J. I. Packer gave this address at St. Paul’s Church, Bloor
Street, Toronto, on May 1, 1999 at a special event organized by the Toronto
branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada to celebrate of the
450th anniversary oftThe Book of Common Prayer. In this address
Packer examines five principles Archbishop Thomas Cranmer implemented in the
1549 and 1552 Prayer Books.
This address is mentioned in the Summary of Resource
Materials in the Anglican Church in North America's Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force’s initial report:
“What the Guiding Principles of Christian Worship Should Be,” also known as the
ACNA’s “theological lens.”
As it did in its initial report, the task force has given
scant attention to these principles in the rites and services that it has
produces to date. However, they are important principles and Packer’s
examination of them deserves wider attention.
Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop
of Canterbury, in the year 1547. Henry VIII has just been succeeded by the
boy-king Edward VI, and at last all systems are “go” for the reformation of the
Church of England. The first task has to be the production of a God-honouring,
life-enhancing set of services in English that all congregations will use, and
that will involve all the worshippers in a way that advances their personal
discipleship to Jesus Christ. The project is ambitious and demanding, but
Cranmer has resources for it. Over and above his access to like-minded
colleagues, he is himself a learned man, familiar with the liturgical and
theological legacy of all Christendom since it began; he knows the writings of
the Fathers, the Medievals, and the Reformers; he is a brilliant producer of
poignant prayers for public use, as he showed in his Litany of 1544; and he is
a Bible-man to his fingertips, totally committed to the Reformation ideal of
Bible truth irradiating every Christian’s head and heart and shining forth in
every Christian’s attitudes and actions. On what principles, now, was he to
proceed? The two versions of his Prayer Book, those of 1549 and 1552
respectively, show him implementing the following five.
1. Services must
be congregational. Cranmer’s goal was a book of Common (that is, communal) prayer. Before the Reformation
the priest had said Mass in Latin, and the congregation, not understanding,
spent the time saying private prayers, or else did nothing. Cranmer, however,
drafted services in the vernacular, writing into them set parts for the
congregation to say (prayers, psalms, responses), and he looked forward to the
day when all worshippers would be able to read and would have a copy of each
service open before them, so that they could follow with their eyes as well as
their ears, and so be completely involved in what was going on. In his preface
to the 1544 Litany he had written: “And such among the people as have books and
can read may read them quietly and softly to themselves; and such as cannot
read, let them quietly and attentively give audience in time of the said
prayers, having their minds erect to Almighty God, and devoutly praying in
their hearts the same petitions which do enter in at their ears, so that with
one sound of the heart and one accord God may be glorified in his church.” “One
sound of the heart” – that was Cranmer’s ideal of congregational worship, and
surely there can be no argument that in this he was right. Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment