The ANiC's 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English: A Liturgy in the Reformed Anglican Tradition—Part 2

By Robin G. Jordan

In this second article on how the Anglican Network in Canada’s 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English might be improved, I take a look at three more sections of the ANiC’s 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English and offer recommendations and suggestions for their improvement. As I noted in the first article, “The ANiC's 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English: A Liturgy in the Reformed Anglican Tradition—Part 1,” these recommendations and suggestions are not only for the working group that drafted the 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English but also for ACNA clergy and congregation’s interested in using the form. The three sections that will be the focus of today’s article are the Ministry of the Word, the Offertory, and the Prayers.

1. Rearrange the order of the rubrics after the Collect of the day. Place the rubric authorizing the reading a passage from the Old Testament first and make the following additions and alterations to the rubrics.

The people sit and two or three passages from the Holy Scriptures are read

A passage from the Old Testament may be read

At the beginning of the reading the reader says

The Old Testament reading is from … chapter … beginning at verse …

At the end of the reading the reader may say

This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Silence may be kept

A psalm, a portion of a psalm, or a canticle may be sung or said

A passage from the Epistles is read

At the beginning of the reading the reader says

The Epistle is from … chapter …beginning at verse …

At the end of the reading the reader may say

This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Silence may be kept

A hymn or song may be sung

A passage from the Gospels is read

At the beginning of the reading the reader says

The Gospel is from … chapter … beginning at verse …

At the end of the reading the reader may say

This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Silence may be kept

The sermon may be preached here or after the creed

On Sundays the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed is said, all standing

We believe …

or

I believe …

The sermon is preached here if it has not been preached earlier

The gifts of the people are brought to the Lord’s Table here or after the Prayers

A hymn or sung may be sung

The people’s gifts are presented in silence or with this prayer

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness …

One or more members of the congregation may pray, using this form or a suitable alternative

Let us pray for all people, and for Christ’s church throughout the world

Almighty and ever-living God …

Rationale: These changes give a smoother flow to the Ministry of the Word, make provision for the use of suitable music in the Ministry of the Word, and give worship planners more flexibility in tailoring the service to the congregation’s particular needs and circumstances. They give the congregation a larger role in the Ministry of the Word.

The introductions to the readings have been shortened. Readers are apt to mangle longer introductions. Shorter introductions are easier to remember.

The congregational response after each reading has been made optional. When a congregation has a steady flow of first-time guests who are unused to liturgical forms of worship, much less to the church at prayer, worship planners may want to omit the congregational response after each reading. As noted in the first article, Archbishop Cranmer pared away the unnecessary responds, verses and vain repetitions that cluttered the liturgy. The 1552 Communion service has no congregational response after the readings.

A period of silence for reflection and prayer may be observed after each reading. These periods of silence provide the congregation with an opportunity to digest what they heard.

The changes to the rubrics permit the preaching of the sermon before or after the creed, an option found in a number of more recent Anglican service books. Sermons were not a common feature in the Medieval Catholic Mass. If a sermon was preached, it was inserted into the Mass after the creed and was separated from the proclamation of the Word. Both the readings and the creed were in Latin and were unintelligible to most of the members of the congregation. The sermon was generally not an explication of the Word. Archbishop Cranmer would retain this sequence. In the 1549 Communion service the creed was omitted if a sermon was preached. In the 1552 Communion service it was made a fixed element of the service. Cranmer may have regarded it as a proclamation of the entire gospel, of which the two readings are portions. This is how its position immediately after the readings would be later interpreted. He may have simply kept the creed in that position because he saw no need to move it from what had become its customary position. In that position, however, it creates an unnecessary delay between the proclamation of the Word and the explication of the Word. This rubrical change permits the elimination of this delay. When the sermon is topical, or a homily is read in the place of a sermon as was the practice in the Elizabethan Church, this delay is less problematic than when the sermon is an exposition of one or more of the Scripture readings.

These changes to the rubrics also permit the use of the Apostles’ Creed in place of the Nicene Creed. The Apostles’ Creed was used in the liturgies of the European Reformed Churches in place of the Nicene Creed because the Nicene Creed contained non-scriptural language. The Nicene Creed was omitted from the 1785 Proposed American Prayer Book for the same reason. The Apostles’ Creed was substituted for the Nicene Creed in the proposed book. At the General Convention that adopted the 1789 American Prayer Book a number of delegates objected to the addition of the Nicene Creed to that book. A compromise was reached in which congregations were given the option of using the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. A number of more recent Anglican service books also permit the use of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. The normal pattern of worship on Sundays that the 1552 Prayer Book envisions is Morning Prayer, Litany and Holy Communion (or Ante-Communion) with a sermon in the morning and Evening Prayer in the late afternoon. Members of the congregation were expected to attend all of these services. In the twenty-first century members of the congregation are likely to attend only one service, Holy Communion, on Sundays and then not as frequently as Anglican have in the past. This rubrical change enables them to become familiar with both creeds. It enables worship planners to shorten the service by using the Apostles’ Creed. It also enables worship planners to use the Apostles’ Creed on Sundays when the minister (or other preacher) is preaching a sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed or when there is a baptism.

These changes to the rubrics also recognize that a number of churches do not take a collection during the service. They may place a basket or other receptacle on a table near the entrance to the worship area into which givers can put checks and cash. A growing number of churches have electronic giving on their websites and a growing number of church members and regular attendees pay their tithe or proportional giving contribution to the church electronically or have it deducted automatically from their bank account.

Passing a collection plate or bag during a service can also reinforce some first-time guests negative stereotypes of Christians and churches.

These rubrical changes permit representatives of the congregation to bring forward the bread and wine for the Lord’s Supper. This is one of the ways that new families and other newcomers can be involved in the liturgy. The younger children who participate in the church’s Children’s Ministry groups can also bring forward their gifts in the form of banners and other artwork or handicrafts that they have made in their Children’s Ministry groups.

These rubrical changes permit more than one member of the congregation to lead the Prayers. They also permit the use of other suitable forms in place of the one printed in the service. They not only involve more people in various roles in the liturgy but also give worship planners greater flexibility in planning the Prayers. In a house church worship gathering worship planners might want to use a series of biddings for the Prayers. After each bidding the members of the congregation would pray silently or aloud. They might pray together out loud Korean Tongsung Kido style. For a small congregation meeting in an informal setting this form of the Prayers may be a far more effective way of praying for all people and Christ’s Church throughout the world than the form printed in the service.

In an age in which church buildings are being converted to condominiums or mosques or razed to make room for commercial buildings and in which Anglican Christians must meet wherever they can, it makes sense to incorporate this kind of flexibility into the liturgy. In the sixteenth century Christendom was still flourishing and England had numerous parish churches. We are living in the post-modern, post-Christian era.

2. Alter the phrase “all bishops, priests, and deacons” in the Prayers for Christ’s Church to “all bishops and other ministers” as in An Australian Prayer Book (1978) and A Prayer Book for Australia (1995).

Rationale: This wording is inclusive of all clergy, whether or not they are episcopally-ordained. It recognizes that all clergy are workers in God’s vineyard. It is also consistent with the position of the English Reformers and even the Restoration bishops who, while they insisted upon episcopal-ordination for the clergy of the Church of England, recognized the validity of the orders and sacraments of the European Reformed Churches which did not have bishops. It is the position held by the majority of Anglicans to this day, as the late Peter Toon pointed out in his critique of the Anglican Church in North America’s Fundamental Declarations.

3. Alter the concluding petition of the Prayers for Christ’s Church from its present wording, which is based on the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church in An Australian Prayer Book (1978), to the shorter “Grant these our prayers, Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.”

Rationale: This wording is taken from the same prayer in A Prayer Book for Australia (1995) and is closer to the original wording of the concluding petition of the 1552 Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church Militant.

In the next article I will be looking at how the Lord’s Supper section of the 1552 Order of Holy Communion in Modern English might be improved. I will also be looking at Archbishop Cranmer’s theology of the Lord’s Supper as it is embodied in that section.