Goodbye Common Prayer?
The New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa has A Form for Ordering the Eucharist (pp. 511-514). This is an outline of a Eucharist, a framework. Initially it was “intended for particular occasions and not for the regular Sunday Celebration of the Eucharist.” (p 511) but this requirement was removed from the Prayer Books after the 1998 General Synod. “This rite (still) requires careful preparation by the presiding priest and participants” (p. 511), but, since 1998, there is no assurance what you will encounter at your main Eucharist in your local parish church. In a new move, General Synod 2006 has gone even further. In this latest framework all talk of “careful preparation” and consulting “participants” has gone.
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What might be your ideal for the regular Sunday morning Eucharist? A simple framework, loose enough that it can vary with festivals, special occasions, and the different “flavours” of the church’s year? The framework clear enough that people have a basic idea of the flow and direction, and feel it is “their” worship together – not that they are spectators, never sure what will happen next? With some well-known responses said to each other and to God? And hymns, songs, prayers, readings, and so on, slotted into their appropriate place in the framework? Until relatively recently, that ideal appeared to be the direction we were moving towards. And, yes, your community can still work towards this ideal (see ANZPB/HKMA p.511-514). But it is not the direction we are moving together. Any sense of "common prayer" stops at your community's door. General Synod has just passed An Alternative Form for Ordering the Eucharist. Surprisingly, it makes no distinction between essentials and peripherals. And it leaves us wondering if our doctrine can now be set overseas.
This story begins at the Fifth International Anglican Liturgical Consultation in Dublin in1995. Certain principles and recommendations were adopted there by the whole Consultation.
Five groups worked on statements, but there was no time to work on them as a whole Consultation. Hence, these statements are subscribed to only by the members of the respective Groups.
Group III, for example, worked on the Structure of the Eucharist to help provinces in their eucharistic revisions. As part of that, they produced the following note (GROVE #135 Renewing the Anglican Eucharist, David R. Holeton (ed) pages 29-30):
"What is Important?
The following scheme, suggested for the Sunday celebration of the eucharist, should be varied in keeping with liturgical seasons and special seasons andd occasions.
The following table indicates the relative importance of the various elements in the eucharistic rite [indicated in square brackets alongside each element].
1 = indispensable
2 = integral, but not indispensable
3 = would not be omitted in principle, may be limited or varied in accordance with liturgical seasons or special occasions;
4 = not necessary but may be desirable at times.
An asterisk indicates elements of the liturgy which may appear at one point or another in the rite. Their placement, however, has significant implication and requires careful attention.
I. The Gathering of God’s People
Greeting [1]
*Penitential Rite [3]
Song/Act of Praise [1]
Opening Prayer (Collect) [1]
II. Proclaiming and Receiving the Word
First Reading [1]
Psalm [2]
Second Reading [2]
Gospel [1]
Sermon [1]
Creed [3]
*Silence, songs and other responses [2]
III. Prayers of the People
Prayers [1]
*Lord’s Prayer [1]
*Penitential Rite [3]
Peace [1]
IV. Celebrating at the Lord’s Table
Preparing the Table [1]
Prayer over the gifts [4]
Eucharistic Prayer [1]
*Lord’s Prayer [1]
Silence [1]
Breaking of the Bread [1]
Invitation [2]
Communion [1]
V. Going out as God’s People
Silence [1]
Hymn [4]
Prayer after Communion [2]
Blessing [4]
Dismissal [1]"
The next part of the story continues in 2002 when the Common Life Liturgical Commission presented a Template for Anglican Worship to General Synod (more on the Template another time!) As part of this, with footnoted allusion to the above report, was an “Example of An Order for a Eucharist.” General Synod was obviuosly being presented with the above outline, but, very surprisingly - the distinct elements were stripped of the relative importance (the numbers in square brackets) which were so central to the point of the outline. Here is the General Synod "Example":
"GATHER
The Gathering of God’s People
Greet
*Penitential Rite
Song/Act of Praise
Opening Prayer (Collect)
STORY
II. Proclaiming & Receiving the Word
First Reading
Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel
Sermon
Creed
*Silence, songs & other responses
Prayers of the People
Prayers
*Lord’s Prayer
*Penitential Rite
Peace
Celebrating at the Lord’s Table
Preparing the Table
Prayer over the gifts
Eucharistic Prayer (any authorised Great Thanksgiving/Eucharistic Prayer may be used)
*Lord’s Prayer
Silence
Breaking of the Bread
Invitation
Communion
GO
Going out as God’s People
Silence
Hymns
Prayer after Communion
Blessing
Dismissal
* indicates elements of the liturgy which may appear at one point or another in the rite."
This structure, passed as part of the Template by General Synod, had been ripped out of its original purpose: an outline for a province’s eucharistic revision. Most significantly, a primary intention of this structure was to identify the relative importance of different elements by a four point scale. Some things were intended to always be there, other things rarely. That scale was stripped from the text. Everything was presented as being equally important.
The story continues at the next General Synod, 2004, where this text was removed from the Anglican Worship Template as having “caused some confusion” (GS 2004, R45). It was now given a life of its own as “An Alternative Form for Ordering the Eucharist”. General Synod wanted this to become a formulary in its own right, and sent it around the diocese, etc. for confirmation. Any Eucharistic Prayer, authorised by the equivalent to General Synod in any member church of the Anglican Communion would now be Okay in this church. There was a note added to the intended formulary: “The five section headings and the related subsections are those agreed by the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation for Common Use throughout the Anglican Communion.” This is patently incorrect, as noted above.
The Christchurch diocesan synod 2004 not only declined to assent to this Statute but instructed “the Diocesan Manager be asked to convey to the Common Life Liturgical Commission, the Tikanga Pakeha Liturgical Working Group and the General Secretary of this church, the reservations expressed by this Synod, including:
that the current formularies already provide sufficient direction and flexibility and that this new measure is unnecessary and confusing
that the schedule detailing the new alternative forms, by omitting details included in the documents from the 5th International Liturgical Consultation Dublin 1995, have failed to indicate the priority to be attributed to each element.”
General Synod 2006 has recently passed this as a new formulary. It is unclear whether overseas Eucharistic Prayers are now binding here as expressing our doctrine. The negatives are clear: every Eucharist using this Alternative Order will look much the same - the very thing the 1995 Consultation was attempting to avoid. A positive might be that we can now use some wonderful overseas Eucharistic Prayers that might previously have been a bit difficult to adapt into our prayer framework (NZPB/HKMA p.512-514). But we can only legally use these, of course, when all the other parts of the Alternative Order are used. If that positive was the primary hope of General Synod, a simpler decision would have been to have amended pp.511-514 by alowing "any authorised Great Thanksgiving/Eucharistic Prayer may be used". That would have satisfied the strong criticisms argued here, and increasing flexibility, not reducing it.
All material used from this site is to be attributed to B. Peters (www.liturgy.co.nz) in accordance with this licence.