By Robin G. Jordan
In this third article in a series on the ACNA’s 2019 BCP’s Renewed Ancient Text I proposed to examine the second major part of the rite, the Liturgy of the Table. This examination will include several ancillary rites—the penitential rite, the exchange of greeting of the peace, what is mistitled “the offertory” in the 2019 BCP’s eucharistic rites, the fraction rite, the communion rite, and the concluding rite. I plan to examine the eucharistic prayer in a separate article. In the fifth article in this series, I will offer suggestions for celebrating the Holy Eucharist, using the rite.
In its basic sense a rite is a set of fixed words and actions, said and done as a part of a religious ceremony. It can be applied to the different parts of the Holy Eucharist or to entire Holy Eucharist. A liturgy is a set of words, music, and actions regularly use in religious ceremonies. A ceremony is a set of formal acts, often fixed and traditional, performed on important social or religious occasions. All these definitions are taken from the Cambridge Dictionary. While I could have introduced these definitions earlier in this article series, I believe that they are particularly important in understanding the Liturgy of the Table.
The Liturgy of the Table. In the earliest days of Christianity, the Liturgy of the Word, the synaxis, and the Liturgy of the Table, the Lord’s Supper, were separate from each other. They would eventually become fused together and this combination of the Liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Table would come to be called the Holy Eucharist, or simply “the Mass” after the final words that were said at the conclusion of the rite, “Ite missa est,” You may go.” “Depart.” The Liturgy of the Table is composed of a series of smaller rites which typically begin with the penitential rite and end with the concluding rite in more recent Anglican service books.
As we shall see, it is in the Liturgy of the Table, as well as the Entrance Rite, that we see influence of the late Medieval liturgical books, the 1549 BCP, and the various Anglican Missals on the so-called Renewed Ancient Rite, or RAT for short. This is why I can say with a high degree of confidence that the RAT is misnamed. It is not a renewed ancient rite as the compilers of the 2019 BCP would have us believe.
Why then you may ask did they so designate the rite. The answer is fairly simple. They wanted to make the folks who are fans of early Christianity and its forms of worship, the ancient-future worship enthusiasts, and the adherents of the “three streams, one river” view of the Anglican Church believe that they had been heard and a rite embodying their interests had been incorporated into the 2019 BCP. They, however, were being disingenuous. The rite does not meld contemporary forms of worship with ancient ones, but largely draws on forms of worship from the pre-Reformation Medieval Church, the very earliest phase of the English Reformation, and the various Anglican Missals. It borrows liberally from the structure of the 1979 BCP’s Rite I Holy Eucharist and the texts of its Rite II Holy Eucharist.
While some elements of the RAT have a long pedigree, how they are used in the RAT owes more to the pre-Reformation Medieval Church than it does to the early Church. The ACNA’s first Archbishop, Robert “Bob” Duncan, is an advocate of a new settlement that would return the Anglican Church to the days before the English Reformation and the Elizabethan Settlement. He later chaired the task force that was preparing a service book for the ACNA. A special consultant to the task force was Bishop Keith Ackerman, the longtime president of Forward in Faith North America, an organization championing the Anglo-Catholic Movement and the Catholic Revival in the Anglican Church, and a champion of a “New Oxford Movement.” A leading member of the task force was the Rev. Dr. Arnold Klukas, a professor at Nashotah House, a seminary long associated with the Anglo-Catholic Movement in the Episcopal Church. Klukas is an ardent proponent of Anglo-Catholic spirituality.
Rather than being a renewed ancient rite, the RAT reflects the liturgical preferences of one segment of this wing of the ACNA, preferences for an ornate but impractical rite, one that reflects the strong influence of the Pre-Reformation Medieval Church and the post-Tridentian Roman Catholic Church, a rite which, while it might look impressive in a Gothic cathedral or a modern imitation of one, does not have its intended effect in the settings in which Anglican congregations worship on the twenty-first century North American mission field and looks totally out of place. It is a rite designed for large parish churches and cathedrals of a bygone era and not for the small mission churches of this century. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline in church attendance in this century and its effects upon church attendance are an unpleasant reminder that most congregations in this century will be small!
That said, let us take a look at the various elements that form the so-called Renewed Ancient Text’s Liturgy of the Table.
Exhortation. The Exhortation printed in the 2019 BCP combines the second and third exhortations from the 1552 BCP, rendering them into modern liturgical English, and in the process does not convey exactly the same meaning as the two exhortations do separately. It is similar to the Exhortation on pages 316-317 of the 1979 BCP. The exhortation is optional.
The Additional Directions Concerning Holy Communion contain this note: “The Exhortation is traditionally read on the First Sunday of Advent, the First Sunday in Lent, and Trinity Sunday.” This is adapted from a similar note in the rubrics of the 1928 BCP’s Holy Eucharist which directs that one of the Exhortations printed in that book should be read on these occasions.
Penitential Rite. The penitential rite consists of a short bidding to confession, a confession of sin, an absolution, and four assurances of God’s forgiveness from Scripture. The confession of sin comes from the 1979 BCP. The absolution is from the 1548 Order for Communion, rendered into modern liturgical English. The words “bring you to everlasting life” have in the absolutions in a number of recent Anglican service books been replaced with “keep you in eternal life.” The reason for this change is found in the Gospel of John, in John 17: 3, “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” This means that when we believe in Christ, we are not only saved by faith, but we have also begun to know God the Father and Jesus the Son and have embarked on the kind of relationship with them, which is eternal life. In other words, eternal life begins in this life. Asking God to keep someone in eternal life is the same as asking God to make sure that the faith of the person for whom this prayer is made is indeed a saving faith and that through God’s grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they grow in their relationship with God and Jesus. On the other hand, “bring to eternal life” can be interpreted to mean that they are not yet saved and that they are in the midst of the process of being saved through the reception of sacramental grace, a view more compatible with an Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic view of justification and sanctification than a Scriptural one. The simple bidding that introduces the “Comfortable Words,” their optional use, and the addition of the words and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world” to the fourth sentence come from the 1979 BCP.
The Additional Directions concerning Holy Communion which follow the RAT make provision for a “Penitential Order” which may be used at the beginning of the Holy Eucharist or separately on other occasions.
The Acclamation
The Collect for Purity
Then kneeling as able:
The Decalogue or The Summary of the Law
[The Exhortation]
The Confession and Absolution [and Comfortable Words]
The Kyrie
The Collect of the Day
It reflects the 2019 BCP compilers’ propensity to make everything needlessly long and complicated. Their guiding principle appears to have been “more is better,” a principle that Anglican clergy and congregations are prone to follow in planning liturgies for major festivals of the church year like Christmas and Easter, but not one that they should follow in planning services for most Sundays and other occasions.
The Additional Directions permit the substitution of the Confession from Morning Prayer, or from either eucharistic rite for the one printed in the rite.
Exchange of the Greeting of the Peace. While greeting each other with a “holy kiss” is mentioned five times in the New Testament and the early Christians initially exchanged such a greeting at the conclusion of their gatherings and later before the distribution of communion, the practice had fallen into desuetude by the time of the English Reformation. The 1549 Holy Eucharist contains a versicle and response following the second Lord’s Prayer. The priest said, “The peace of the Lorde be alwaye with you,” and the clerks replied, “And with thy spirite.” Archbishop Cranmer dropped this versicle and response in the 1559 Holy Eucharist.
The use of the greeting, “Peace be with you,” was a common greeting in the Jewish community in New Testament times and the response to this greeting was “Peace also be with you” or “And also with you.” “The peace of the Lord be with thy (or your) Spirit, however, is a parting blessing found in one of Paul’s epistles. The last part of this parting blessing, “with thy spirit” would be incorporated into the greeting of the peace in the Latin Mass, and it is from the Latin Mass in the Sarum Rite that Cranmer took the wording for the versicle and response in the 1549 Holy Eucharist.
In the trial services of the 1970s the exchange of the greeting of the peace was reintroduced into the eucharist in the Episcopal Church and in other Anglican provinces. There had been an earlier attempt to introduce the exchange of the greeting of the peace at least vocally in the 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book’s An Alternative Order for the Ministration of Holy Communion. While that book was rejected by parliament, it was used in some English dioceses. However, “passing the peace,” as the practice came to be called would not develop until the trial services of the 1970s.
In the trial services it was recognized that the proper verbal exchange should be, “The peace of the Lord be with you always” or a variant and “And also with you,” modeled on the longstanding Jewish greeting and Jesus’ own words. The Roman Catholic Church reinstated the exchange of the greeting of the peace in similar words in its revision of the Roman Rite in 1969, following Vatican II. The Roman Catholic Church’s new translation of the Latin Mass, promulgated in 2011 reverts to “with your spirit.” The new translation sought to bring the language of the English Mass closer to that of the Latin Mass. The Latin Mass was codified by the Council of Trent from earlier liturgies in 1570. The 1549 BCP and the new translation of the Latin Mass influenced the 2019 BCP’s compilers.
It is noteworthy that in a number of recent Anglican service books the exchange of the greeting of the peace is preceded by “the Prayer of Humble Access,” often in a modified form, which does not imply dualism of body and soul and does not attribute benefits for the body to the sacramental Bread and for the soul to the sacramental Wine. This dualism is a medieval concept found in the writing of Thomas Aquinas. As far as I have been able to ascertain, it was first used after “the Comfortable Words” in the 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book’s An Alternative Order of the Ministration of Holy Communion. In that order the exchange of the greeting of the peace is used in what is known as the Roman position—immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, following the Prayer of Consecration.
The Prayer of Humble Access, when it forms the conclusion to the penitential rite when that rite follows the Prayers of the People, does not contribute to the delay between the consecration of the elements and their receipt, which is does when it is used as a communion devotion in the communion rite.
The Ingathering and Presentation of the People’s Gifts and the Preparation of the Table. The 2019 BCP these actions and any music and words that accompany them are referred to as “the Offertory.” In other recent Anglican service books this term has been dropped for several reasons. One is that this title gives these actions and any accompanying music and words more importance than they warrant. Another is that this particular juncture in the liturgy is one that has historically accumulated clutter which give it a prominence which is not necessary or correct. In other recent Anglican service books, these actions with the penitential rite and the exchange of the greeting of the peace are described as “The Preparation of the Gifts,” The Book of Alternative Services (1985) of the Anglican Church of Canada; the “Preparation for the Lord’s Supper,” An Australian Prayer Book (1978) and A Prayer Book for Australia (1990); or by themselves as “The Preparation of the Gifts,” A New Zealand Prayer Book (1997), “Preparation of the Table, Common Worship (2000) of The Church of England, or “Celebrating at the Lord’s Table,” The Book of Common Prayer (2005) of the Church of Ireland, and similar titles. It is noteworthy that in the new translation of the Latin Mass, these actions and the accompanying words are given no title of their own. Only the music used at this juncture in the Mass is described as the “Offertory.” All these liturgical books recognize that the conclusions of liturgists like Dom Gregory Dix that the “offertory” formed a major part of the eucharist were wrong. The ingathering and presentation of the people’s gifts and the preparation of the table are ancillary to what follows—the giving of thanks over the bread and wine and the distribution of the elements to the communicants. They should not be accompanied by so much ceremonial, music, prayers, and other devotions that they overshadow the main focus of the Liturgy of the Table—setting apart and the reverent distribution and consumption of the sacramental Bread and Wine.
The rubrics of the 2019 BCP’s eucharistic rites direct a deacon or a priest to prepare the table. Other recent Anglican service books do not specify who should prepare the table or such as in The Book of Common Prayer (2005) of the Church of Ireland, they specify that “the table may be prepared by a deacon or lay people.” This recognizes that many churches do not have a deacon. Permitting lay people to prepare the table is one more way of encouraging maximum congregational participation and giving expression to the corporate nature of the People of God. The original deacons it must not be forgotten were appointed to tend to the daily distribution of food to widows of believers. They were responsible for running a food program (Acts 6:1-6).
It may have become customary for deacons to prepare the table, but it is a mistake to take what should be suggestions and turn them into directives. A good practice is to keep the directives in a service book to a minimum and allow for maximum flexibility. The 2019 BCP has a number of rubrics that are directives when they should be suggestions. These rubrics reflect the preferences of the book’s compilers and show little or no sensitivity to the different schools of churchmanship represented in the ACNA and the needs of churches on the twenty-first century North American mission field.
Thanksgiving over the Bread and Wine. I will be examining the eucharistic prayer used in the so-called Renewed Ancient Text in a separate article as I noted earlier in this article. It merits an article to itself.
The Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer has served as a communion devotion since the fourth century AD. In the Eastern Churches the Lord’s Prayer was recited before the breaking of the bread at the beginning of the Communion Rite. Other churches prayed it after the fraction immediately before the distribution of the communion elements. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) placed the Lord’s Prayer immediately after the eucharistic prayer in the Roman Rite. In the Eastern Churches and the Gallican Churches in the West the people recited the Lord’s Prayer. In the Roman Church, the priest, however, prayed the Lord’s Prayer quietly. The people joined in only on the words, “deliver us from evil.” Cranmer adopted this practice in the 1549 BCP but abandoned it in the 1552 BCP. He moved the prayer to a position immediately following the distribution of the communion elements and added a rubric directing the people to recite the prayer after the priest line by line. The 1662 revision of The Book of Common Prayer added the Matthean doxology to the Lord’s Prayer. During the early part of the twentieth century the Lord’s Prayer was restored to its former position after the eucharistic prayer in the 1928 BCP and in the 1928 Proposed English Prayerbook’s An Alternative Order of the Ministration of Holy Communion with a rubric directing the people to join in praying the Lord’s Prayer with the priest.
The bidding introducing the Lord’s Prayer in the Renewed Ancient Text is a modern liturgical English rendering of the introduction in the 1928 BCP, which is derived from that of the pre-Reformation Medieval Latin Mass and the 1549 BCP. It is worth noting that the Gallican family of rites used a variable introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, a practice which some recent Anglican service books have adopted.
A number of recent Anglican service books permit the omission of the Lord’s Prayer after the eucharistic prayer if it is used at the conclusion of the Prayers of the People or after the distribution of the communion elements.
Fraction Rite. The rubrics of the Renewed Ancient Text direct that the sacramental Bread should be broken after the Lord’s Prayer if it has not been broken earlier. This rubric leaves open the possibility that it might be broken during the eucharistic prayer as in the earlier Prayer Books or even immediately after the eucharistic prayer. After the sacramental Bread has been broken, the rubrics direct that a period of silence should be observed. One of two optional confractoria, or fraction anthems, may be said or sung at the conclusion of this period of silence. Both are variations of a text found in the 1549 Holy Eucharist. The first comes from the 1979 BCP. The second appears to be a new composition which was put together to mollify users of the rite who felt that the first confractorium implied that the eucharist is a reiteration or representation of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It was a pointless gesture since the doctrine of transubstantiation held by the Roman Catholic Church maintains that the eucharistic sacrifice and Christ’s sacrifice of himself once for all on the cross are the same. The rubrics of a number of recent Anglican service books permit the recitation or singing of other fraction anthems in addition to or in place of the Pascha Nostrum, or “Christ our Passover.”
In some Eastern rites the breaking of the bread was accompanied by the singing of psalms, in the Gallican rites by the singing of a variable confractorium, and in the Roman rite from the late seventh century on, by the singing of the Agnus Dei. For several centuries the words, “Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us” were repeated several times at the fraction, as a song of the people, while the bread was broken. The repetitions were reduced to three when it became the practice for the people to no longer receive communion regularly at the Mass. The Agnus Dei would subsequently become a part of the exchange of the greeting of the peace, and the conclusion, at the third repetition, would be changed to “grant us your peace.” Late in the Medieval period, the Agnus Dei, in an elaborate sung form, would be sung during the communion of the priest. By that time, the practice of exchanging the greeting of the peace had fallen into desuetude and the Agnus Dei had come to be regarded as a communion hymn rather than a fraction anthem.
The rubrics of the 1549 BCP direct that the Agnus Dei should be sung during the distribution of the communion elements.
"In the Communion tyme the Clarkes shall syng,
ii. O lambe of god, that takeste away the sinnes of the worlde: have mercie upon us.
O lambe of god, that takeste away the synnes of the worlde: graunt us thy peace."
The 1552 BCP omits the Agnus Dei as do the revisions of 1559, 1604, and 1662. The practice of singing the Agnus Dei as a communion hymn would persist although the anthem itself was no longer an authorized part of the liturgy. The Agnus Dei would appear as a communion devotion preceding the distribution of the communion elements in the unauthorized liturgies of the Anglican Missals of the late nineteenth century. A proposal to include the Agnus Dei n the 1928 BCP was defeated. However, a rubric permitting the singing of a hymn before the distribution of the communion elements in the 1928 BCP allowed for its use provided that it was sung. The Agnus Dei would be added to The Hymnal 1940 as an optional hymn for use at this point in the service or during the communion.
Communion Rite. The rubrics of the Renewed Ancient Text permit the optional use of the Prayer for Humble Access and the Agnus Dei or “some other suitable anthem.” If the Prayer of Humble Access is said, the rubrics direct that the bishop or priest who is presiding and the people say the prayer together. The placement of the Agnus Dei as a communion devotion immediately prior to the distribution elements reflects the influence of the nineteenth century Anglican Missals. The rubric that permits its use is adapted from 1979 BCP’s Rite I Holy Eucharist permitting the use of the Agnus Dei as an optional fraction anthem.
When the Prayer of Humble Access and the Agnus Dei are used, they create a lengthy delay between the consecration of the communion eements and their distributions. Among the reasons that Cranmer moved the Lord's Prayer and the Prayer of Humble Access to different positions in the eucharist was that they could interpreted to teach that Christ is substantively present in the communion elements after their consecration.
The first form used for the invitation to communion, “The Gift’s of God for the people” is taken from words used in the Eastern liturgies in which they are associated with the showing of the sacrament to the people. An optional sentence derived from the form used at the ministration of the sacramental Bread in the 1552 BCP and subsequent editions of the Prayer Book, may be added to the first form. The second form used for the invitation to communion “Behold the Lamb of God…” is used in the Roman Rite for the same purpose.
"The Priest genuflects, takes the host and, holding it slightly raised above the paten or above the chalice, while facing the people, says aloud:
Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb."
It is noteworthy that the rubrics of the 1549 BCP prohibited any elevation or showing of the Sacrament to the people because it had become the focus of the Mass in the pre-Reformation Medieval Church. The priest showed the consecrated host to the people for adoration and worship.
While the use of these two forms in the communion rite is optional, they do affect the doctrine of the rite with their presence.
The words of administration are a modern liturgical English rendering of the 1559 words of administration except the bracketing of the words “which was given for you…” and “which was shed for you…” makes them optional. While the words, “the Body of Christ” and the Blood of Christ” or similar words have been words of administration since early times, they lend themselves to the belief that the consecration of the bread and wine change their substance into the body and blood of Christ or imparts his substantive presence to the communion elements. Historically the Anglican Church has rejected doctrines teaching these views of the eucharistic presence as not supported by Scripture. The retention of the 1559 wording in optional form to some degree serves as a safeguard against this interpretation of the eucharistic doctrine of the rite, but that wording has historically been misinterpreted to support the notion that Christ is substantively present in the communion elements.
The rubrics make provision for the singing of hymns, psalms, or anthems during the distribution of the communion elements.
The rubrics permit the bishop or priest who is presiding at the eucharist to say an optional sentence from Scripture. This practice can be traced to the 1549 BCP and to the Anglica Missals. The 1549 BCP provides a selection of these sentences and gives directions for the clerks to sing one of them. It does not leave the Post-Communion, as this sentence is called, to the discretion of the president.
The post-communion prayer follows, said by all. One of two prayers may be used—the one printed in the rite or the one printed in the Anglican Standard Text. The Post-Communion Prayer printed in the rite comes from the 1979 BCP. It is a shortened version of a revision of the 1549 Post-Communion Prayer in modern liturgical English. It is the second of two alternative post-communion prayers in the Rite II Eucharist. The Post-Communion Prayer printed in the Anglican Standard Rite is also taken from the 1979 BCP. It is the same prayer as the prayer in the Renewed Alternative Prayer, in its longer form as found in the Rite I Holy Eucharist and rendered into modern liturgical English. The compilers of the 2019 BCP had a number of alternative post-communion prayers from which they could have drawn. Instead they chose two variations of the same prayer.
Unlike the 1979 BCP, the 2019 BCP does not make provision for a hymn before or after the post-communion prayer, and in not making provision for a hymn after the post-communion prayer, it breaks with a longstanding practice in the American Prayer Book. As in various Eastern rites, the American Prayer Book from the 1789 BCP on has permitted the singing of a hymn or doxology after the post-communion prayer. This provision enabled a congregation that was unable to sing the Gloria in Excelsis after the post-communion prayer to sing praise to God. This is a significant loss to the rite because a number of hymns and worship songs are particularly suited to this point in the service. It also gives a congregation the option of singing the Gloria in Excelsis or a metrical version of that canticle or some other song of praise after the post-communion prayer. The singing of a hymn or worship song at this point enables the service to conclude quickly with a blessing, followed immediately by the dismissal. This works particularly well in the types of settings in which mission churches meet and with today’s smaller congregations. The 2019 BCP’s compilers, as I have said earlier in this article series, were not able to put themselves in the shoes of many churches on the twenty-first century North American mission field.
Concluding Rite. The service concludes with a blessing and a dismissal. A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung after the blessing or following the dismissal. As a number of writers have observed, anything sung after the dismissal is not a part of the service. The people have been dismissed and therefore the service has ended. It makes no sense to dismiss the people and then expect them to remain in their places and sing hymn or psalm or listen to special music. They will have gotten up from their seats, will be chatting to each other, or will be moving toward the nearest exit or the hallway that leads to the fellowship hall if there is a coffee hour after the service.
By now I believe that readers will have come to realize that “renewed” and “ancient” are not an accurate description of this rite. Some of the elements used in the rite can be traced to the early church, but the forms in which they are used in this rite owe more to the pre-Reformation Medieval Church, the post-Tridentian Roman Catholic Church, and the nineteenth century and twentieth century Catholic Revival.
Obviously I do not expect the Anglican Church in North America to rename the rite since they included that title in the 2019 BCP. But I do believe that those using the rite need to acknowledge that the rite is not representative of the ancient eucharistic liturgies and that they do not maintain the fiction that it is in the neighborhoods and communities where their churches are located.
We need to be honest with the public as well as the members and regular attendees of our churches about what we are doing in our worship and its origins and not make any false claims. It may be disappointing to some to discover that the rite they are using is not what it is purported to be, but they need to realize that others in the Anglican Church in North America are given to exaggeration and hyperbole and things are not always what they claim them to be. Regrettably they do their fellow ACNAers a great disservice in making such claims.
In my next article I will examine the eucharistic prayer printed in the Renewed Ancient Text.
In my next article I will examine the eucharistic prayer printed in the Renewed Ancient Text.
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