A Prayer Book for the 21st Century: Liturgical Studies Three

Book Overview

This book of sixteen essays by prominent liturgists addresses those things in the Prayer Book which need to be changed or that the writer desires to be changed, those things that might be added to the Prayer Book, and other issues related to change. The final four essays explore more broadly the nature of liturgical prayer, inclusive and expansive language, and inculturation.

The Liturgical Studies series continues the thoughtful discussions previously issued as Occasional Papers from the Standing Liturgical Commission.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898692830
• ISBN13: 9780898692839
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The once and future liturgy...

Before I talk about the contents of the book, I must state a particular bias of mine, something that causes me to knock a star off the rating for this book. As I look down the list of contributors to this volume, it is impressive - the editor, Ruth Meyers, is a liturgy professor at Seabury-Western seminary, the major Episcopal seminary in Chicago, and is also prominent in official Episcopal circles for liturgy, with the Standing Liturgical Committee and so forth. Other contributors include professors form other seminaries and universities, and officials in the church with particular care toward liturgical issues. However, it is precisely with this list that I have the problem.The word 'liturgy' derives from the source meaning 'work of the people', not 'work of the priests' or 'work of the clerical caste'. Yet not one of the contributors to this volume, 17 in all, is a lay person. It bodes ill for a church with a tendency toward clerical elitism to ignore the possible contributions of the laity in a major study such as this. Surely there are some lay persons in the church out there who show some insight into liturgical matters, aren't there?This criticism aside, this is a good collection, worth reading by any Anglican interested in liturgy, which, of course, is most all of them. The particular focus of these essays is the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer, but the issues addressed in these essays can be of interest to Anglican around the world. The essays in this volume address different major portions of the liturgy - the Daily Office, the rites of Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, and Funerals, Eucharistic issues, Ordination issues, Lectionary issues, and what is likely to happen in the course of next prayer book revision process, something likely to begin in earnest before too long. Liturgical reform and development is not something that takes place only when new prayer books are being formed. Between the 1928 and 1979 Books of Common Prayer in America, there were different initiatives and trials, local innovations and national discussions, on the shape of the developing liturgy. Each generation or two recreates the book anew, but in between these official revisions, work on the liturgy does not stagnate. Because of the global nature of Anglicanism, cross-pollination of creative developments inevitably takes place. Because the official process of prayer book reform takes a long time, for good reason, it is important to have other methods for introducing reforms and tests.The introductory essay explores the different kinds of issues in the task of reform - what needs changing? What needs to stay the same? What would we like changed? What are the procedural, liturgical and theological issues that need to be addressed prior to a change, to make sure the liturgy reflects needs and practices of the people?The most interesting essays from my point of view are the forward-looking issues at the conclusion, the four essays that address