The Doctrine of the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book: Part 4

By Robin G. Jordan

A fourth place to look for clues to the doctrine of a Prayer Book is the Order of Baptism both Public and Private and the Order of Baptism for those of Riper Years or their equivalent. In the case of the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book it is the section entitled “Holy Baptism.”

Before we examine the rite of baptism contained in this section and its doctrine a brief history of the changes in the Prayer Book baptismal services from 1552 to the twentieth century is in order. In the 1552 Order of Public Baptism we find a prayer that is based upon Martin Luther’s Flood Prayer. This prayer contains an important doctrine statement, “...and by the Baptism of thy well beloved son Jesus Christ, didst sanctify the flood Jordan, and all other waters, to the mystical washing away of sin.” The doctrine articulated in this statement is consistent with the teaching of the Bible, Lutheran doctrine, and Reformed doctrine but also and importantly primitive Catholic doctrine. The administration of the sacrament of baptism does not require prayer for the sanctification of the water in which the candidate will be baptized. Our Lord’s own baptism has sanctified it.

The prayer that immediately precedes the actual baptism in the 1552 Order of Public Baptism contains this petition.

Regard, we beseech thee, the supplication of thy congregation, and grant that all thy servants which shall be baptized in this water, may receive the fullness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Note that the prayer contains no petition for the sanctification of the water in the font. The 1559 and 1604 Orders of Baptism are essentially the 1552 Order of Baptism. The 1604 order does contain one major difference. It requires an ordained minister to administer the sacrament of baptism. This was James I’s concession to the Puritans who objected to the practice of midwives’ baptizing sickly newborn infants in private homes, arguing that the proper minister of the sacrament was a minister of the Gospel, not a woman.

Among the changes that the Restoration bishops made to the 1604 Prayer Book was the addition of a petition for the sanctification of the water in the font in the prayer that immediately precedes the administration of the sacrament. The addition of this petition may be attributed to the influence of the 1637 Scottish Prayer Book.

Regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of thy Church, and grant that all thy servants which shall be baptized in this water (which we here bless and dedicate in thy name to this spiritual washing), may receive the fullness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

As Massey Shepherd observes in The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, this petition and the petition in the 1662 Prayer Book would not have been acceptable to the English Reformers who were “more chary about the blessing of material things.” They found no evidence for that practice in the Bible. However, they did find ample evidence for the blessing of human beings. While the Bible does not enjoin or prohibit the practice, the blessing of material things is inconsistent with biblical practice which is limited to the blessing of human beings. The blessing of bread and wine in the New Testament is a reference to the Jewish practice of giving thanks to God over the bread and wine, which the New Testament itself makes clear.

The petition for the sanctification of the water in the font was also superfluous. The Restoration bishops retained the Flood Prayer stating that our Lord’s baptism sanctified (or set apart) all water for the purpose of baptism. If our Lord had already sanctified the water in the font, any petition for its further sanctification was entirely redundant. This petition marks the beginning of the weakening of the doctrine articulated in the Flood Prayer.

This doctrine would be further weakened in the 1789 and 1892 American Prayer Books. While these two books retain the Flood Prayer, they make it optional.

The Order of Baptism of the 1928 American Prayer Book and the Alternative Order of Public Baptism and the Order of Baptism for those of Riper Years of the 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book would make even more radical changes to the Anglican baptismal service. The 1928 American Prayer Book combined the Order of Public Baptism and the Order of Baptism for those of Riper Years into one rite. It dropped the Flood Prayer and adopted an elaborate Blessing of the Water modeled upon the eucharistic form of a preface preceded by the Sursum Corda. The 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book, while it retained separate rites for infants and older children and adults, omitted the Flood Prayer from the Alternative Order of Public Baptism and the Order of Baptism for those of Riper Years and added a similar elaborate Blessing of the Water.

These changes represented a return to an unreformed Medieval Catholic view of baptism that emphasized the role of the priest in the sanctification of the water in the font. This view maintained that the imposition of hands and anointing with oil by the bishop at ordination conferred upon the ordinand a special grace or gift which enabled the new priest to not only confect bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ but also to impart to the water in the font the power to regenerate souls.

The Order of Baptism of the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book incorporates a revised version of the Flood Prayer that omits any reference to our Lord’s baptism's sanctification (or setting apart) of all water for the purpose of baptism. Like the 1928 American Prayer Book and the 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book, the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book contains an elaborate Blessing of the Water. The language of this prayer and the language of the other prayers in the rite emphasize baptismal regeneration and the bestowing of the Holy Spirit in baptism. It offers no wiggle room for those who believe that the sacraments do not work automatically and independently of the faith of the recipient, a view grounded in the Scriptures and articulated in the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion; recognize that, according to Scripture, the Holy Spirit may be bestowed at baptism, apart from baptism, or not at all; and subscribe to the doctrine of conditional regeneration.

For two rites of baptism that do offer plenty of wiggle room see the Service of Baptism for Infants and Children and the Service of Baptism for Those Able to Answer for Themselves in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney’s Common Prayer: Resources for Gospel-Shaped Gatherings.

Compare the prayer that immediately precedes the application of the water in the Service of Baptism for Infants and Children with the equivalent prayer in the 1552 Order of Baptism Public and Private. First the prayer from the Service of Baptism for Infants and Children:

Merciful God, for Jesus Christ’s sake, grant that these children whom we baptise in this water, may be saved through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. May they die to sin and rise again to righteousness. May your Spirit live and work in them, that they may be yours forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord who died and rose again for us.

Then the prayer from the 1552 Order of Baptism Public and Private:

Almighty ever-living God, whose most dearly beloved son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side both water and blood, and gave commandment to his disciples that they should go teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of thy congregation, and grant that all thy servants which shall be baptized in this water, may receive the fullness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

While the texts are different, they do have one important thing in common. They both assume that our Lord’s baptism has sanctified (or set apart) all water for the purpose of baptism. This is an important doctrine not only of the Protestant Reformation but also of the New Testament. When Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunach, he did not first bless the water. (Acts 8:34-40). Nor did Ananias bless the water at Paul’s baptism. But Ananias did in obedience to our Lord’s command go to Paul and lay hands on him. Paul was healed and then filled with the Holy Spirit. What is also noteworthy is that Paul was baptized after he was healed and filled with the Holy Spirit (Act 9:10-21).

In its baptismal rite the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book not only departs from the doctrine of the New Testament and the Protestant Reformation but it also departs from the doctrine of primitive Catholicism. Doctrinally the proposed book owes more to the Middle Ages than to the Early Church, not just in its baptismal rite but in its other rites as well. An obsession with the Medieval Church was a characteristic of the Tractarians and the Oxford Movement.

When the baptismal rite of the proposed 2019 ACNA Book Prayer is compared with the baptismal services of Common Prayer: Resources for Gospel-Shaped Services, another difference is noticeable. While an Anglican Evangelical would feel that he was compromising his beliefs in using the ACNA rite, an Anglo-Catholic, while he might prefer a rite that mirrored his beliefs, would not experience the same kind of difficulty in using the Sydney rites. He could use the rites and believe and teach baptismal regeneration and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit in baptism with equanimity. This points to the overall problematic nature of the proposed book. There was really no need for the book to be as unreformed Catholic as it is. The primary motivation for making the proposed book so unreformed Catholic in doctrine and liturgical usages appears to have been to make the official doctrine of the Anglican Church in North America unreformed Catholic.

Related Articles:
The Doctrine of the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book: Part 3
How to Respond to the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book
The Doctrine of the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book: Part 2
The Doctrine of the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book: Part 1