The Revised Prayer Book
THE reception given on Monday by the combined Houses of Convocation to the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech on the revised Prayer Book justifies the strongest hopes that-. the Church of England will be true to her tradition and make the present crisis a pledge of peace instead of a cause of war. The Arch- bishop's appeal— for his words were more than a speech and much more than an exposition—evidently carried conviction. It was transparently sincere and admirably phrased ; and everyone • present was touched by the spectacle of the venerable Archbishop, who entered that very day upon the twenty-fifth year of his high office, reminding his audience of the incomparable significance for the nation's spiritual life of unity in the Church.
Unity, -one is tempted to say, is the greatest of all doctrines. If factions in the Church should subordinate that doctrine to others they will have lost that sense of balance which, as all readers of Church history know, Was the chief safeguard against heresies: No one questions—certainly we do not—the earnestness and piety of those parties in the Church which would consent to wreck the organization rather than agree to doctrines, offices and rubrics which do not seem to them to be exactly correct in the uttermost detail. But, then, the most notable fact about a typical rebel or heretic in every age was that he was sincere. He was always trying to recall those who were lethargic or latitudinarian to some forgotten truth ; and by the' emphasis which he laid upon that truth he so exaggerated it in relation to other truths that the outcome was in effect a new and false assertion. It is hardly credible now, when the Bishops are in practically complete agreement, that the offered revision of the Prayer Book should have failed to hold that balance which draws men together by the exercise of justice and toleration. It seems to us that if this revision cannot embrace all those parties who, whatever else they may desire, desire the unity of the Church no other revision can possibly do so.
It has been said that the concessions which hive been made in this alternative Prayer Book as regards Reservation, vestments which are generally associated with the Mass, and so on, are conceived in error because they attempt to cure indiscipline by surrender—always a disastrous course. The last thing we desire to do is to excuse the present indiscipline which we have always deplored, but the Archbishops and the Bishops (with apparently not more than two exceptions) feel able solemnly to declare that the proposed alterations imply and involve no departure whatever from the Sacramental teaching of the Church as drawn up at the Reformation. Surely if the new Prayer Book defines the limit of con- cession it will be far easier than it has been for many years to insist upon obedience.
As for those numerous other changes which touch- questions of doctrine less closely they nearly all seem to us to be wise, if not necessary, because the values- of words and the outlook of educated men upon the universe and upon the social structure and social rights has greatly changed since the -wonderful liturgical writers of the sixteenth. and seventeenth centuries did their work. This is not an argument of convenience suddenly brought to the rescue of a revision granted desperately in order to prevent secession. The Royal Comnifssion of /901, whose Report was issued in 1906: • . , declared that the law of common prayer was too narrow, that " more elasticity was needed." That Commission, it is -worth recalling, was powerfully composed of men of experience and moderation. Such men as Lord Alverstone, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach and Sir Edward Clarke were members.
The most important points in the present revision may now be summarized. The consecrated elements at the Holy Communion may be reserved only for the sick and for those who take part in the service with the sick. In no circumstances may they be reserved for public devotion and exposition. It can hardly he supposed that extremists of the Anglo Catholic party will really desire to prevent a settlement upon this point, for Reservation in the form of either Benediction or Exposition in the Roman Church is not, after all; a primitive practice. As regards vestments at the Holy Communion, it is provided that the priest shall wear either a surplice with stole or with scarf and hood, or a white alb plain with a vestment or cope. Throughout the revision there are, of course, changes from antique language. These might have been more numerous if the aim had been—at the cost of losing much of the haunting beauty of the Book of Common Prayer—to make the language intelligible to entirely uninstructed persons. There are shortened introductions to Matins and Evensong and a shortening of the Litany. A new order of Prime and Complinc is provided in an appendix.
The new Marriage Service differs considerably from the old one. The balder statements are removed and the bride no longer promises to obey her husband. The familiar promise of the bridegroom becomes " With my body I thee honour and all my worldly goods I with thee share." " I- with thee share " seems less pleasing, and hardly more accurate, than " I thee endow." But every clergyman who has to deal with uneducated people knows that the words " I thee endow " have too often proved unintelligible. Often " I thee and thou " is the best effort that the bridegroom can make at repeating the words of the clergyman.
An interesting departure is the permission for . extem- pore prayer. The Athanasian Creed is made permissive and may be used in a revised version. The word " ever- lasting," for example, becomes " eternal." Some know- ledge of Greek, or 'at least of theology, is required, however, for an appreciation of the distinction. Many new occasional prayers and thanksgivings are provided, as, for example, for unity, for election times, for industrial peace, and for the League of Nations. It has been complained by some objectors that the revision sanctions prayers for the dead. These prayers, however, are rather in the nature of commemoration. Alternatives are provided in the service for the Public Baptism of Infants, and in the Burial Service a permissive prayer has been introduced. which_ is- less stern and gloomy than the present committal prayer: -. • " Finally, it may be noted that _the :elergy. will not be. allowed to combine the existing and the revised Com- munion Services. They must use one or the other as a whole. The.. Parochial Councili will have- the .respon- sibility of choosing, under the guidance of the incumbent, and in cases of dispute there will be an appeal to the Bishop. The whole work of revision has, to our thinking, been wonderfully designed to maintain unity-- without exacting an irksome uniformity,
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