Words from Timothy P. O'Malley's recent Covenant post 'Reading Contemplatively'.
It is suggestive of a defining characteristic - and one of the most fundamental strengths - of the Prayer Book tradition: unchanging texts. Contemporary Anglican liturgy, by contrast, embodies 'choice', the premier virtue of the contemporary social and economic order. 'Choice' has been a leading cause of the undermining of cultural, economic, and social common ground, the fracturing of common life, a fracturing which the Churches have often lamented.
We are about to enter the season of Advent. The CofE's Times and Seasons provisions for Advent give us 3 different introductions to a confession, 3 different Kyrie confessions, 2 forms of seasonal intercessions, 4 introductions to the Peace, 3 Prayers at the Preparation of the Table, 7 Proper Prefaces, 5 Blessings, 2 dismissals, and - just for good measure - an alternative dismissal for use on Advent Sunday. To which must be added, of course, the choice of 8 Eucharistic Prayers in Common Worship.
And it doesn't end there. Common Worship also provides a choice of 2 contemporary language collects for each Sunday of Advent. But why stop at a choice of 2? Enter the Church of Ireland, now offering a different alternative 'collect of the Word' (supposedly linked to the readings of the day) for Years A, B, and C. This includes Advent Sunday because, obviously, there are much better collects out there than that written by Cranmer. Although, admittedly, one might not have immediately thought of looking at the Book of Common Worship 1993 of the Presbyterian Church USA, the source of the alternative Year C Advent Sunday collect.
When it comes to the Daily Office, Common Worship Daily Prayer, offers seasonal Morning and Evening Prayer - "with multitude of Responds, Verses" - which alters its normal provision (which itself changes daily in 'ordinary time'). It terms of the collect, again a choice is offered: the traditional collect of the day, the collect of the week, of an alternative seasonal collect.
As can be seen, the embodying of 'choice' in contemporary Anglican liturgy fractures any recognisable, meaningful understanding of Common Prayer. When the Daily Office is said in Advent according to the Prayer Book tradition, all texts remained unchanged with the exception of Benedicite normally replacing Te Deum on weekdays. The seasonal collect follows that of the week, unchanging year from year. The pattern of Old and New Testament lections continues, as does the monthly Psalter. The Creed follows the second canticle, as always, and the collects at Mattins and Evensong similarly continue.
At the Holy Communion there are no seasonal options, ensuring that attention is not distracted from the Advent themes presented in collects and readings and that the unchanging texts of the rite are not disrupted. Additionally, the one year traditional Eucharistic lectionary provides for a yearly meditation on key Scriptural passages defining the Advent hope, each year drawing us deeper into the texts.
In other words, Common Prayer - the Prayer Book tradition - provides a pattern of, in O'Malley's words, "contemplative reading within our parishes", a "marinating in divine wisdom". Against this, the fracturing of common prayer, disoriented by 'choice', results in a liturgy which reflects the hectic commercial activity and demands of December and its disordering of common life.
Indeed. And the fact that a multiplicity of liturgical options foists upon the worshipper a selection of texts which are intellectually, viscerally, aesthetically and theologically inferior to the Cranmerian tradition means that excellence is being scuttled for the sake mere variety.
ReplyDeleteOne can only marinate in the memory of a sacred text when your options are drastically limited. And when one text stands out as vastly superior in a sea of competitors, there is little sense in choosing against it.
But because we will have "a little something for everybody" the better choice will often be passed over in favor of the less challenging blandishments of an inferior one. This is especially true in those cases where the consumerist ethos of "variety" is given the moral sheen of "diversity". The two are highly convertible in a culture such as ours.
Entirely agree. "One can only marinate in the memory of a sacred text when your options are drastically limited." A great way of describing a foundational principle of Common Prayer.
Delete