To Perform The Mercy: Notes on the Liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the 1940 Hymnal and the Canons of the Diocese of the Holy Cross

By Paul C Hewett

Our English language owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Book of Common Prayer, which fi rst came out in 1549, and along with the King James Bible, became the spiritual springboard for the spread of the British Empire. These Prayer Book notes are for those interested in learning more about this Anglican distinctive, and our use of it in w

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Feb 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647536589

Paul C Hewett

The Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett is the Bishop of the Diocese of the Holy Cross, based in Columbia, South Carolina and one of four jurisdictions in the Anglican Joint Synods. He holds the M.Div. from Philadelphia Divinity School, and an A.B. from Temple University. His interest in the origins of English came from the Book of Common Prayer.

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TO PERFORM THE MERCY

Notes on the Liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the 1940 Hymnal and the Canons of the Diocese of the Holy Cross

Paul C. Hewett

To Perform the Mercy

Copyright © 2021 by Paul C. Hewett. All rights reserved.

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The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021901765

ISBN 978-1-64753-657-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-658-9 (Digital)

19.01.21

"To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers,

and to remember his holy covenant…"

Luke 1: 72

CONTENTS

Introduction

Introductory Material in the Prayer Book

Morning and Evening Prayer

The Holy Communion and The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels

The Collects, Epistles and Gospels

The Ministration of Holy Baptism

The Psalter

The Ordinal

A Catechism

Family Prayer

The Articles of Religion

Notes On Eucharistic Theology And Customs

Notes on the 1940 Hymnal

Canon Law

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

These Notes are for those interested in learning more about Anglican distinctives such as the Book of Common Prayer, and our use of it in worship, to perform the mercy of our redemption in Christ. It is hoped that clergy, lay readers and many among the laity will find the background material presented here useful devotionally, and in the celebration of the Liturgy of our Church.

We will be using Massey Shepherd’s Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary as a primary source. This is sometimes available on line at a reasonable price, but is not necessary to have in using these notes.

The various Books of Common Prayer are, throughout the centuries, in the Church of England, 1549, 1552, 1559, and 1662, and in the U.S., 1789, 1892 and 1928. We will not count late 20th century revisions, as they are more books of alternative services than a Book of Common Prayer. We may keep in mind that those who came from England to settle in the American colonies and Canada brought with them the 1662 Prayer Book, the same Book the Church of England’s missionaries used in settling Australia and New Zealand and in evangelizing India, Ceylon and Africa. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer was the theological, liturgical, spiritual and devotional underpinning of the British Empire, the lens through which we read Holy Scripture. It has been said that over 90% of the contents of all editions of the Prayer Book are Holy Scripture, quoted directly or paraphrased. Most phrases of the collects and prayers can be traced to a verse in the Bible. The Prayer Book is indeed the Bible at prayer.

Each subsequent revision in the United States, 1789, 1892 and 1928, was theologically and liturgically, a step by step return to the original 1549 Book, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s first, and best, edition. Aesthetically, in terms of language, Cranmer’s work in translating from the Latin liturgies then in use, and incorporating elements of the 4th century Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and some Lutheran elements, has been, through the centuries, an absolute masterpiece. Cranmer (and Myles Coverdale before him, who translated our Prayer Book Psalter) were probably the two most gifted craftsmen of the language in their times.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, as Robert MacNeil has pointed out, the English language was versatile, highly colored, playful, innovative and self-confident. (The Story of English, p. 88) We cannot miss this as we recite the Psalms from Coverdale’s 1535 Psalter, or Cranmers Post-communion prayer, cited by an English professor as the greatest prose ever penned in English. Modern prose, by comparison, can be flat, dull and stale, bureaucratic and pedestrian. Someone once said that a confession of sins in modern English sounds like an apology for missing a train. Cranmer’s general confessions, in the Daily Office and the Eucharist, hit the nail on the head: We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us…

Speaking of the Daily Office, it was ingenious of Cranmer to re-shape the seven monastic offices into two, Morning and Evening Prayer. The Eucharist is the crown jewel, and every jewel has a setting, and the setting is a two-fold Office in which clergy and laity can take part daily, in church or at home. So the Liturgy is the Eucharist, surrounded by the Daily Offices, augmented by the Litany. And the Prayer Book becomes not just a book of liturgies and prayers, but a Benedictine Regula, a Rule, for the ordering of all life, for the sanctification of time, and available to the whole Body of Christ. And in time, Evening Prayer would, in the great cathedrals and parishes throughout England, go on to become Evensong, in a cathedral choral tradition unrivaled anywhere in the world.

It is said that the three great classics of the English language are the King James Version of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, and the Book of Common Prayer. Familiarity with these classics is essential if we are to have some awareness of who we are as a people in English speaking cultures, and of who we are as sinners, now redeemed in the tender mercies of our God.

And so, in the eloquent and majestic words of the first Exhortation for the Eucharistic Liturgy, we give "most humble and hearty thanks to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and man, who did humble himself, even to the death upon the Cross, for us, miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death, that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life. And to that end we should always remember the exceeding great love of our Master, and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious blood-shedding he hath obtained for us; he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort. To him, therefore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, let us give, as we are most bounden, continual thanks; submitting ourselves wholly to his holy will and pleasure, and studying to serve him in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Amen." (p. 86)

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL IN THE PRAYER BOOK

The Title Page, page Roman numeral i: When the American colonies won their independence from Great Britain, what had been the Church of England in the colonies decided to choose a new name. The Convention that adopted the 1789 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) chose the name Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The delegates liked the word Episcopal, (a church governed by episkopoi, bishops) but needed to differentiate themselves from other churches that are governed by bishops, the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox, and the Swedish Lutherans. So they added the word Protestant, since we are a non-papal church governed by bishops. In those days the word protestant had less of a negative connotation (what we are against) and more of a positive meaning, what we are pro. We are pro the consensus of the undivided Church of the first millennium, the patristic consensus. To protest something tended more to mean what you propose and support.

Page ii has the Certificate, signed by the Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer, that this edition…has been compared with a certified copy of the Standard Book… The Standard Book is in a glass case in the Archives of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Every publisher who prints the BCP must ensure that the text, and pagination, is the same as the Standard Book, so that everyone using the Book is on the same page. It is interesting to note that the Prayer Book is not copyrighted, so that everyone can freely borrow from it at will.

The Table of Contents is on page iii. Most of what is listed here is taken from the five medieval books that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer condensed into one volume, the