The Book of Common Prayer

-


I spent a few minutes this morning reading an introduction to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer written by Diarmaid MacCulloch. He made a comment that Kris has made before and seems to me to be very important for us who use the BOCP in services and daily devotion. First let me set the stage with quote one:

"The Book of Common Prayer, pivotal to all these minor and comfortable intersections between the sacred and the everyday, was intended as an approach to the divine."

A daily approach and one for everyone. The two major contributions that Cranmer wanted to see accomplished in his lifetime was an English Bible and English church services. He was able to experience it for a few years under Edward and then was burned at the stake by Queen Mary. He wanted it written eloquently enough and historically enough that the Cambridge dons wouldn't snub their nose, yet understandable and sayable by the common people.

But MacCulloch continues ...

"Perhaps the Prayer Book text is now most often experienced in the setting of choral evensong in the cathedral tradition: something of an irony because Thomas Cranmer had little affection for either cathedrals or their choirs."

This is an irony we are all aware of. The moves of Cranmer to make an intersection between the sacred and the everyday, to invite all to approach God ... is most often known as high church for the wealthy and literate. This is a good articulation of a major project within the liturgical streams in America. I do not think there is a simple solution, though. I think being American in the last 50 years when we consider the common man we can't help but think of opinion poles and the "average man or woman."

I guess I need to re-read and consider some posts on contextualization ...

Comments

Cameron said…
This post raises some interesting questions for me. One: I question whether "high church" means exclusively the type of worship meant for the "wealthy and literate," though we have certainly seen that plenty enough to know there's some truth in it. But maybe you're not saying that it (high church liturgy) is exclusively that.

Is it possible for "high church" to be contextualized and accessible to the masses, educated or not? Looking at history I'd tend to say it is possible, and that using the vernacular doesn't have to mean doing away with choirs or evensong or vestments or the like.

But I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this topic, and especially more about what the "major project" is to which you refer.
May 7, 2009 at 7:49 AM
jaypercival said…
Yep. I wasn't implying it had to be, just that on a popular level it already is. Right now most people associate high church with intellectuals and wealthy ... as they do with American cathedrals.

But I do think contextualization and some form of re-contextualization, without dumbing things down is the key.
May 7, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hearth

-
Image
"A stove used to furnish more than mere warmth. It was a focus, a hearth, a place that gathered the work and leisure of a family and gave the house a center. Its coldness marked the morning, and the spreading of its warmth the beginning of the day. It assigned to the different family members tasks that defined their place in the household. The mother built the fire, the children kept the firebox filled, and the father cut the firewood. It provided for the entire family a regular and bodily engagement with the rhythm of the seasons that was woven together of the threat of cold and solace of warmth, the smell of wood smoke, the exertion of sawing and of carrying, the teaching of skills and the fidelity to daily tasks." (Albert Borgmann: Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life ) So what is our new center? Warmth is now provided in a completely uniform way requiring no demands on our skill, strength or attention. In fact, the warmth device (central heating system) is c...
Read more

Idolatry in the West

-
"in order to promote killing in civilized societies it must be legalized under deceitful names. Yet liberal societies seem happy to be deceived exactly to the degree to which they have developed into societies of covetousness." Ok ... I know you need more before you know where this is going ... I am reading a book of essays on the ten commandments. This is in a section talking about the relatedness of all ten commandments, primarily through the command not to murder. He goes from there to make the point that we are a society dominated by want and covetousness and the more the claws of greed entangle us (from human traffiking to slave labor for our cheap consumer goods, to "designer babies" and whatever else technology deems to sell) the more we will redefine sin and morality. Bernd Wannenwetsch continues: "the culture of death is essentially marked by the business of redefinition. In defining our own humanity we claim the property rights that entitle us to dist...
Read more