A decent order: Thomas Cranmer and Anglicanism's native piety

In the final chapter of The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village, Eamon Duffy refers to William Shepherd, a sometime Augustinian monk who conformed to the Elizabethan Settlement, becoming vicar of a small Essex parish. He quotes Shepherd defending the Book of Common Prayer (1559) as the "decent Rits of the church of Christ" (p.177).

On this commemoration of the martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, that word "decent" has caught my attention.  It was a word Cranmer himself used in describing the rites and ceremonies of the reformed liturgy:

this godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers (in 'Concerning the Service of the Church');

it is thought good to reserve them still, as well for a decent order in the Church (from 'Of Ceremonies').

It also appears consistently in documents which created a context for this liturgy.  The 1559 Elizabethan Injunctions directed:

the holy table in every church be decently made.

The Canons of 1604 employ the word on numerous occasions:

kneeling reverently and decently upon their Knees;

the principal Minister using a decent Cope;

Every Minister saying the Publick Prayers, or Ministering the Sacraments, or other Rites of the Church, shall wear a decent and comely Surplice;

in all Churches within the Realm of England, convenient and decent Tables are provided and placed for the Celebration of the holy Communion ... covered in time of Divine Service with a Carpet of Silk or other decent Stuff thought meet by the Ordinary of the place.

The Making of Deacons and Ordering of Priests in the 1662 Ordinal also make use of the word:

each of them being decently habited.

What is the significance of 'decent' in describing the achievement of Thomas Cranmer and Anglicanism's native piety?  It suggests that which is seemly and modest, standing apart both from the gaudy and the anarchic.  'Decent' does not overpower us with 'shock and awe', but nor does it leave us confused and lost.

In the 'Advertisment' of The Christian Year, Keble refers to the "domestic nature" of the Book of Common Prayer, its "soothing tendency".  Now this should not be misinterpreted.  Domesticity is no weak, shallow experience.  It is, rather, love and communion.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: compare Luke 12:37. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he commeth, shall find watching: Verily, I say unto you, That he shall gird himself, and make them to sit downe to meat, and will come foorth and serve them." (Authorized Version, 1611) Compare also to the second stanza of Herbert's poem "Faith": "Hungry I was, and had no meat: / I did conceit a most delicious feast; / I had it straight, and did as truly eat, / As ever did a welcome guest."

                             So I did sit and eat.

The "decent order" of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, and of Anglicanism's native piety, embodies this domesticity: home, where the absence of both the overpoweringly gaudy and the distractingly anarchic enables the rhythms of grace and love to nurture us over the years.

The domestic rhythms of this decent order nurture and nourish amidst wrongdoing and forgiveness, in morning light and day's end, in approaching and leaving the Table with gratitude:

the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father ... He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel;

O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day ... Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies ... Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving ... Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee, for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us.

Furniture, music, attire, neither overwhelming nor distracting, are decent and seemly, serving and enriching these domestic rhythms, but not overpowering or displacing them.

Here, perhaps, we find something of the emotional power of Cranmer's achievement, a cause of the affection for his decent order.  The domesticity of its decent rites and ceremonies nurtures heart and soul in the communion of love and grace, day by day and year by year, through hearing and receiving, in desires and petitions, in this transitory life. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

Here endeth the Order of Evening Prayer throughout the Year.