Prayer Book Revision Topic At Kentucky Meet
Episcopal News Service. March 1, 1979 [79066]
Richard Walker
Louisville, Ky. -- Representatives of the 13,000 Episcopalians in the western half of Kentucky concluded their annual diocesan convention here with a series of conciliatory gestures which were applauded by Bishop David B. Reed as "healing" and "unifying."
Throughout the three days of worship and routine church "house-keeping sessions," the 122 clergy and lay deputies were told that the Diocese of Kentucky was facing a future in which it must grow in service as well as numbers or face a sharp cutback in its Christian mission.
The diocese, they were told, has been on a membership and financial downswing of the kind which has afflicted most mailine denominations since the 1960's.
The churchmen responded by giving a generally worded endorsement of their bishop's proposal for a five-year campaign for "growth in numbers, service and financial resources" and by steering a middle-of-the-road course on the oft-perplexing Church controversies which have plagued Episcopalians in the U.S.
The most spirited debate came during the closing hours of the session when deputies tangled over the issue of the revision of The Book of Common Prayer.
Traditionalists in the American daughter of the Church of England have long argued that supporters of the updated Prayer Book were driving them out of the Church by introducing contemporary-language services and other changes in the worship of the 3 million-member church. Opposition to the Prayer Book changes and other trends in the Episcopal Church triggered the formation of the Anglican Catholic Church.
Proponents of the continued availability and use of the traditional 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer asked the diocesan convention to send a "memorial" to the Episcopal General Convention, which meets in triennial session next fall in Denver, asking that services from the old and new books be allowed at the parish level.
The Rev. James W. Law, St. Luke's Church, Anchorage, Ky., who has been a vocal critic of the new prayer Book as well as a staunch opponent of women's ordination to the priesthood, said thousands of Church members would feel "disenfranchised if they cannot continue to use the 1928 Book."
"All we ask is that people who want to say their prayers the way they said them for years can continue to do so," the priest argued.
The Very Rev. Alien L. Bartlett, dean of Christ Church-Cathedral, Louisville, and a prominent supporter of the revised liturgy, told the convention that Law's resolution was unnecessary because "the national Church has never forbidden the use of any past book."
"My understanding is that the bishop of each diocese may permit for special occasions the use of special ceremonies," he said.
In the end, it was Bishop Reed who cast the deciding vote in favor of the traditionalist resolution after about 30 minutes of debate. Following an inconclusive ballot in which the priestly deputations split, 16-16, and the laity endorsed the resolution, 45-32, the bishop threw in his lot with the traditionalist faction, giving the motion a one-vote margin for passage.
"I personally think that the Church will be served by having one prayer book and I'm not saying how I will vote on this at the general convention," said Bishop Reed, who has drawn conservative ire for supporting prayer book revision as well as women's ordination. "But I feel it is the wish of this convention that this memorial be communicated to general convention and therefore I will cast my ballot in favor of the resolution. "
The convention voted overwhelmingly to table a resolution critical of the World Council of Churches for its recent controversial grant to the patriotic front of Zimbabwe, for humanitarian work in refugee camps that are located around the Rhodesian borders.
"There was a strong desire for unity at this convention," Bishop Reed said in an interview following final adjournment. "Everybody wanted to be responsive to the needs of others and it was a good healing convention."