The Anglican Book of Common Prayer: What Relevance Does It Have to Today's Contemporary Worship? [Audio]

More and more pastors and church leaders are discovering the remarkable contribution Thomas Cranmer made to us all through his Book of Common Prayer. This Reformation martyr's understanding of what matters in worship is reverberating more and more through the evangelical community all around the world. The genius of Reformation Anglicanism is found in Cranmer's timeless insights into the human heart and our motivations for Christian service. In this workshop we will acquaint you with the background and some of the major insights of the Book of Common Prayer and what we are learning about how it relates to personal and corporate worship today. Listen now

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I am posting a link to this audio for those who may wish to hear it. I do not agree with a number of the statements and inferences that the Yates make. What passes for Anglican worship in North America has been strongly-influenced by the nineteenth century Anglo-Catholic Movement and I discern its influence in what they are saying--the presence and symbolism of the candles and flowers, for example.

The consistency one sees between contemporary Anglican liturgies has little to do with Cranmer's reformed Prayer Book of 1552 but can be traced to the recommendations of the sub-committee on the Holy Communion service endorsed by the 1958 Lambeth Conference. These liturgies may have a similar order: it is known as the "ecumenical order" for the Holy Communion service. It not the 1662 order.  Here the similarity ends. These liturgies differ in their doctrine. Contemporary Anglican service books may include two or more eucharistic rites that reflect different theologies of the eucharist in an attempt to accommodate the doctrinal views of the various schools of thought in a province.

The doctrine of the Real Presence as it has come to be understood is not what the 1662 Prayer Book (and the 1552 Prayer Book on which it is based) teach. They teach the doctrine of the True Spiritual Presence. Christ is present but his presence is spiritual. It is a real presence in the sense that it is not imagined but not in the sense that it is substantive. The locus of Christ's presence is not in the consecrated elements but the heart of the believing communicant. Feeding upon Christ is a spiritual operation that does not require the believer to consume the bread and wine. See the rubrics in the Communion of the Sick in the 1662 Prayer Book. The view that the Yates presented does not exclude a substantive presence in the elements. Roman Catholics also speak of Christ's presence in his Word, in his gathered people, and in the sacrament--the elements.

During the twentieth century two views of the eucharist would make inroads in the Episcopal Church in the USA and other Anglican provinces. One view was that there is a real, objective presence of Christ in the consecrated elements. See Byron D Stuhlman's 'Eucharistic Celebration 1789 to 1979.' The other view was that the eucharist is a participation in the ongoing sacrificial activity of Christ. This view is known as the 1958 Lambeth doctrine of eucharistic sacrifice. It was one of the recommendations of the sub-committee on the Holy Communion service endorsed by the 1958 Lambeth Conference. See J.I. Packer and R. T. Beckwith's 'The Thirty-Nine Articles: Their Place and Use Today.' Among their conclusions was that the doctrine is not consistent with Holy Scripture and the Thirty-Nine Articles.

The Lambeth doctrine is articulated in the 1979 Prayer Book's An Outline of the Faith, or Catechism. It is given liturgical expression in Eucharistic Prayers A, B, C and D in Rite II. See Leonel L. Mitchell's 'Praying Shapes Believing: A Theological Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer.'