In this post, I examine what the people in my small parish identified as the third most important reason why they attend our church when they filled out a survey used in my parish's endeavor to find a new priest.
As some might think, "The Book of Common Prayer" is not the Anglican Communion's bible. It is, however, the Anglican way of worship, a way that has kept Anglicans (including Episcopalians) together in the midst of adversity and division because its commonality cuts across divisions, classes, and can accommodate diversity by skillfully bringing to bear on our common form of worship what I have been referring to in my posts as the Impulse of Religion - the cognitive realization that humans need each other in order to survive.
THE POWER OF THE PRAYER BOOK
Perhaps a good example of its being a tool of cohesiveness is the Episcopal Church in America. The Church of England (C of E) had a prominent presence throughout the original thirteen colonies, especially in colonies like Virginia. During the Revolutionary War, many priests abandoned their pulpits because in order to be ordained in the C of E, priests took an oath of loyalty to the crown. It is estimated that about forty percent of the C of E members in the colonies left the colonies at that time, along with a good number of priests, but not all. Some priests served as chaplains in either the British forces or the Continental Army.
The first bishop of what became the Episcopal Church, Samuel Seabury, began as a priest in the C of E and served as chaplain to the British Army. He was later consecrated a bishop in Scotland because there was no requirement in Scotland for swearing loyalty to the crown and returned to the newly formed United States as the first Episcopal bishop. Another ordained C of E priest who would be ordained bishop, William White, however, served as chaplain to the Continental Army and would be consecrated bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of Bath and York in the late 1780's because the English Parliament had recently changed the law requiring bishops swearing loyalty to the crown. One cannot but think that the impetus for doing such a thing was due to the influence C of E wishing to maintain the continuity of what would eventually become the Anglican communion in 1867.
What is not often discussed is how the common people of this new nation, who identified with C of E before the war remained loyal to their way of worship without the benefit of priests. The answer is simply that they had the "Book of Common Prayer." Services such as Morning and Evening Prayer could be conducted without priests and became for a time the principal service conducted in the newly formed Protestant Episcopal Church. It was these services and the prayer book that largely kept the doors of these former C of E churches open and its people in the pews as Episcopalians.
It should not be a surprise to anyone; especially Episcopalians, that the members of my small Episcopal church listed the "Book of Common Prayer" as a major reason they attend our services. It is what has kept us threaded together in times of plenty and want, a consistent resource that embodies the hallmark of Anglicanism: Scripture, Reason , and Tradition.
In this sense, I can understand that when my small congregation filled out a search committee survey to help us develop our church's profile in the pursuit of finding a new rector for our parish individuals who wrote a good many comments in the margins never mentioned anything about the need for a priest but mentioned the importance our prayer book as a reason for being part of our parish.
I am not a "Cradle Episcopalian," but I grew up with its language and it's collects as a Lutheran and since becoming an Episcopalian have developed a deep appreciation and respect for "The Book of Common Prayer." When our family joined the Episcopal Church, I was not the organist as I am today. I sat with my family in the pews just like everyone else. When the priest who brought us into the church departed, I was impressed how the congregation didn't miss a beat in conducting services; mostly Morning Prayer. I found myself having to quickly become acquainted with it as I was asked to lead the service from time to time. This was unlike anything I experienced in other denominations. In such churches, the loss of its pastor resulted in a decrease in attendance, not so in this little parish. We experienced vacancies three times since we joined this church. Members kept coming even though we had no priest. They still do, though we are fewer in number.
At the time we joined, most of the member were either Cradle Episcopalians or where longtime members. Many of these individuals have passed on. Some have moved on. During this most recent vacancy we have the services of an Interim Priest. He is wonderful and many of us wish he could stay, but he can't. There is a sense of urgency during this vacancy, that we are on the verge of dying out as congregation and that we are at a crossroads of sorts. The question being, "Where do we go from here?"
BEING CONTENT
In listening and reading closely the survey the search committee sent out to our parishioners, one actually can discern a sense of contentment where we're at. We're content with the place we're at. We're content with those who we worship with, and we're content with our prayer book form of worship. What causes us a sense of panic is the notion that we need a priest. We panic because we can't afford to sustain the cost of having one and are under the impression that we can't be a congregation, a parish without one. Perhaps in a technical, canon law sense that is true, but in an actual, real sense it is, at the very least subject to question, and there is historical and biblical precedent to defend the position that a congregation, a parish, can be such without a priest at the helm.
I am admittedly an odd duck co-chairing a committee that is searching for a priest when I personally feel the need for one is becoming more of a hindrance than a help in keeping our congregation together and viable. I am probably alone in thinking so. I know our congregation needs leadership and I'm not personally opposed to having a priest. I'm just not seeing the need for one at this juncture because we have the essentials of a parish, a place to worship the God who loves us, the people to express this love of God to one another in common worship together, and the means of worship that has sustained this parish throughout its existence. A priest, like an organist, is a luxury in the 21st century; nice to have but not essential to being a congregation.
Before we had an interim priest, I suspected that I would be giving a number of homilies. My plan was to base these homilies on the prayers and parts of the liturgy found in "The Book of Common Prayer" as a way of connecting us to God and to each other in the commonality of our way of worship; a way of getting back to the basics. Some of these homilies are found in my posts under the title of "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi." I believe prayer is the truest form of confessing what we believe and hold true in our hearts. "The Book of Common Prayer" is amazingly expansive in what its prayers; its collects, litanies, and other prayers address. They are in part, meditative commentaries on our lectionary (Bible readings), they are didactic in how we should view God, each other, and the world, and they are reflective of the personal experiences that all of us encounter throughout life. All of which is addressed to a loving God who is worshiped and glorified throughout the pages of what I consider an amazing work of literary art and spiritual guidance.
MAKING A PIE WITH WHAT'S ON HAND
What our prayer book also contains are rubric (rules) as to who says what and who does what and when (sort of similar to following a recipe on how to make a pie). This is where the idea of needing a priest comes to play within the prayer book itself. This reflects centuries of traditional understanding of how the worship should be conducted, but traditional understanding is not the same as the traditions themselves. The means of grace, as expressed in the liturgies of most mainline churches has been tightly controlled by most as the domain of ordained clergy; as a way of keeping order in the church.
In the emerging Post-Christian world we are now entering, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a need to change with changing times, including, an examination of how worship is conducted and how the 21st century liturgical church continues to maintain its traditional form of worship and functions. Our little parish has entered the territory of this changing world; as such, the models and dynamics of parish life must also adjust and change. As I continue this series of posts, I will focus and explore how a small, traditional liturgical church, such as the one I belong to, can go it alone and build from where it is.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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