A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament: A serious state prayer for a serious time

It has been a night of astonishing scenes at Westminster with reports or jostling, manhandling, bullying and shouting outside the parliamentary lobbies in a supposed vote of confidence in the government. The Deputy Chief Whip was reported to have left the scene saying, “I’m absolutely effing furious, I just don’t effing care anymore,” before he resigned, along with the Chief Whip. But, we’ve just been told they have now officially un-resigned. The Home Secretary has, however, definitely gone. In short, it is total, absolute, abject chaos.

That was how the UK's ITV News introduced the events of last Wednesday.  And that was before the resignation of the Prime Minister, after a mere 44 days in office.  

If ever there was a time for the churches of the United Kingdom to be praying for Parliament, it is now.  In the Church of Ireland's BCP 2004, however, the contemporary form of Morning and Evening Prayer has no prayer for Parliament.  Nor is such a prayer to be found in 'Some Prayers and Thanksgivings' provided.  The traditional Prayer Book 'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament' is to be found in the 'Order One' (i.e. 1926/1662) forms of Mattins and Evensong in BCP 2004.

This, of course, reflects an enduring theme of recent Anglican liturgical revision.  Serious and meaningful state prayers are not to be found in contemporary liturgies.  The Church of England's Common Worship: Daily Prayer has a passing suggestion that "members of parliament" may be prayed for on Fridays.  Apart from the Litany - not, we might guess, a much used provision in Common Worship - the numerous forms of intercession provided have no reference to Parliament.  Nor is any prayer for parliament to be found amongst the 17 prayers provided in the section entitled 'Other Prayers'.

The Church of Ireland BCP 2004 Order One provision reveals where serious state prayers, for a serious time, are to be found: and that is in the classical Prayer Book tradition.  In England, this means BCP 1662 and its 'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament'. It is a prayer which should be offered by Anglicans in the United Kingdom daily (perhaps appropriately at Evensong) at this time of parliamentary confusion and national uncertainty.  

It roots Parliament's service to the Crown and the Realm in 'the permanent things', in a rich vision of the good of the commonwealth as flowing from and ordered towards the author of peace and lover of concord, the fount of all goodness:

That thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church ...

That it should sound strange to contemporary Christian ears to petition that Parliament's consultations, debates, and decision-making should be "to the advancement of thy glory" is an indication of of how impoverished is our vision and doctrine of God.  The glory of God is infinite goodness and wisdom, justice and peace and, therefore, the source and fulfilment of human flourishing.  This being so, the question becomes why would we not pray for Parliament's consultations to be ordered towards goodness and wisdom, justice and peace?

As for petitioning that Parliament's consultations would advance "the good of thy Church", here again it is a rather impoverished understanding that leads to discomfort with such a prayer.  The Church is, the Apostle proclaims, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:23).  Yes, this can be (and often is) obscured by the sins, failures, and fallibility of the Church, but it is authentically carried in the Church's rich tradition of moral teaching and ethical reflection. embodying the gracious, healing, reconciling love of God in Christ for the world.  So, yes, we should indeed pray that Parliament's consultations advance "the good of thy Church", enabling the Christian tradition's moral vision - which shares much with that of the Jewish and Muslim traditions - to shape our national life, a means of sustaining and renewing the common weal.

'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament' goes on to petition that the Realm would be settled on "the best and surest foundations":

all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations.

Here is a petition that the beatific vision which is the fulfilment of all our desires, in its "peace and happiness", would be reflected in the life of the commonwealth; that the commonwealth would not direct us away from the peace and happiness that humanity has been created to enjoy.  Likewise, the commonwealth needs to be ordered towards the "truth and justice" of the Eternal City, or else it becomes a vehicle for the injustice and falsehoods which disorder and corrupt common life.

What about "religion and piety"? Is this not a thoroughly antiquated petition? A more realistic contemporary assessment would suggest otherwise, for we live in an age when Enthusiasts have brought disorder to polities, with technocratic secularism incapable of meaningfully responding to this challenge. Recent times, in other words, have shown us how Hooker's wisdom endures. The first chapter of the fifth book of the Lawes is entitled, 'True Religion is the roote of all true virtues and the stay of all well ordered common-wealthes':

wee have reason to thinke that all true vertues are to honor true religion as theire parente, and all well ordered common-weales to love her as theire cheifest staye (V.1.5).

True religion, as we continue to see, is necessary for the commonwealth because in its absence bad religion (and this includes the enthusiasts of supposedly secular ideologies no less than the enthusiasts and extremists of traditional creeds) is found: the bad religion which promotes violence and intolerance; the bad religion which rejects the way of love and charity with our neighbours; the bad religion which tears at the peace of the commonwealth. Again we are brought to ask ourselves, how could we not pray for Parliament's consultations to settle the commonwealth on the foundations of that "religion and piety" which provides a moral basis for a common life that is sober, wise, ordered, and gracious?

Rooting Parliament's service to the Crown and Realm in the permanent things, and wisely defining "the best and surest foundations" for the commonwealth, 'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament' gives practical expression to this in its petition for "the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his Dominions". It might seem like a rather prosaic statement alongside the prayer's consideration of the permanent things and "the best and surest foundations".  Here is no metaphysical vision, no language which encourages philosophical reflection on the nature of the state.  Instead, it appears earthy, even 'secular': "safety, honour, welfare".  

This, however, is how the eschatological prophetic vision finds deeply resonant expression:

they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid (Micah 4:4).

There is also something of this in the daily prayer at Evensong, "that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness", and in the petition of the Prayer of the Church Militant, "we may be godly and quietly governed".  

Perhaps, during the heady days of 'the end of history', of continuous economic growth, and the presumed universal victory of democratic capitalism, it may have seemed hopelessly antiquated to pray for "the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his Dominions". William Laud - the likely author of the first form of this prayer, when it appeared for use on a fast day in 1625 - knew different as he surveyed the Europe of the Thirty Years' War and, like Hooker, recognised the looming dangers of religious conflict in these Islands.  The Convocation of 1662, which introduced 'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament' into the Book of Common Prayer, similarly knew only too well, after "the late unhappy confusions", that praying for "the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his Dominions" was no small thing.  And now in 2022, we should know likewise, as long-standing political institutions descend into chaos, in a time of war, of economic challenges, of climate change, of profound cultural confusion.  This is indeed a time to pray for "safety, honour, and welfare".

Serious times call for serious state prayers.  'A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament' is such a prayer, infinitely superior to any contemporary alternatives, where such are even available.  It is a serious state prayer precisely because it is shaped by and gives expression to a rich political theology, a compelling vision of the commonwealth deeply rooted in historic Christian teaching. May this serious state prayer be offered by Anglicans across the United Kingdom throughout this week, renewing our vision of a well-ordered commonwealth in which each can "sit ... under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid".