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"Our litanies are slimmed down and rarely said"

This Time of the Virus unveils some less joyful things for Christians as well, failures in our common witness over the years. How is it that we have so little to say in formal prayer about these matters? The last century began with perhaps the most destructive pandemic in history: the 1918 flu epidemic that killed over 50 million and which continued afflicting wide parts of the world in the wake of World War I’s confusion. Then we had a pandemic of almost equally horrendous mortality, the HIV/AIDS crisis that lingers. And only ten years ago, we saw hundreds of thousands die in the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic. Yet our prayerbooks have no collects for diseases like this, even those undergoing proposed revisions.   

 It is as if the last century did not happen (let alone the history of the world). Our litanies are slimmed down and rarely said; the older seventeenth-century collects and thanksgivings for times of “plague” are long excised. We draw back from considering the ways God might be at work in these tragic and overwhelming events. To pray (as the 1662 BCP put it) that God might “have pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality” (turning us to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites in the desert, or David with his ill-advised census and its consequent “pestilence”), disturbs our assumptions about God’s benign supervision and our ability to control suffering. Whether we reject such considerations or not, a failure to engage them has left many Christians wandering in the darkness of the moment.   

From Ephraim Radner 'The Time of the Virus', First Things 16th March 2020.

Comments

  1. Stephen Houghton22 March 2020 at 22:48

    In fairness, the lack is from the second half of the 20th century, the 1928 BCP has this:

    In Time of Great Sickness and Mortality.
    O MOST mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succour. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    Your proposed 1928 BCP has this:

    27. in the time of any common Plague or Sickness.
    Let us pray for succour in this time of sickness.
    V. He forgiveth all thy sin;
    R. And healeth all thine infirmities.

    GRANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, help and deliverance unto us, who are visited with grievous mortality and sickness. Sanctify to us this our sore distress, and prosper with thy continual blessing those who labour to devise for mankind protection against disease and pain; through him who both healed and hallowed pain, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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    Replies
    1. laudable Practice23 March 2020 at 07:04

      Stephen, many thanks for your comment. Yes, I entirely agree that the issue of the second half of the 20th century, with liturgies reflecting the assumptions of liberal societies of the West during the 'long peace' which followed 1945. The two fine examples you offer - PECUSA's BCP 1928 and the Proposed Book in the CofE - really do emphasise this. It is interesting to note how some clergy are returning to such sources in order to find meaningful liturgical prayers for this time as most contemporary liturgies make no such provision.

      Brian.

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    2. Neil Swinnerton26 March 2020 at 11:29

      The Scottish 1929 BCP (generally much influenced by the proposed English 1928) has this "In the time of any common Plague or Sickness":

      Let us pray for succour in this time of sicknesss.
      V: He forgiveth all thy sins
      R: And healeth all thine infirmities.
      O Almighty and merciful God, with whom are the issues of life and death: Grant us, we beseech thee, help and deliverance in this time of grievous sickness and mortality, and sanctify to us this affliction, that in our sore distress we may turn our hearts unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

      So this prayer is happy to understand "grievous sickness and mortality" in a pastoral and evangelistic sense, but what is absent from both the Scottish and USA examples is the strong note in the English 1662 BCP prayer of divine wrath, divine punishment, divine mercy, divine atonement, and divine control over the plague, all rooted in several biblical witnesses. That's one meaty theological agenda. I cannot help thinking that the more recent prayers are rather anaemic in comparison. As a result I have been using the English 1662 prayer daily at the moment.

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    3. laudable Practice30 March 2020 at 12:53

      Yes, there is an important issue regarding the Scriptural witness to plague as a form of judgement. While it obviously needs to be handled in a theologically nuanced manner, there is a real sense in which such events are judgement: exposing the intentions of hearts, manifesting the priorities of a society or civilization, demonstrating how our social and economic assumptions can be disordered.

      The Church of Ireland BCP 1926 has a fine alternative to the 1662 version, which retains similar themes:

      In the time of any Common Plague or Sickness.

      O ALMIGHTY God the Lord of life anti death, of health and sickness; Have pity upon us miserable sinners, now visited with great sickness [and mortality]. Withdraw from us this grievous affliction. Sanctify to us, we beseech thee, this thy fatherly correction. Enlarge our charity to relieve those who need our help. Bless the remedies applied to assist them. Give us prudence to see, and vigour to use, those means which thy providence affords, for preventing and alleviating such calamities. And, above all, teach us to know how frail and uncertain our condition is, and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting; through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thine only Son our Lord. Amen.

      Delete

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