'Thine ancient people Israel': a call to the Prayer Book Society

Amongst the general principles highlighted by the 2019 report by the Faith and Order Commission of the Church of England, God's Unfailing Word: Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations, is a recognition of the "gift" of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism:

The Christian–Jewish relationship is a gift of God to the Church, which is to be received with care, respect and gratitude, so that we may learn more fully about God’s purposes for us and all the world.

This gift has, however, often shamefully been obscured or denied in the Church's life and witness, as recognised by a further general principle:

Christians have been guilty of promoting and fostering negative stereotypes of Jewish people that have contributed to grave suffering and injustice. They therefore have a duty to be alert to the continuation of such stereotyping and to resist it.

In light of these principles, God's Unfailing Word rightly questions the status of the third collect on Good Friday in the Book of Common Prayer:

If the Church of England’s perspective on how to pray for the Jewish people has changed, does it matter that the sixteenth century Collect remains part of its authorized worship?

The Book of Common Prayer provision for Good Friday offers a deep and profound focus on the Cross and Passion of Our Lord, a source for theological and devotional renewal in a contemporary ecclesial and theological landscape in need of such a compelling focus.  It brings us, in the words of the Homily of the Passion, for Good Friday, to "steadfastly behold Christ crucified, with the eyes of our heart".

This gift to Anglicanism is, however, undermined by the third collect, embodying, as it does, a view of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism ("the good olive tree", Romans 11:24) which fails to reflect the fullness of the witness of Scripture; which too easily can be interpreted to justify the error of supersessionism; and which, particularly in the context of Good Friday, can be taken to echo the false teaching that the Jewish people bear collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Added to this, the ongoing dramatic global upsurge in anti-Semitism, the fear experienced by Jewish communities in the United Kingdom, and the fact of anti-Semitic currents in contemporary British politics, makes it essential to address the question posed by God's Unfailing Word regarding the third collect of Good Friday.

The historic status of the Book of Common Prayer 1662 also gives it an influence beyond the Church of England, resulting in the issue of the third collect having a significance for Anglicans elsewhere.

In the context of a growing appreciation for and use of the Book of Common Prayer, not least due to the stirling work of The Prayer Book Society, there is a further need to address this question.  Encouraging wider use of the Prayer Book, especially during the most significant commemorations of the Christian year, will require consideration of the third of the Good Friday collects.

Mindful of the status of the Book of Common Prayer in the Church of England, revision of the text is not, of course, what is being contemplated.  Rather, in light of the leadership given by the Prayer Book Society, it would be appropriate for the Society to either recommend omitting the third collect or to issue an alternative collect for use in its place.

While revisions of the BCP in other parts of the Anglican Communion have omitted the third collect, there is a case for proposing an alternative collect.  It is right and proper on Good Friday for the Church to prayerfully recollect its fundamental dependence on the scriptures, prophets, and faith of Israel.  What is more, the shameful history of Christian anti-Semitism is rightly confessed before the Cross of Our Lord on Good Friday.  

While the revision of the third collect in the Church of Ireland BCP 1926 shares many of the weaknesses of that in 1662, it did include the significant phrase which is the title of this call to the Prayer Book Society: "thine ancient people Israel", a phrase perhaps worthy of incorporation in a new alternative collect.

The Prayer Book Society of Canada has also offered a fine collect  - entitled 'For reconciliation with the Jews' - to replace that 'For the conversion of the Jews' in the Canadian BCP 1962. The opening lines of the new collect offer an example of how the Church can acknowledge before the Cross on Good Friday the shameful history of Christian anti-Semitism: "O God, who didst choose Israel to be thine inheritance: have mercy upon us and forgive us for violence and wickedness against our brother Jacob".

In this fiftieth year of the Prayer Book Society, looking ahead with confidence to growing use of and appreciation for the Book of Common Prayer, it would encourage new generations to continue to discover the beauty, wisdom, depth and majesty of the Prayer Book if an alternative to the third collect of Good Friday was proposed for use, expressing penitence for the sin of anti-Semitism and recognising, with respect and gratitude, Christianity's dependence upon "thine ancient people Israel".

(The picture is of the sculpture 'Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time', at the Institute for Catholic–Jewish Relations at St Joseph’s University, Philadelphia.  It is used on the front cover of God's Unfailing Word, and is therein described as "reimagin[ing] the relationship between Judaism and Christianity as one of mutual affection and interdependence".)