The wisdom of the Prefaces

Responding to a Telegraph columnist exploring the significance and meaning of the BCP during these turbulent times, one commentator on Twitter urged 'don't forget the Preface ... V handy guide to life'.  It is a prescient comment. The prefaces of the various iterations of the BCP embody a wisdom not just for ecclesial but also wider communal life.  In an age shaped by the passions of heightened political partisanship and of religious and secular fundamentalisms, an age lacking a sense of the moral commitments which can sustain diversity and the common good, and in which social media encourages loud disagreement rather than prudent, modest discernment, we might turn to the prefaces of the BCP for a wisdom to guide us.

Three particular passages from the prefaces are suggestive of a wisdom expressed in prudence, moderation and caution which nurtures and protects the concord necessary for the good life, in both ecclesial and communal terms.  

From the 1662 Preface, a caution regarding both too hasty change and an ideological refusal to countenance necessary change:

It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England, ever since the first compiling of her Publick Liturgy, to keep the mean between the two extremes, of too much stiffness in refusing, and of too much easiness in admitting any variation from it. For, as on the one side common experience sheweth, that where a change hath been made of things advisedly established (no evident necessity so requiring) sundry inconveniences have thereupon ensued; and those many times more and greater than the evils, that were intended to be remedied by such change: So on the other side, the particular Forms of Divine worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent, and alterable, and so acknowledged; it is but reasonable, that upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigency of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those that are in place of Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient.

From the Preface to the 1789 PECUSA revision, a recognition of ordered liberty, open to reforms that are occasioned by time and circumstance, undertaken by 'by common consent and authority', while ensuring that the vital substance of shared life is maintained:

It is a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, that in his worship, different forms and usages may without offence be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline: and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigencies of times and occasions."

From the Preface to the 1878 Irish revision, an affirmation of the prudence which discerns that peace and concord are of greater importance than ideological purity:

And now, if some shall complain that these changes are not enough, and that we should have taken this opportunity of making this Book as perfect in all respects as they think it might be made, or if others shall say that these changes have been unnecessary or excessive, and that what was already excellent has been impaired by doing that which, in their opinion, might well have been left undone, let them, on the one side and the other, consider that men's judgements of perfection are very various, and that what is imperfect, with peace, is often better than what is otherwise more excellent, without it.

The significance of this wisdom contained in the Prefaces is suggested by words from theologian Andrew Davison:

isn’t it an absolutely central part of Christian mission today to present and embody accounts of what it means to be human that are attractive, sane and wise?

A vision of our shared life in society must be integral to the Church's proclamation.  A narrow ecclesiastical focus (the abiding temptation of the Hauerwas 'against Christendom' school) fails to address a significant part of what it is to be human, leaving our common life untouched, failing to address the contemporary desire for a moral grounding for our shared life (and thus handing it over to other philosophies and powers).  As Greg Weiner has said:

dismissing all forms of caution and moderation ... reflects an incapacity for subtle judgment - perhaps for subtle itself - that prudence demands ... this is the prudence we have lost ... Our supreme self-confidence admits no prudence.  It does not see unanticipated consequences, nor does it practice such virtues as moral timidity.  Instead, it seeks a desolate world of cold reason and unbending rules, or dehumanized politics and lonely people.  Here, there is no room for judgment, political life, or human responsibility. Prudence restored ... makes for a far loverlier and more livable place.

The wisdom of the Prefaces offers an alternative to this, embodying prudence, caution, and moderation to shape an 'attractive, sane and wise' vision of our shared life.  Such wisdom has deep roots within the Anglican tradition, as the Prefaces indicate, and we should not underestimate how a confident sharing of this wisdom, flowing from the One who is 'the author of peace and lover of concord', could contribute to the attractiveness of contemporary Anglicanism amidst a turbulent age.

As Tillotson stated in 1683, paying tribute to a colleague:

And I purposely mention his moderation, and likewise adventure to commend him for it, notwithstanding that this virtue, so much esteemed and magnified by wise men in all ages, hath of late been declaimed against with so much zeal and fierceness, and yet with that good grace and confidence, as if it were not only no virtue, but even the sum and abridgment of all vices: I say, notwithstanding all this, I am still of the old opinion, that moderation is a virtue, and one of the peculiar ornaments and advantages of the excellent constitutions of our church.

(The painting is Caspar David Friedrich, 'View from the window of the artist's studio, right window', 1805/06.)