Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Book of Alternative Services

I found a number of clergy very attached to the Book of Common Prayer (1928) including Claude at St Mary's which is experiencing considerable growth in the congregation. These words from the introduction to the Book of Alternative Services (1985) were revealing:

Liturgical change is sometimes treated as a phenomenon unique to
the twentieth century, a counter-current in the flow of Anglican piety.
The truth is that the distinctive ethos of Anglicanism emerged in a
period of reformation which was characterized by even greater
liturgical change than our own. This comparison of the present day
with the Reformation era is important for an understanding of the
contemporary liturgical scene. The spirit of reformation is neither
anarchic nor destructive, but is rooted in the conviction that in times
of great insecurity and change the centre cannot be held by a blind
preservation of the forms in which tradition has been received, but
only through diligent and passionate search for fresh expressions and
evocations of the tradition. The wonder is not that so many twentieth
century Christians are open to change but that the experiments of the
Reformation era appeared to be treated as definitive for nearly four
centuries. The gospel always has a reforming, reinterpreting edge to
it, and the gospel is always the proper subject of the liturgy.


I do like this prayer with its reference to the golden fields of wheat:

Celebrant Creator of all,
you gave us golden fields of wheat,
whose many grains we have gathered
and made into this one bread.
All So may your Church be gathered
from the ends of the earth
into your kingdom.







Eucharistic Prayer 4 has an impressive environmental focus. All the prayers are available on line. (see http://www.anglican.ca/resources/liturgicaltextsonline/)


I came across some incorporation of First Nation Spirituality in two of the services I attended, notably through the burning of sweetgrass at the beginning in the context of blessing. I didn't find any clear references in the Book of Alternative Services.














1 comment:

John said...

I like what you are saying about change and continuity. Also I like this from the Eucharistic prayer 4:

At your command all things came to be:
the vast expanse of interstellar space,
galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses,
and this fragile earth, our island home;
by your will they were created and have their being. Glory to you for ever and ever.