laudable Practice

Having addressed the reading of the Epistle and Gospel in the Communion Office, John Shepherd - in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - also reflects on the particular passages of Scripture set forth as Epistle and Gospel readings for each Sunday of the year. His comments provide an excellent recommendation of the one year lectionary as setting before us "some of the plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament". Mindful of the current state of North Atlantic Anglicanism, after decades of poor preaching and poor catechesis, underpinned by poor theology, we might suggest that a few decades of having the one year lectionary - "some of the plainest and most instructive portions of the New Testament" - proclaimed and expounded year after year could be a useful and appropriate means of aiding teaching focussed on grounding us more robustly in the heart of the Faith. Long before the division of the sacre...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), having considered the lessons from the Canonical Scriptures, Shepherd turns to the matter of lessons from the books of the Apocrypha. He first indicates a practical reason for such lessons, mindful of the fact that not all of the Canonical Scriptures were considered appropriate for public reading in the congregation : To supply what is wanting to complete the year, we read a part of Scripture which we acknowledge not to be canonical, out of the Apocrypha, or Apocryphal Books. Such acknowledgement of practicalities, however, does not prevent Shepherd from recognising that public reading of the Apocrypha was a patristic practice: By the ancients, these were sometimes styled ecclesiastical books, having been compiled, and published for the edification of the pious, and being commonly read in the church ... as works of religious and mora...

Continuing with extracts from John Shepherd's A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church of England (1796), in his discussions of the reading of scripture in these offices, he carefully notes Cranmer's words : For it must be observed, that though "the most part of the Bible is read through every year once,"  [emphasis added] yet some chapters of particular books, and three whole books, are left unread and unnoticed. Cranmer's phrase is itself suggestive that not every part of scripture was to be read in "the Common Prayers in the Church", as Shepherd goes on to acknowledge: yet some chapters of particular books, and three whole books, are left unread and unnoticed. What were the reasons, why these parts were omitted, I now proceed to enquire. In his review of the passages of scripture not included in the daily lectionary, Shepherd highlights the wise reasoning involved in not including such passages and, indee...