Anglicans: Changing a Way of Worship

That masterly compendium of Anglicanism's faith and worship, the Book of Common Prayer, has long been one of the glories of the English language. Last week Queen Elizabeth II gave her royal assent to use of a new Psalter in church worship—one step in the first major revision of the Prayer Book in 300 years.

Revision has been long overdue. First compiled in 1549 by Thomas Cranmer, Edward VI's Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prayer Book was an attempt to combine and simplify the services of the English church in a language understood by the people. Today, however, pastors frequently complain that the Prayer Book's stately, frosty prose is often more of a barrier to prayer than an invitation.

Parliament Said No. Other Anglican bodies have frequently updated their editions of the Prayer Book—the U.S. Episcopal Church did so in 1892 and 1928. But the established Church of England has not had a new edition since 1662; in 1928, Parliament coldly voted down a relatively modest revision that shortened and modernized some language, yet left the structure of the services intact. But so great was the pastoral need for change that many parish priests began using the 1928 revisions on their own, illegally.

Last March, Parliament authorized the Church of England to use, on an experimental basis, a number of the 1928 revisions, plus a few new ones recommended by a church liturgical commission. The text of these changes was published this month, but will not go into effect until May. Although modest enough, the 1928 changes do excise some of the gloomiest theologizing of the Anglican past. The burial service, for example, omits "man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery." In the Te Deum, God, who "didst not abhor the Virgin's womb," becomes who "didst humble thyself to be born of a virgin."

Somewhat less felicitous is the new Psalter, which can also be used by churches next May. A modernization of the King James translation of the Psalms prepared by a team of Anglican scholars (among them: T. S. Eliot), it suffers from the same kind of drab, bureaucratic writing that mars the New English Bible. In the 23rd Psalm, for example, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" now reads, "The lord is my shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing."

Gloria Up Front. Introduction of the Psalter and the 1928 revisions is only the first step. Eventually, the church hopes to experiment with even more drastic changes, including a new form for Holy Communion and baptism. The proposed Holy Communion is somewhat closer in structure to the Roman Catholic Mass than the present service; the Gloria, for example, would be recited at the beginning of worship following the Kyrie, instead of after distribution of the consecrated bread and wine. The Anglican liturgical commission that drew up the new services deliberately left the rubrics vague to allow for adaptation to the needs of individual churches.