'We have a strong city': the Urbs at Morning Prayer during the days of Advent
It is a comment which captures the wisdom of the Irish Prayer Book tradition: cautious, very modest reform of 1662, with gentle enrichments (Harvest Thanksgiving, Saint Patrick's Day, The Form for the Consecration of a Churches and Churchyard, The Order for the Publick Institution of a Minister to a Cure) that go with the grain of, rather than disrupting, the rhythms of Cranmerian liturgy.
Amongst those gentle enrichments, pride of place goes to the Urbs Fortitudinis, an alternative to the Te Deum and Benedicite as the first canticle at Morning Prayer. It has been a favourite in the Church of Ireland over the century since its introduction in the revision of 1926. This popularity is at least partly explained by a native pride in the Urbs. It also perhaps due to the Urbs resonating in the context of the political uncertainties which surrounded the Protestant experience in Ireland, North and South, for much of the 20th century.
Something else, however, is also at work with the Urbs. It quite beautifully captures the gracious proclamation of the prophet Isaiah. 'We have a strong city': even as the prophet addresses the earthly city as "ye rulers of Sodom ... ye people of Gomorrah", even as the earthly city falls. And so Urbs echoes the joyous proclamation at the conclusion of the prophecy of Isaiah: "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her ... ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem".
Here is the church's Advent hope, shared with ancient Israel in "lonely exile here until the Son of God appear". Even amidst "wars and rumours of wars", and when "the powers of the heavens" are shaken, we have "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God". The Urbs draws us to give praise unto God for the enduring city which is hope and our true home.
This makes the Urbs particularly appropriate as the first canticle at Morning Prayer in the season of Advent, following the first lesson, usually from the prophecy of Isaiah. It both provides a prayerful means of meditating upon the first lesson from Isaiah in the context of the hope set forth by the prophet and grounds our Advent praise in the prophet's proclamation.
As the Advent collect calls us to "cast away the works of darkness", so the Urbs also exhorts us to orient ourselves towards the Advent hope, and thus away from that which is insubstantial, which cannot endure:
Yea, in the way of thy judgements, O Lord, have we waited for thee.
This echoes an abiding theme in the prophecy of Isaiah, as faithless Israel is called to wait upon the Lord:
And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him (8:17);
blessed are all they that wait for him (30:18);
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (40:31).
Israel's failure to wait upon the Lord - to be turned towards Adonai in reverence and trust - is the profound failure of the covenant people, under the old and new covenants. To wait upon Adonai is to heed His word, to receive His commandments, to rejoice in His promises. When we pray in the Urbs "in the way of thy judgements O Lord, have we waited for thee", we are turning with ancient Israel towards the Holy One who declares "I will do a new thing ... I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert": the One whose grace renews and transforms even us, who have erred and strayed like lost sheep.
The Urbs, therefore, not only exemplifies how the Prayer Book tradition can develop organically and be wisely enriched. It also beautifully and powerfully locates the church within the proclamation of Isaiah, the one whom Jerome described as "more of an Evangelist than a Prophet, because he described all of the Mysteries of the Church of Christ".
And so, at Morning Prayer in the days of Advent, we can, in the words of the Urbs, receive afresh the hope of the gospel proclaimed by Isaiah the prophet. For, even amidst the uncertainties and darkness of our exile, we have a strong city; amidst our sins and failures, like Jerusalem of old, we are called are to wait upon the Lord, who makes all things new.
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