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| Banned in Quincy! |
For theological and practical reasons, the Rt. Rev. Alberto Morales, the bishop of the Diocese of Quincy has banned the use of use the BCP 2019 for liturgy at Mass, public Daily Offices or in any other way in the life of his diocese. Read More
I missed this press release which is dated July 2, 2019. The Diocese of Quincy uses the Church of England's Common Worship (2000) and Bishop Morales has banned the use of any other worship resources as well as the BCP 2019. For readers who are unfamiliar with the Diocese of Quincy, it is an Anglo-Catholic diocese in the Anglican Church of North America. ACNA congregations might want to hold off purchasing the BCP 2019 until they know whether or not their bishop is going to allow the use of the book in their diocese. As I have pointed out in several articles, the book has no official standing in the ACNA. It is up to the individual bishops whether they permit its use in their jurisdiction. In a number of ways Common Worship (2000) is the better of the two service books.
3 comments:
Hi Robin, yes an interesting situation in the Quincy Diocese of the ACNA.
You may already be aware of this, but the Anglican Diocese of the West, which is part of CANA and through it a full member of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), has announced plans to launch a reformed and evangelical diocese.
The new diocese will initially be a non-geographic missionary archdeaconry of the Diocese of the West, but God willing, in time will mature into a fully fledged diocese of CANA. It would therefore be a classical, reformed, evangelical diocese serving the USA and Canada and through its membership of CANA and the Church of Nigeria it would also be a full member of the Anglican Communion.
I would love to hear your insights into this situation as this is something you have called for within the context of ACNA, but it appears as if CANA is the entity that is moving on the idea.
The Missionary Bishop of CANA, who is also the Diocesan Bishop of CANA's Diocese of the West, is a godly and passionate advocate for Gospel ministry and under his leadership, (and God's sovereignty) I believe CANA is poised for further growth and expansion. God bless.
Robin,
I would humbly suggest you read the article on Virtueonline concerning this situation. Calling it "banned" is not accurate. It may be purchased and used in private, but it is not approved for use in public worship. While this may be a restriction, it is certainly not "banned".
John,
I am posting Bishop Munday's explanation of Bishop Morales' restriction of the use of The Book of Common Prayer 2019 to private use only in the Diocese of Quincy. When I post an excerpt or summary of an article and a link to the article on Anglicans Ablaze, I normally use the original headline or title of the article. Whatever his motives George Conger chose to describe the book as being "banned." Technically he is correct. Prohibiting the use of the BCP 2019 even partially in a diocese is essentially a ban--a partial ban. At the same time it must be pointed out that the Anglican Church in North America did modify its canons to permit the continued use of service books which a diocese was using at the time of its admission to the province--subject to the approval of the diocesan bishop.
I suspect that the furor around Bishop Morales' restriction of the BCP 2019 in his diocese is only in part due to Anglican Ink's headline. I suspect that its primary cause is the official hype that has surrounded the release of the BCP 2019. ACNA'ers who bought into the hype naturally do not understand why Bishop Morales chose to restrict the use of the book. But as Bishop Munday points out, the Diocese of Quincy had already invested in Common Worship (2000). The Book of Common Prayer 2019 is an inferior knockoff of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Common Worship (2000) is by far the superior book. It makes no sense for the Diocese of Quincy to trade a superior book for an inferior one. The BCP 2019 also has no official standing. The College of Bishops has endorsed the book but the Provincial Council and the Provincial Assembly have not adopt it as the province's official prayer book. The Lutherans would say that it is "commended" but not "authorized." In the Lutheran churches synods and congregations have the option of not using a "commended" hymnal/service book but they are required to use the "authorized" ordinal in ordaining pastors and consecrating bishops.
If individual members of the Diocese of Quincy want to waster their money and purchase a copy of The Book of Common Prayer 2019, it is a different matter. It is their money to throw away. Bishop Morales has no way of enforcing a restriction on the private use of the BCP 2019 even if he wanted to impose such a restriction. After they have become better acquainted with the book, ACNA'ers who purchase a copy may find better uses for the book than in their personal devotions. It can be used to press flowers and adds a splash of color to still life arrangements. It also makes a handy paper weight or door stop.
As you can see, I do not have a high opinion of the book. I have a number of prayer books in my library and the BCP 2019 does not stack up to these books. The book should have been issued in paper back only for extended trial use. This would have reduced the cost of the book and would have given congregations time to use the forms in the book to see for themselves if they lived up to the claims in the introduction. The book is both defective doctrinally and missionally and needs extensive revision to bring its doctrine and practices in line with those of authentic historic Anglicanism and to make its use less of a liability on the 21st century North American mission field.
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