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NZ Prayer Book

New New Zealand Prayer Book?

NZ Prayer Book

Sunday, December 1st, is the 30th anniversary of the 1989 launch of A New Zealand Prayer Book—He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (ANZPB/HKMOA).

The Common Life Liturgical Commission (CLLC) has gathered and produced resources for use in worship that Sunday to celebrate this taonga, the Prayer Book.

You can also download a set of Te Reo Maori recordings of various parts of ANZPB/HKMOA, which can assist worship leaders and worshipers with their pronunciation and use of these parts of our liturgy.

In the CLLC resources, they write:

On the horizon is the exciting reprint of the full Prayer Book, scheduled to be launched at the 64th General Synod in 2020. The Samoan 404, Tongan 404, Fijian 404, and Samoan 476 authorised translations will add to the diverse richness of the multilingual prayer book we all treasure and value so greatly. It is hoped that the much worked on Māori translation of Years A,B,C Sentences and Collects will be ready for inclusion also.

30th Anniversary A New Zealand Prayer Book – He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa

Someone will have to remind me when all these new resources were authorised as formularies of our Church. When did these go through the required ratification by the “twice round” process of passing at General Synod Te Hinota Whanui, agreement by diocesan synods, followed by confirmation by General Synod and thereafter awaiting a year before being a formulary? Certainly, I cannot spot them on the Church’s official page of Authorised Services (Formularies) including ‘A New Zealand Prayer Book / He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa‘. And even the indication that “It is hoped that the much worked on Māori translation of Years A,B,C Sentences and Collects will be ready for inclusion also” does not sound like they (not being ready) have been through this rigorous process. If anyone can shed light on this, please indicate this in the comments and I can amend this paragraph.

Only eight years ago, another new New Zealand Prayer Book was ready to be printed. I appear to have been the only one who spotted that there had been no appropriate authorisation of what was going to be part of it. A concerted, energy-draining campaign, originating on this site, finally received sufficient support for those in authority to realise that they had no right to push “print” on this new edition. Surely, in these few short years, and with so much energy recently expended on dotting i’s and crossing t’s of our rules, we are not in this situation again?!

It is important to stress, this is no judgement about whatever it is that is being referred to. This is simply highlighting the importance of the taonga (treasure) that all are involved in the process of authorising our common prayer.

In our confused and confusing Anglican Church of Or, I continue to call for clarification of what is required, what is allowed, and what is forbidden. The announcement of a new Prayer Book may be another example of the seriousness of the confusion at every level of our Church.

I have only recently noticed that the pagination for our online Prayer Book is different to the pagination of our IRL Prayer Book. How will this work in any future printed Prayer Book? [“The Samoan 404”, for example, clearly refers to the current IRL Prayer Book page 404].

Then there is confusion over the understanding of what A New Zealand Prayer Book / He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa actually references (say, in our agreed rules). There are some in senior leadership in our Church who see it as referring to all authorised worship material outside the BCP whether that material is in any IRL printed version or not. These people, for example, would see Ashes to Fire as being part of the Prayer Book. Then there are others who think that A New Zealand Prayer Book / He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa only refers to the different editions of the IRL printed Prayer Book. As the online Prayer Book differs from the IRL printed version, the former approach seems to be gaining ground.

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