Publication Date Announced for Draft Proposed Prayer Book
Diocesan Press Service. May 14, 1975 [75185]
DALLAS, Tex. -- February 2, 1976, the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, was accepted by the Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church as the official date for publication of "The Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer." Meeting at the Bishop Mason Episcopal Retreat and Conference Center here May 6-9, the Commission moved rapidly towards the completion of its work on Prayer Book revision by July 18, 1975. After that date, the revised manuscript will go to the printers, and should be available to all Bishops and Deputies to the 65th General Convention of the Episcopal Church at least six months before the opening of the Convention at Minneapolis/St. Paul on September 11, 1976.
Copies of the Draft Proposed Book will also be made available to the general public at that time. Members of the Commission expressed the hope that their labors of the past eleven years will be judged not on the basis of the preliminary and interim drafts published for trial use in "The Liturgy of the Lord's Supper" (1967), "Services for Trial Use" (1970), and "Authorized Services 1973," as well as in several"Prayer Book Studies," but by the contents of the "Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer," which will reflect the considered response of the Commission to the experience of trial use.
The Draft Book will be published by The Church Hymnal Corporation, 800 Second Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017. No price has yet been announced, but advance orders are being accepted and will be given priority in the distribution of the Draft Book.
The Draft Proposed Book will serve as the working document of the 1976 General Convention as it considers the revision of the present Book of Common Prayer, last revised in 1928. The Convention has full authority under the Constitution of the Church to amend, delete, reject or rearrange the contents of the Draft Book before taking its first constitutional action. What emerges as a result of the Convention's decisions will then be known as "The Proposed Book of Common Prayer." If adopted, the Proposed Book may be authorized by separate resolution for alternative use during the 1976-79 triennium. It will then be submitted to the General Convention of 1979 for its second and final constitutional action.
Arrangements are being made for full public hearings on the Draft Proposed Book before the General Convention opens. The 1973 Convention held in Louisville, Ky., decided that the Minnesota Convention would devote no less than two full days of legislative work on the Draft Book.
The main focus of the Commission's work May 6-9 was the revised text of a Catechism, entitled "A Summary of The Faith, " prepared by a committee under the chairmanship of the Very Rev. Robert H. Greenfield, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Portland, Ore. This text is to be given one further scrutiny by the Commission before being included in the Draft Proposed Book.
The Commission set up a new committee under the chairmanship of the Rev. Charles P. Price of Alexandria, Va., to consider the second revision of texts prepared by The International Consultation on Ecumenical Texts (ICET) and published in April 1975 under the title "Prayers We Have in Common" (Second Revised Edition, Fortress Press, Philadelphia).
This second revision is itself a product of trial use by English-speaking Churches of various denominations in Great Britain, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. Significant changes were made in the texts of the Lord's Prayer, the Nicene Creed, Agnus Dei, Gloria Patri, and other liturgical formularies.
The Commission also decided to recommend the inclusion in the Calendar of the following historic witnesses to the Faith:
Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1118-1170 (Dec. 29);
Emma Liliuokalani, 1838-1917, last reigning Queen of the Hawaiian Islands (Mar. 5);
Charles Stuart, King, beheaded 1649 (Jan. 30).
Several other names were considered, but final decision was left over until a later meeting.
The Commission completed work on
* The Burial Office: Rite I;
* A new arrangement of collects and lections for the Eucharistic Lectionary, with a view to bringing the present scheme into closer correspondence with the Roman Catholic propers. (This was a directive of the General Convention of 1973);
* An additional set of lections for Rogation Days;
* A rearrangement of Psalms for the principal service on Sundays on a three- year basis;
* A rearrangement of Psalms in a 7-week course, for Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, including Sundays;
* The Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) Service;
* The Good Friday Service;
* The Great Vigil of Easter;
* Private Daily Devotions for Morning, Noon, Early Evening and Close of Day;
* An Order of Worship for the Evening;
* A revision of the Sunday Collects in contemporary language.
The Commission devoted considerable time to the consideration and discussion of comments, criticisms and suggestions received from bishops and other members of the Church as a result of the experience of trial use.
The Commission also decided to give further consideration to the offices of Ministration to the Sick, Reconciliation of a Penitent, Ministry at the Time of Death, and the Burial Office, Rite II.
The Rev. Dr. Charles Price reported on the work he had been asked to do in preparing suitable materials for use in connection with the observance of the American Bicentennial. The Commission approved the outline of the proposed services and other plans made in cooperation with the Bicentennial Observance Committee of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
The Commission was informed that the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies had endorsed the Commission's recommendation at its last meeting that approval for trial use be given to a revised Marriage Rite; a new form of the General Confession for the Rite II Daily Office and Eucharist Rite II, and as an alternative for the Holy Eucharist, Rite I; an alternative form of the Ten Commandments in contemporary language (based on Church of England and Church of Ireland forms); three Eucharistic Prayers -- one a brief version of the traditional 1928 Prayer of Consecration as the only alternative in Rite I to the 1928 text of the Consecration Prayer, unchanged; the second conflation of Prayers A and B in the Order of Celebration; and the third, a new eucharistic prayer based on Greek and Latin forms of an Eastern prayer, on which the fourth eucharistic canon of the Roman Catholic liturgy is based. Trial use was also approved for a new form of the Presiding Bishop's charge in the Ordination of a Bishop.
These materials, prepared in response to the experience of trial use, will be published this summer by The Church Hymnal Corporation in order that they may be available for use and evaluation well before the publication of "The Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer. "
The Commission received a communication from the Very Rev. David Carter, Vice Chairman of the Synod Committee on Doctrine and Worship of the Anglican Church of Canada, who has served frequently as an official observer and participant in the Commission's work. Dean Carter could not be present because of his attendance at the Annual Conference of U.S. and Canadian Deans which met this year in Rome. At the first Anglican Eucharist ever to be celebrated in the Vatican, the Deans used the Holy Eucharist Rite II from "Authorized Services 1973." The service was held in the Church of San Stefano in the Vatican by special permission of His Holiness Pope Paul VI.