Announcements

The Rev. Holly A. Davis of St. John's Episcopal Church in Franklin, Pennsylvania has written to ask about the placement of announcements during the Holy Eucharist. She notes that she find "announcements at the beginning of the Mass to be, sadly, a necessary evil, announcements in the middle to be a disturbing intermission, and at the end anti-climactic to the invitation to 'go into the world.'" She asks about the "history of announcements."

Editions of the Book of Common Prayer from 1552 to 1928 provided for a limited number of announcements between the creed and the sermon hymn. The order of sermon and creed were reversed in 1979, however, requiring some rethinking about the location of announcements. The editors of the 1979 edition of the prayer book decided to allow announcements in one of three places: before the service, before the offertory, and at the conclusion of the service.

The choice from among these locations should be based on the content of the announcements made. Those that concern the service itself ("We will be singing rather than saying the psalm this morning.") belong at the beginning of the service before the opening hymn. Those that concern the ongoing activities of the congregation ("We need volunteers for the food pantry; you can sign up in the parish hall during the coffee hour.") work best at the end of the service. Those that concern the prayers of the people ("We prayed today for Judy today. She suffered a heart attack last Thursday and is at St. Phoebe's Hospital. Keep her in your prayers.") generally work best at the middle or end of the service. I am glad that the prayer book gives us options.

What I find most disruptive is the loading of all announcements at a fixed point in the liturgy without consideration of the content.

There is often another issue involved with announcements. Should they be given by the presiding clergy person or should announcements be given by members of the congregation who are involved in the events they describe? The first choice can theoretically make the announcements more concise and consistent. The second choice, however, can be a wonderful demonstration of the ministry of the laity. Lay announcements can also be very helpful to newcomers, who get to learn about both the activities of the parish and the people to contact to become involved in the activities.

Bob

The blessing of Ashes and Palms

I have received a question about what is involved in the blessing of ashes and palms.

The blessing of palms on Palm Sunday is new to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer; there was no equivalent form in previous American or English prayer books.

There were, however, unofficial and semi-official forms in use for much of the 20th century. Offices for Special Occasions (1916), the Book of Offices (1940), and Holy Week Offices (1958) all included forms for the blessing of palms. The first book was the work of two clergy and the last was issued by Massey Shepherd for the Associated Parishes (the liturgical renewal organization that lobbied for the 1979 prayer book). The Book of Offices was the equivalent of today's Book of Occasional Services, authorized by General Convention but not mandatory.

I do not have a copy of Offices for Special Occasions, but I do have the other two volumes. Neither of them includes a form for use on Ash Wednesday.

Episcopalians generally agree about the form of blessing people. The priest or bishop says, "May God Bless you."

The form for the blessing of objects is more complicated. Many would argue that objects are blessed only in a secondary sense--as objects put to use by people, who are the actual recipients of the blessing. Sometimes a linguistic distinction is made between blessing people and sanctifying object for use by people.

The form for palms that appears in Holy Week Offices was framed in this way: "O Lord, send thy blessing upon us who now make our prayer unto thee, and sanctify to our use these branches of palm; that we who bear them in thy name my ever hail him as our King." That is to say, people are to be blessed and objects are to be sanctified for the use by the people who are blessed.

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer form is not as clear as the form in Holy Week Offices, but it follows the same general contours: Let these branches be for us signs of his victory, and grant that we who bear them in his name may ever hail him as our King, and follow him in the way that leads to eternal life." This is a somewhat abbreviate form that leave the request for blessing and sanctification implied. A more complete would be: "bless us and sanctify these branches that they might be signs to us..."

The form for ashes on Ash Wednesday follows the same shortened form as that for the palms. A more complete form would be: "[Bless us and] Grant that these ashes may [be sanctified so as to ] be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence. "

Given the fact that palms are sanctified for use, it would seem logical to re-sanctify them if they changed in form (through burning) and were then put to another use on Ash Wednesday.

Bob

The presence of lay person at the Eucharist

Today's question is from Bob Randall and Elizabeth Felicetti who serve on the clergy staff of Old Donation Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. They ask about a question posed by a member of the congregation who"recently asserted in a meeting that Eucharists must have one lay person and one clergy person present." Bob and Elizabeth replied that two clergy would suffice, but were unable to find a source for either position. They also wonder about an upcoming clergy conference at which no lay persons will be present.

They have managed to touch on an issue that was hotly debated in the mid-16th century. Those who, like most Roman Catholic theologians, saw the celebration primarily in terms of a devout act of prayer to God, reasoned that there was no necessity for any lay person to be present for the Eucharist to be valid. That remains the position of the Roman Catholic Church today, thought the Constitution on the Liturgy adopted at Vatican II (1962-65) said that celebrations with lay person present were to be preferred.

Those who look upon the Eucharist primarily as a proclamation of the deepest mysteries of the faith, as many Protestant theologians did, took the opposite point of view. For them it made no more sense to celebrate in the absence of laity than it did to preach in an empty room. Thomas Cranmer adopted that position in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, adding a new rubric to the conclusion of the Eucharist, directing that "there shall be no celebration of the Lord's Supper, except that there be a good number to communicate with the Priest, according to his discretion." The editors of the 1662 version may have no longer trusted to the discretion of the priest to judge a good number, for they set a minimum number at "four (or three at the least) [to] communicate with the Priest."

Americans dropped the rubric in 1789, but not, I think, because there was any great interest in non-communicating celebrations. I think that by that point the idea that parishioners belonged at any celebration of the Eucharist was deeply ingrained. Technically, however, there is no longer a written requirement for lay presence in the American editions of the prayer book.

One could, therefore, argue either way--that we should continue in the spirit of Cranmer's edition of 1552 and not celebrate in the absence of laity, or that technically we are not bound by the English rubrics and can do what we like.

I would argue that Cranmer's emphasis in 1552 on the communal nature of the Eucharist accords well with our contemporary emphasis on the Eucharist as a joint undertaking of the whole people of God and that a celebration without communicants would be incomplete.

I would argue, however, that clergy need to hear the Gospel proclaimed as much--or more--than anyone else and that it does make sense to have a celebration at a clergy conference. There will be a good number to celebrate with the Bishops, but they will just happen to be priests and deacons.

Bob

Beatitudes of the Gospel

Today's post is an updated form of "the Beatitudes of the Gospel," a 19th-century service that was proposed for inclusion in the Book of Common Prayer in 1883, but rejected three years later. The office's chief proponent was William Reed Huntington, a leading Episcopal advocate of the Social Gospel.

The service, which follows, includes a General Intercession, which was also adopted in 1883 and rejected on second reading in 1886.

The rejection of elements of the 1883 revision in 1886 caused so much confusion that the Episcopal Church would not complete the process of prayer book revision until 1892. The final product of that revision omitted almost all the social action elments first proposed in 1883.

I have modernized the language of the service by replacing biblical allusion to the King James Version of the Bible with Biblical allusions to the New Revised Standard Version.

Bob

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THE BEATITUDES OF THE GOSPEL

¶This Office may be used after the third Collect at Evening Prayer, on any day, instead of the Prayers which are there placed. Or it may be said as a separate Office. The People kneeling, the Minister standing up shall say as follows:

Jesus went up the mountain; and his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

People. Lord, have mercy on us: and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

People. Lord, have mercy on us, and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

People. Lord, have mercy on us, and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

People. Lord, have mercy on us, and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

People. Lord, have mercy on us: and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

People: Lord, Have mercy on us: and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.

People: Lord, Have mercy on us: and let it be with your servants according to your word.

Minister. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

People: Let your steadfast love come to us, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.

Minister. Let us pray

¶Then the Minister shall kneel, and say the Lord’s Prayer, with the Collects following ; but the Lord’s Prayer may be omitted, if it has been said immediately before.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, And the power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

For Grace to seek Spiritual Blessings

O GOD, you have made us for yourself; incline our hearts unto your decrees, and turn away our eyes from beholding vanity ; and that we may be freed from too great a love of earthly things, knit our affections to things heavenly, through Christ our Lord. Amen

For Wisdom

O GOD, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly; Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of Wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A General Intercession

O God, at whose word mortals go forth to their work and to their labor until the evening, be merciful to all whose duties are difficult or burdensome, and comfort them concerning their toil. Shield from bodily accident and harm the workers at their work. Protect the efforts of sober and honest industry, and suffer not the hire of the laborers to be kept back by fraud. Incline the hearts of employers and of those whom they employ to mutual forbearance, fairness, and good-will. Give the spirit of governance and of a sound mind to all in places of authority. Bless all those who labor in works of mercy, and schools of good learning. Care for all aged persons, and for all little children, the sick and the afflicted, those who travel by land or by sea, all strangers, and emigrants, and outcasts. Remember all who by reason of weakness or poverty are forgotten. Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before you, and according to the greatness of your power preserve those who are sentenced to die. Give ear unto our prayer, O merciful and gracious Father, for the love of your dear Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Lord bless us, and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious to us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace, both now and evermore. Amen

Today’s Service

Today’s service is modernized form of a service crafted by William Reed Huntington. He was a leading advocate of the Social Gospel in the Episcopal Church at the end of the 19^th century. As a deputy to General Convention from 1871 to 1907, he sought to make the Episcopal Church more responsive to the poor and needy. The high point of his efforts was the Convention of 1883, at which he accomplished three things: 1) As co-chair of the committee on prayer book revision, he convinced the convention to adopt on the first of two required readings a revision of the Book of Common Prayer that included the social action prayers that we will read today. 2) As a leading advocate of the ministry of women, he helped to convince the General Convention to adopt a canon recognizing the ministry of Deaconesses. The order had been introduced on a parish level in the middle of the century, and deaconesses were leaders in many forms of social action, but it was Huntington’s efforts that finally brought national recognition. 3) He convinced the House of Bishops to adopt his Quadrilateral, a statement of the essential elements of the church, and an invitation to other denominations to join in the ministry of the Gospel.

Unfortunately, Huntington was not able to follow up on all of his successes of 1883. The Convention of 1886 rejected most of the 1883 revisions to the prayer book on second reading, in part because of an elaborate procedure for revision that Huntington had himself advocated in the interim between conventions. Huntington resigned from the committee on liturgy, which went on to produce the relatively conservative prayer book revision of 1892. The Lambeth Conference adopted Huntington’s Quadrilateral, and a number of Anglican Provinces began ecumenical discussions; in most cases, however, Anglican provinces refused to join the union churches that they helped to plan. Deaconesses continued their work, but they made limited progress in gaining further acceptance in the church. Deaconesses would, for example, be stung by the refusal of the General Convention of 1925 to include an ordination service for Deaconesses in the 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Deaconesses continued as a separate order until 1970, when the General Convention eliminated all distinctions between male and female deacons. Deaconesses were allowed at that time to choose whether they retained their status as Deaconesses.

Confirmation in the 18th century

Today's question is from Beth Palmer, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, West Point, Virginia. She writes:

Bishop Lee will be with us this year and so we are doing confirmations and communion. It is our tradition to use an older prayer book and this year we plan to use the 1662 BCP. I wonder where in the course of the communion liturgy one might encounter confirmation? It seems to me appropriate for confirmation to occur right after the sermon and before the offertory sentences, but I cannot find affirmation of this placement in rubrics or any of the books sitting on my shelf. ID you thoughts on this?

_____________

Beth,

It is unlikely that confirmation would have been celebrated at any point in the communion liturgy in England in the 17th or 18th century. The idea that the communion liturgy was divisible into two part (the Synaxis or Word of God and the Great Thanksgiving) and that it was appropriate to add various elements (baptism, marriage, Eucharist, etc) to the Eucharist is a result of the 20th century scholarship of authors like Gregory Dix.

It would have been more common in the 18th century to combine elements with Morning or Evening Prayer. This was, for example, where baptism was celebrated. I suspect that Confirmation (with the possible recitation of the Catechism) was celebrated as a separate office or connected with Morning or Evening Prayer.

That is not to say, however, that there is anything wrong with your intention to place the confirmation service where you have indicated. Any attempt to recreate an historic involves some compromises.

Bob

Reserved Sacrament

Today's question is from Todd Bruce, a recently ordained Episcopal priest who is working as an assistant rector in a parish in Kansas City. He writes:

I have a kind of long question that I would like to have your opinion on. We reserve the Sacrament here so that the deacon will be able to take it to people he visits during the week. However, on Sunday mornings, the Sacrament migrates from an aumbry in a chapel that is off of the nave, and not visible from the nave, to a shelf on the wall in the sanctuary.

I am finding, the more I celebrate, that I have a problem with this, and I'm not sure why. My reading of BCP is that the Sacrament is properly not reserved, and the only provisions made for reservation are for the sick (p.396, and that seems to be discouraged in favor of a proper celebration) and for Good Friday. At the same time, the rubrics seem permissive in not forbidding reservation. One priest said that he thought the rubrics about the reserved Sacrament for Good Friday implicitly permit and even assume the reservation of the Sacrament. I not only disagree, but think that the instructions on p.401 ("...after all have received, any of the Sacrament that remains is then consumed."), for the "Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist," assume that the Sacrament is reserved only in extraordinary situations. And, of course, though it is only part of a "historical document" informing but not dictating our practice, I keep thinking of Article XXVIII.

Why bring it out on Sunday morning? It seems that one of the "practical" reasons for doing this is in case we run out of consecrated bread and wine. I countered this reason by suggesting that since there is also extra unconsecrated bread and wine, we should use the short form to consecrate additional elements rather than communicate people from reserved Sacrament. In fact, the rubrical instruction (p.365) for what to do if one runs out of consecrated bread and wine is to use the short form. At this point in the discussion, I got the sense that not everyone trusts the validity of the short form. I find myself convinced by [Marion] Hatchett's thoughts on the dynamic nature of the Eucharistic prayers, that the short form is indeed quite valid and preferable to communicating people from the reserved.

What do you think?

Todd

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Todd:

Episcopalians have been debating about the reservation of the sacrament since the immediate post-Civil War years. That was the point when "advanced high-church" Episcopalians re-introduced the practice of reservation of the sacrament, which Anglicans had rejected at the time of the Reformation. The House of Bishops objected to the practice, particularly when connected with Veneration of the elements that had been reserved. The Bishops issued a pastoral letter against "eucharistic adoration" in 1871 and convinced the House of Deputies to amend the canons in 1874 to ban "elevation of the Elements in the Holy Communion in such manner as to expose them to the view of the people as objects toward which adoration is to be made." SeeWhite and Dykman, Annotated Constitution and Canons (1982) 1:442-46 for details. In 1892 the General Convention retained the rubric in the communion office directing that all elements be consumed following communion.

The advanced high-church party was undeterred, however, and continued both to reserve the sacrament and to celebrate the Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament. Bishops in certain dioceses brought clergy to ecclesiastical trial, but they continued the practice anyway. Finally in 1904, the Bishops quit trying to enforce the regulations and the General Convention of 1904 dropped the prohibition from the canons. The 1928 prayer book retained the unenforced rubic calling for consuming all of the elments. As you have noted the prayer book of 1979 revised that rubric by allowing reservation for home communions, but still makes no provision for general reservation.

A basic disagreement about the character of the Eucharist lies behind this debate about resevation. The Reformation point of view is that the Eucharist is an act of proclamation to a group of people. The eucharist is effective, it does convey grace to those who hear the proclamation of the mysteries of faith, but elements have no power outside of that act of proclamation. The 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer made that point by forbidding communion unless there were a "good number of communicate with the priest" and a directing that any left over bread be given to the curate "to his own use."

Those who opposed this point of view in the 19th century subscribed to a form of incaranational theology according to which God uses concrete phsyical objects as means of conveying grace. The bread and wine, once altered by the communion, continue to be active agents of grace and were worthy of reservation and veneration. As Peter Brown's Cult of the Saints pointed out, this is a very old way of thinking, one that many christians held by the 3rd and 4th centuries.l

Has anything changed since the debates of the 19th century? Yes, both in terms of practice and scholarship. Among those changes:

• The scholars of the Liturgical Movement, who in large measure provided leadership of the 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, sought to replace a sacramental vision that focused on holy objects with a sacramental view that focused on the community of faith.
  
• Scholars like Byron Stuhlman, Andrew McGowan, and Paul Bradshaw are arguing that the reservation of the sacrament dates right back to the second century and may be earlier than weekday celebrations of the eucharist or even Sunday morning celebrations. Reservations may have played a key role in the transition from an Saturday celebration in the context of an evening meal to the elements only Sunday morning celebration that is standard today.
• The 1979 prayer book simplified the consecration of additional elements, which had to that time required a recitation of the rull eucharistic prayer. There is less practical reason to argue that it is too difficult to consecrate additional elements.
• The Episcopal Church's decision in 1967 to allow lay persons a role in the distribution of the eucharist for the first time opened up the possibility for more home communions for the sick, creating a need for more reserved elements.

All of this said, I think that your instincts are right. The attempt of the revisers of the 1979 prayer book was to steer a middle course between the Reformation No-reserved-sacraments -ever position and the veneration-of-holy-objects position of the advanced high-church party. The 1979 revisers asked utilitarian questions about what best served the worshipping community. They favored a reservation so that the eucharist might be more widely available for the sick and housebound, rather than a reservation for adoration. The kind of questions you are asking, such as why to bring out reserved elements when it is just as efficient to consecrate additional elements, are in keeping with the general direction of the book.

Communion by reservation on Good Friday is an explicit acknowledgement of reserved sacrament, as your colleague argues, but if the current scholarship is right, it is also a remainder of a practice that preceeded morning and weekday celebrations of the eucharist and therefore is only a very imperfect guide for present practice.

One final thought: you are really asking a double question. The first question is about your own understanding of the eucharist and the practices that you will follow when you are rector of a congregation. The second question is about understanding the practice in the parish where you are assisting and where your role is to provide input an ask questions of those who make the decisions, rather than making them yourself. Wise assisting clergy remember that distinction.

Bob

Raccoons in the Chapel

Susan Shillinglaw's photograph of one of two young racoons that fell through the ceiling of the choir room at Immanual Chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary is a graphic reminder that humans, bats, and church mice are not the only mammels that appear from time to time in church buildings.


Bob