rank-once its intention is understood. It is not a disordered attempt at a catholic rite, but the only effective attempt ever made to give liturgical expression to the doctrine of 'justification by faith alone'."
Historically the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the
widest-used Prayer Book in the global community of Anglican Churches. The 1662
Prayer Book has been translated into numerous languages. It has been described
as the “classical Anglican Prayer Book.”
Online at:
The People’s Order of
the Mass and Other Prayers—1965
This publication dates from the beginning of the episcopate
of Bernard Markham who was Lord Bishop of Nassau and the Bahamas from 1962 to
1972. It reveals the strong influence of Anglo-Catholicism in the West Indies. Compare
the Order of Mass with the trial services of Holy Communion in the Anglican
Church in North America’s Texts for Common Prayer.
Occasional Offices
Church of the Province of Papua New Guinea—1976
Compare the Form for the Admission of
Catechumens with the proposed rite for the Admission of Catechumens of the Anglican Church in North America.
The Holy Eucharist:
The Liturgy for the Proclamation of the Word of God and Celebration of the Holy
Communion The Church of the Province of Central Africa—1976
Note the prayers at the offertory in this order for the
Eucharist. They are taken from the Roman Missal and are an example of the
unnecessary accretions that this ancillary rite has a propensity to accumulate.
They are entirely superfluous, add nothing to the service, give unwarranted
emphasis to the offertory, and draw attention away from the high point of the
liturgy of the Table—the sharing of bread and wine in obedience to Christ’s
command, ”Do this in remembrance of me.”The offertory, also known as the
presentation of the gifts and the preparation of the Table should not be
allowed to overshadow the setting apart and distribution of the communion
elements.
Two other ancillary rites in the Eucharist share this
propensity. They are the entrance rite and the closing rite.
Among the effects of the accumulation of unnecessary
accretions in the entrance rite is that the liturgy does not get off to a good
start and proceeds at an avoidable slow pace. This can throw off the whole flow
of the service. Among the effects of the accumulation of unnecessary accretions
in the closing rite is that they can drag out the end of the service, which
should come to a swift conclusion after the distribution of communion.
The result is that the congregation experiences the service
as being tiresomely long and drawn-out. First-time worship visitors may choose
not to return for a second visit.
Arguments like “this is a part of our worship” will not persuade them to
come back again.
An Australian Prayer
Book The Anglican Church of Australia--1978
An Australian Prayer
Book (1978) was designed to supplement the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and
not to replace it. For the Anglican Church of Australia the 1662 Book of Common
Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles are “the controlling standard of doctrine
and worship.”
The compilers of An Australian Prayer Book adopted two lines
of revision—one conservative and the other radical. The rites and services
contained in An Australian Prayer Book
reflect both lines of revision.
Among these rites and services are 1662 services of Morning
and Evening and Holy Communion in contemporary English. As well as two forms of
Morning and Evening Prayer, An Australia
Prayer Book contains an alternative form of morning and evening worship,
Another Order of Service for Prayer and the Hearing of God’s Word.
The Book of Common
Prayer The Episcopal Church—1979
This Prayer Book is the fourth Prayer Book adopted by the
Episcopal Church in its 200 hundred odd year history. While the 1979 Prayer
Book is a more substantial revision than its predecessor, the 1928 Prayer Book,
its compilers were following the precedent of the compilers of the 1928 Prayer
Book who introduced a number of radical changes into the American Prayer Book
with that revision.
Both books show the influence of the nineteenth century
Catholic Revival. The 1979 Prayer Book also shows the influence of the
Liturgical Movement.
Among the changes that the 1979 Prayer Book instituted was
the introduction of two rite for the most common services—Rite I in traditional
or Jacobean English and Rite II in contemporary English. The 1979 Prayer Book
also adopted the structure for the service of Holy Communion, recommended by
the 1958 Lambeth Conference.
The Episcopal Church did not appreciate the attachment of a
segment of its members to the 1928 Prayer Book and the extent of their dislike
of the new Prayer Book. Among the fallout of Prayer Book revision and women’s
ordination, which was approved at the 1976 General Convention, the same General
Convention that gave the 1979 Prayer Book its initial approval, was an exodus of those Episcopalians who were
the unhappiest with these changes. The present-day Continuing Anglican Churches
can be traced to this exodus.
On a personal note I drifted away from the Episcopal Church
before the turmoil of Prayer Book revision and returned to the denomination six
years after this exodus. One of the things that drew me back to the Episcopal
Church in the mid-1980s was its use of contemporary English in its liturgy. I
had three elementary school age girls in tow who unlike myself had never been
exposed to the traditional or Jacobean English of the 1662 and 1928 Prayer
Books or the King James Bible. I had learned the language of the 1662 Prayer
Book and King James Bible as a second language from infancy. In the England of
my childhood it was one of three languages a child learned—the King’s English,
or Standard English; Prayer Book English; and the local dialect.
The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is not only used in the
Episcopal Church in the United States and the Convocation of Episcopal Churches
in Europe but also in the Charismatic Episcopal Church, the Communion of the
Convergence Anglican Church, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, and the
Anglican Church in North America.
The Charismatic Episcopal Church and the Communion of the
Convergence Anglican Church are denominations connected to the convergence
movement. The Anglican Mission in the Americas and the Anglican Church in North
America are breakaway groups that seceded from the Episcopal Church due to the
ascendancy of liberalism in the denomination, its departure from biblical
teaching, and its normalization of homosexuality. The latter is evidenced in
the denomination’s ordination of practicing homosexuals, its consecration of an
openly gay man to the episcopate, its blessing of same sex relationships, and
its advocacy of gay marriage.
The 1979 Prayer Book influenced the liturgies of a number of
Anglican provinces. It is the most widely-used service book in the Anglican
Church in North America.
Alternative Service
Book 1980 The Church of England—1980
Only the Calendar and Rules to Order the Service, General
Notes, Morning and Evening Prayer, the Order for Holy Communion Rite A,
Initiation Services, and the Liturgical Psalter of the Alternative Service Book
1980 are available on the Internet. The Order for Holy Communion Rite A
includes the four eucharistic prayers of the rite and its appendices, which include
the Proper Prefaces, the Commandments, variations of the Kyrie Eleison, a fifth
eucharistic prayer, and a number of alternative or additional texts.
Online at: http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/asb/
Scottish Liturgies
The Scottish Episcopal Church—1982, pre-1982, and post-1982
A number of liturgies are available for download on the
Scottish Episcopal Church website in PDF and Word format. Among these liturgies
are Scottish
Liturgy 1929, also known as the Scottish Communion Office, several editions
of Scottish Liturgy 1982, Scottish Ordinal 1984, Holy Baptism 2006, Affirmation of Holy Baptism 2006, Marriage Liturgy 2007, and Service
of the Word 2011.
Anglican Church of
Canada Liturgical Texts Online—1985 and later
The Book of
Alternative Services (1985), Occasional
Celebrations (1992) Supplementary
Eucharistic Prayers, Services of the Word, and Night Prayer (2001), and
other supplementary resources are available for download on the Anglican Church
of Canada website. The Book of Alternative Services “has become the primary
worship text for Sunday services and other major liturgical celebrations of the
Anglican Church of Canada. The Book of Common Prayer (1962) of the Anglican Church of Canada is also
available for download. It remains the official Prayer Book of the Anglican
Church of Canada.
One of the better features of The Book of Alternative Services is its flexible structure for services
of Morning and Evening Prayer. It is suitable for the Sunday service of both
large and small congregations. It is particularly friendly to the needs of
house-church congregations in remote area. It permits the adaption of the
services of Morning and Evening Prayer to the circumstances of the persons, the
place, and the occasion.
Service of Holy
Communion Anglican Church of Kenya—1989
This service of Holy Communion was incorporated into Our Modern Service (2002, 2003), which
is a good example of the application of the principle of cultural adaptation.
Among the notable features of the service’s eucharistic prayer is its
epiclesis, “Pour your refreshing Spirit on us as we remember him in the way he
commanded through these gifts of your creation.” This petition is thoroughly
Scriptural, as opposed to the epicleses that petition God to bless or sanctify
the bread and wine with his Holy Spirit. See A Prayer Book for Thailand—1989
for further discussion of the liturgical invocation of the Holy Spirit for the
purpose of consecrating the eucharistic elements. Our Modern Services is a gold mine of new prayers, especially
prayers for mission and renewal.
The rites and services of Our Modern Services may be longer than those to which Westerners
are accustomed. This reflects a difference in perception of time. Africans are
less concerned with the passage of time as Westerners are.
My cousin is with the British Foreign Service and she was
stationed in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for a number of
years. She reports that it is completely different world from modern-day
Britain. Zairians did not live at the hurried, frenetic pace of modern Brits,
with one eye on the clock. What mattered to them was not the pace at which
something was done or even finishing it but forming, renewing, and strengthening
relationships.
What is notable about the other liturgies from Africa and
those from the West Indies is their length. This is points to cultural
difference. Such differences also explain the length of rites and services in
the sixteenth century Prayer Books.
English society was more agrarian and rural in the sixteenth
century than it is today. Life in sixteenth century England moved at more
unhurried pace. Portable timepieces, while not unknown, were not common in
sixteenth century England. Country folks judged the passage of time by the
movement of the sun and towns people by the striking of the hours of the tower
clock.
Going to church and listening to a sermon represented a welcome
break from the people’s everyday routine and served as a form of entertainment.
Twenty-first century North American congregations would not be able to handle
the troika of Morning Prayer, Litany, and Ante-Communion that was the steady
diet of English congregations upon the ascension of Elizabeth I to the throne
and the adoption of the 1559 Book of
Common Prayer.
A New Zealand Prayer
Book (He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa)—1989
At the time A New
Zealand Prayer Book was published, it was hailed as the future of Prayer
Book revision.
Reviews of A New
Zealand Prayer Book draw attention to its adaptation of the Prayer Book to
Maori culture, its use of gender-inclusive and affirming language, its
avoidance of gender-specific references to God, its softening of “power
language,” its avoidance of “he” in the Psalms and the substitution of “you”
for “he” in addressing God, and its replacement of “Zion” and “Israel.” It has
not only been criticized for changing these references but also for softening
the Baptismal rite.
Due to the beauty and simplicity of number of its prayers A New Zealand Prayer Book has enjoyed
widespread usage in the Episcopal Church and other denominations as manual for
private devotions.
Online at: http://anglicanprayerbook.org.nz/
A Prayer Book for
Thailand—1989
A Prayer Book for
Thailand is based on the Alternative
Service Book 1980 of the Church of England. The ASB 1980 contains a number of eucharistic prayers and other
alternative texts. A Prayer Book for
Thailand has only one eucharistic prayer and a much smaller number of other
alternative texts. Note how the eucharistic prayer avoids invoking the Holy
Spirit’s blessing upon the bread and the wine. In place of such invocation it
contains this petition: “…grant by the power of your Holy Spirit these gifts of
bread and wine may be to us his body and blood….”
In the Scriptures we find no account of the Holy Spirit’s
descending upon animals or inanimate objects. But we do find a number of
accounts of the Holy Spirit’s falling upon people or working in people. From
this perspective petitioning God to bless or sanctify the bread and wine of the
Lord’s Supper with his Holy Spirit is not agreeable to the teaching of the
Scriptures. God does not send his Holy Spirit upon inanimate objects.
The petition substituted for the invocation of the Holy Spirit’s
blessing upon the eucharistic elements does not exclude the operation of the
Holy Spirit from the sacrament but does avoid this longstanding error. It is
also consistent with the teaching of the Scriptures and the Anglican
formularies that the eucharistic elements do not undergo a change of substance
at consecration nor is anything added to them. They remain bread and wine.
Their being for us Christ’s Body and Blood is a spiritual operation.
The Liturgy of the
Church of Nigeria (Anglican) The Order for Holy Communion or Eucharist—1990
The influence of the Alternative
Service Book 1980 and the Roman Missal are discernible in this liturgy. By
Western standards it is a lengthy rite. See my discussion of the differences in
the perception of time in Western and African cultures. Also applicable to the
rite is my discussion of how ancillary rites like the entrance, the offertory,
and concluding rites of the Eucharist accumulate unnecessary accretions that
distort the over-all shape of the rite.
The Anglican Service
Book The Episcopal Church—1991
The Anglican Service
Book renders a number of liturgical texts from the 1979 Prayer Book into Jacobean
or traditional English and supplements these texts with material from various
editions of the Anglican Missal and
the modern Roman Rite. A comparison of its contents, the contents of other
Anglo-Catholic-influenced service books, and the contents of The Book of Divine Worship with the
contents of the trial services of Holy Communion in Texts for Common Prayer support my contention that these
services are unreformed Catholic in their eucharistic doctrine and may be used
to teach Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic eucharistic doctrine.
Online at:
Prayer Book of the
Church of England in South Africa—1992
This modest collection of rites and services was developed
as an alternative to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which is also an
authorized Prayer Book of the former Church of England in South Africa, now
known as the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, or REACH
South Africa.
REACH South Africa grew out of the Church of England congregations
that chose to remain faithful to the Protestant and Reformed principles of the
Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and not to join the
Church of the Province of South Africa in 1870. Like the Reformed Episcopal
Church in the United States and the Free Church of England in the United
Kingdom, it was an outgrowth of the nineteenth-century struggles between
Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals over what should be the identity of the
Anglican Church in their part of the world.
The Preface to the Prayer Book of the Church of England in South Africa contains this statement:
The Preface to the Prayer Book of the Church of England in South Africa contains this statement:
“No doctrine or practices may be construed or based on the revised services, apart from those authorized by the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and/or the Book of Common Prayer 1662."A similar statement is found on the copyright page of An English Prayer Book (1994).
The Prayer Book of the
Church of England in South Africa includes the late Philip Edgcombe Hughes’
A Restatement of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. Hughes, a leading
Anglican evangelical theologian and scholar, author of many books, and
professor at various seminaries, prepared this rendering of the Articles in
contemporary English for the Church of England in South Africa in 1988. It is
also printed at the back of Hughes’ Theology
of the English Reformers.
An English Prayer
Book Church Society—1994
An English Prayer Book
(1994) is the conservative evangelical Church Society’s unofficial contribution
to the revision the Alternative Book 1980.
This revision produced Common Worship
in 2000. Among its notable features are a form for Family Worship and two
orders of Infant Baptism and order of Adult Baptism that avoid the language of
the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which Anglo-Catholics argue teaches the doctrine
of baptismal regeneration.
The Articles of Religion are printed in the back of An English Prayer Book followed by a modern English equivalent or commentary. A disclaimer states:
The Articles of Religion are printed in the back of An English Prayer Book followed by a modern English equivalent or commentary. A disclaimer states:
"The latter is provided solely for the purpose of making the Articles more easily understood. The standing or authority of the Articles as set out in the Book of Common Prayer is in no way to be interpreted as diminished or undermined."
Online at:
Holy Eucharist The
Province of the West Indies—1995
This rite shows the influence of the Alternative Service Book 1980 and to lesser extent the 1979 Book of
Common Prayer. While reflecting the strong influence of Anglo-Catholicism in
the Province of West Indies, it drops a number of liturgical elements from the Roman Missal and Anglican Missal discernible in The
People’s Order of the Mass and Other Prayers (1965). The rite is a lengthy one, which may be a reflection not only of
the strong Anglo-Catholic influence in the rite but also the particular
cultural milieu.
Enriching Our Worship
1 The Episcopal Church—1998
The language and imagery of the eucharistic prayers in this
collection of supplemental liturgical material authorized by the Episcopal
Church as well as the wording of the eucharistic rites themselves have stirred
up controversy.
One of Enriching Our
Worship 1’s positive features is that it recognizes that service leaders
and worship planners have a tendency to use the first option if they are given
a number of options. To encourage the greater use of other canticles of praise
in the entrance rite of the 1979 Eucharist beside Gloria in excelsis, Digus es is printed in place of Gloria in excelsis in the entrance rite.
The invariable use of Gloria
in excelsis is a peculiarity of the Roman Church. The Gallican Church used
a variable canticles of praise in the entrance rite. The entrance rite of the
1979 Eucharist is modeled on the Gallican Rite, not the Roman Rite. The use of
a variable canticle of praise in the entrance rite of the 1979 Eucharist is in
line with the model upon which it is based.
The controversy surrounding the wording of the rites and
services in Enriching Our Worship 1
and its departure from biblical teaching and Anglican traditions of expression,
however, overshadowed its better features.
Common Worship The
Church of England—2000
The Introduction to Communion Worship states:
Common Worship is not just another prayer book, but a series of volumes which aims to provide a wide variety of prayers and liturgical resources for use within a common framework and common structures. This allows individual churches to tailor services to their own setting and culture and the needs of their particular congregations.
These volumes include New
Patterns of Worship, which provides the authorized text of A Service of the
Word with notes and instructions on how to put it together, a guide for
planning and preparing A Service of the Word and other liturgies, liturgical
material for A Service of the Word, and notes for its use, and sample services.
A Service of the Word was developed to meet the needs of
congregations which find that the services of Morning and Evening Prayer and
Holy Communion do not meet their needs. Its precursor was the Family Service
conducted in a number of Church of England parishes from the 1970s on. A
Service of the Word may be used on its own or as the Liturgy of the Word of a
celebration of Holy Communion.
Enriching Our Worship
2 The Episcopal Church—2000
Readers will have to judge for themselves the strengths and
weaknesses of the burial service for a child in Enriching Our Worship 2.
I have not had an opportunity to examine it. I included it with Enriching Our Worship 3 and Enriching Our Worship 4 as examples of
the supplemental liturgical material that the Episcopal Church’s Standing
Liturgical Commission has produced since the publication of Enriching Our Worship 1.
Sunday Services A
Contemporary Liturgical Resource Diocese of Sydney—2001
This collection of resources is the work of the Diocese of
Sydney’s Liturgical Panel. A number of its sections are based on An Australian Prayer Book (1978) and its
sources and A Prayer Book for Australia
(1995). Its aim is “to provide a liturgy which is biblical in content,
intelligible in language and appropriate to our time and culture.”
Online at: http://www.sundayservices.anglican.asn.au/
The Book of Divine
Worship The Roman Catholic Church— 2003
This Anglican Use service book was developed for the use of
the personal parishes of former Episcopalians established under Pope John Paul
II’s Pastoral Provision of 1980. It
combines material from the 1928 and 1979 Prayer Books with eucharistic prayers
from the Roman Missal and the medieval Sarum Rite. The first edition ws
published in 1987.
The Book of
Occasional Services The Episcopal Church—2003
The Book of Occasional Services (2003) is an updated and
revised version of The Book of Occasional
Services (1994). According to the Church Publishing website, “this new
edition includes the liturgies for Discernment for a New Church Mission; A
Liturgy for Commissioning a Church Planter, Missioner or Mission Team; A
Liturgy for the Opening of a New Congregation; Setting Apart Secular Space for
Sacred Use; a new Litany for the Mission of the Church; and a variety of Church
Planting collects, blessings and other prayers, and hymn suggestions.”
Compare its rite for the Admission of Catechumen (p. 117) with the proposed ACNA rite for the Admission of Catechumen.
Church of South India
Liturgy—2004 and earlier
Both the CSI liturgy adopted in 2004 and the CSI liturgy
before 2004 are found online. The Book of
Common Worship (1962) of the Church of South India marks a liturgical
watershed. It anticipates a new generation of Anglican liturgies that were
produced from the 1960s on. These liturgies would incorporate the
recommendations of the 1958 Lambeth Conference regarding the structure of the
service of Holy Communion. The three alternative forms of morning and evening
worship found in The Book of Common
Worship are also a precursor of the Services of the Word found in a number
of more recent Anglican service books. (Another forerunner of these services is
the two alternative forms of evening worship found in the 1926 Irish Prayer
Book.)
Compare the CSI Office of Making a Catechumen (pre-2004) and
rite for Receiving a Candidate for Baptism (2004) at the beginning of the CSI
rite for the Baptism of Adults with the
proposed ACNA rite for the Admission of Catechumens.
Online at: http://www.csimichigan.org/Liturgy.htm
The Book of Common
Prayer The Church of Ireland—2004
The 2004 Irish Prayer Book incorporates material from its
predecessor, the 1926 Irish Prayer Book, as well as contains new material. The
rites and services from the 1926 Irish Prayer Book are in traditional or
Jacobean English and a number of the rubrics have been changed. The new
material is in contemporary English and comes from the Church of Ireland’s An Alternative
Prayer Book (1984) and other sources. A number of the rites and services in the
2004 Irish Prayer Book are also available on the Internet in Gaelige, or Irish.
One peculiar feature of Morning Prayer 2 and Evening Prayer
2 is that the two services have three readings and the first reading is
inserted between the Invitatory Psalm and the other Psalms. While this feature
gives Morning Prayer 2 and Evening Prayer 2 a common structure with the other
liturgies of the Word found in the 2004 Irish Prayer Book, it interrupts the
flow of the service, as well as represents a departure from the longstanding
pattern of Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer—praise, proclamation, and
prayer. In Morning Prayer 2 and Evening Prayer 2 proclamation follows the
invitation to praise and what may be an extended period of praise (if more than
one Psalm is used) follows proclamation.
The result can be a lengthy delay between the first reading
and second reading and a response to the first reading that gives undue emphasis
to that reading. The canticle or psalm that follows each reading in Morning and
Evening Prayer is a response to the reading.
The other liturgies of the Word that share this structure do
not suffer from the problem of a protracted response to the first reading since
their rubrics do not permit such a response. There is no interruption in the
flow of the service or lengthy delay between the first reading and the second
reading.
Like Common Worship
the 2004 Irish Prayer Book provides
guidelines for a Service of the Word that may be used in place of the services
of Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion. Worship planners putting
together this service may use liturgical material from Common Worship as well as the
2004 Irish Prayer Book.
Online at: http://ireland.anglican.org/worship/12
Holy Eucharist 2004
The Church in Wales—2004
Holy Eucharist 2004, the revised eucharistic rite of the
Church in Wales, is available as a download on the Church in Wales’ Downloads
page on its website. So are the two-volume 1984 Book of Common Prayer and a
number of other liturgies used in the Church in Wales. Holy Eucharist 2004 also
contains the Order for the Holy Eucharist 1984.
Enriching Our Worship
3 The Episcopal Church—2006
Readers will have to judge for themselves the strengths and
weaknesses of the adult burial service in
Enriching Our Worship 3. Like Enriching Our Worship 2 I have not
had an opportunity to examine it.
Enriching Our Worship
4 The Episcopal Church—2006
I have made only a cursory examination of the rite for the
Renewal of Ministry with the Welcoming of a New Rector in Enriching Our Worship 4.
What I noted that was the rite does not use the Trinitarian opening acclamation
of the Holy Eucharist Rites I and II in the
1979 Book of Common Prayer. I did not complete a thorough evaluation of its
theology. The rite itself serves a need and any problems in its theology can be
corrected with carefully done invisible mending.
Common Prayer:
Resources for Gospel-Shaped Gatherings The Diocese of Sydney—2012
Produced by the Archbishop of Sydney's Liturgical Panel,
this collection of resources is a development and expansion of Sunday Services (2001).
A description of the collection on the Christian Education
Publications website sites:
The apostles urge the gathering of believers to engage with
Christ and each other through teaching, prayer and song, as they meet together
in his name. At the centre of it all is the word of Christ, the gospel.
Common Prayer is
presented to the churches as a resource for such gospel-shaped gatherings in
the evangelical Anglican tradition.
Online at:
The abundance of Anglican liturgical material
available on the Internet places the development of a biblically faithful,
mission-oriented Anglican service book for an alternative jurisdiction to the
Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada well within the reach
of a working group commissioned for that purpose
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