Fr. Robert Taft (1932-2018) on the liturgy

Fr. Robert Francis Taft, S.J., died Friday in Weston, Mass., where he had retired in 2011 after 46 years at the Oriental Institute of Rome. Born in Rhode Island, he was best known as a Roman Catholic scholar of Eastern liturgies and was in fact a priest in Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Rite church in communion with Rome. The Pray Tell blog posted an obituary by John F. Baldovin, S.J., a friend and colleague who stayed in touch with Fr Taft after his retirement.

Fr. Taft was a highly knowledgeable, influential and opinionated contributor to the postwar ecumenical movement that called itself “Liturgical Reform”. While for the Roman church this specifically meant bringing the liturgy into the vernacular, the broader movement sought to bring new evidence, insights and opinions to change the liturgy in the direction the reformers believed best. Over the past 70 year, this movement that impacted almost the entire swath of liturgical Western Christianity.

I knew of Taft’s work from his definitive 1986 book The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, which is on the future reading list of my ecumenical liturgy reading group. As a student of liturgy — rather than a scholar making original contributions — today I can only scratch the surface of assessing his contribution.

(For those that wonder why I spend so much time on liturgy in a music blog, please bear with me).

Pray Tell also posted the 1985 speech Fr. Taft gave upon receiving an award for his liturgical studies. From this 8,800 word speech, I will (cherry) pick some on how this priest and scholar found that a proper liturgy is important for congregational worship:

…what the Vatican II reforms initiated was a return of the liturgy to the people. … But the only way it can remain popular is if we leave it alone. … What ordinary people in ordinary parishes need is familiarity, sameness, the stability of a ritual tradition that can be achieved only be repetition, and that will not tolerate change every time the pastor reads a new article. The only way people are going to perceive liturgy as their own, and therefore participate in it, is when they know what is going to happen next.
…
So let me enunciate a liturgical principle: ritual – or call it order of worship, if you belong to a tradition that dislikes the word ritual – a certain stability in the déroulement of worship, far from precluding spontaneity and congregational participation, is its condition sine qua non, as is indeed true of any social event. Italian crowds spontaneously shout “brava” to divas at the opera – but not in the middle of an aria – because the conventions of civility dictate that there is a time and place for everything.
…
Like medieval cathedrals, liturgies were created not as monuments to human creativity, but as acts of worship. The object of worship is not self-expression, not even self-fulfillment, but God. “he must increase, I must decrease,” John the Baptist said of Jesus (Jn 3:30) and that is an excellent principle for liturgical ministers. Anyway, experience shows that most spontaneity is spontaneous only the first time around. Thereafter it always sounds the same. Furthermore, most people are not especially creative in any other aspect of the existence, and there is no reason to think that they will be when it comes to liturgy. They can, however, be drawn to participate in a common heritage far nobler and richer than the creation of anyone of us individually. What we need is not further to reinvent the wheel, not to reshape our liturgy every time we read a new article, but just to take what we have and use it very well.
…
In other words, liturgy is a common tradition, and ideal of prayer to which I must rise, and not some private game that I am free to reduce to the level of my own banality. And when the rite has something I do not understand, especially if it is something that Christians in almost every tradition, East and West, have been doing for about a millennium, then perhaps my initial instinct should be to suspect some deficiency in my own understanding, before immediately proceeding to excise whatever it is that has had the affrontery to escape the limits of my intelligence.

Requiescat in pace.

The ACNA's near-final liturgy

Today is the deadline for feedback on the ACNA’s new liturgy. It is bringing to an end a 10-year process that began in November 2008 in Fort Worth. The official Texts for Common Prayer are expected to be approved early in 2019 and made available next summer.

There is a detailed review of the revision, published in the September Living Church and Summer issue of Anglican Way (the newsletter of the Prayer Book Society). The commentary is by Drew Nathaniel Keane, until this year a member of The Episcopal Church Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.

Keane praised the transparency of the ACNA effort, which seems well-deserved. In the internet era, the ACNA task force provides a model for how to share liturgy updates, rather than the annual photocopied (or printed) books used in the previous 50 years.

Overall, the new liturgy is similar to the 1979 prayer book that it is intended to replace. In some cases, this is unavoidable — since both reflect trends of postwar liturgical reform, there are some updates present in 1979 (such as midday and compline prayer) not present in 1662 or 1928.

To try to summarize the new liturgy, I’ll focus on the three areas of the liturgy that have the greatest day-to-day impact: the lectionary, the daily office and the Eucharist service.

Lectionary

Because it's such a pain to compare 52 weeks of subtly different choices, I am grateful to Keane for explaining the changes of the lectionary.

Unlike Cranmer’s one-year lectionary of his 1549 and 1552 prayer books (retained in the 1559,1662,1789 and both 1928 prayer books), the ANCA follows the 1979 and its 3-year cycle of the 1979 lectionary. Perhaps we can blame the Romans, since this is a post-Vatican II innovation that was also followed by most but not all Protestant liturgical churches (e.g. the LCMS allows a local option between these two). The 1979 prayer book introduced its own lectionary, but today TEC uses the Revised Common Lectionary.

As Keane notes, for the daily office the ACNA reverts to a one-year lectionary (as in 1549 through 1928) rather than the two-year of 1979. However, to my eye it’s more like Cranmer’s 1549 one year lectionary (retained through 1662 in England and 1892 in the US) which kept to the civil calendar. The 1928 U.S. lectionary marked a radical departure, in that it maps to the church year (“Tuesday after the second Sunday in Lent”) and also offers a less comprehensive coverage of Scripture (i.e. is less demanding).

Keane highlights another (healthy) correction to the 1928

Since 1928, the daily office lectionaries of the Episcopal Church have notoriously omitted sections of Scripture that that might not easily square with modern American sensibilities. This proposal abandons this approach; rather than tiptoeing around these passages, … it includes the Scriptures as they are

Keane debates whether the ACNA properly handles the lesser feasts and fasts; that topic is beyond the scope of this summary.

Daily Office: Morning and Evening Prayer 

Daily Office depends both on the lectionary (see above) and the specific prayers. The elements I find most interesting:

• Like 1979, the ACNA removes “miserable offenders” from the General Confession; every time I say Rite I, this is still a jarring omission.
• Like 1979, it allows any canticle to be used in any order. Unlike 1979, cuts down (slightly) on the confusion by segregating the canticles into morning and evening canticles.
• Makes clear the entire Psalm 95 (rather than the Venite) can be used in Morning Prayer — something everyone but the Americans have done since 1549 — but provides the missing four verses only during penitential seasons.
• Restores “O God, make speed to save us” from the 1662, that was omitted from previous American prayer books.

Next to the (shortened) confession, I have found that most powerful part of saying the Daily Office for the past three years has been the “Conditions of Men” prayer:

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are any ways afflicted, or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; [*especially those for whom our prayers are desired*] that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them, according to. their several necessities; giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

The prayer was introduced in the 1662 English prayer book — used globally for 300+ years — and part of the 1789, 1892 and 1928 US prayer books. It was dropped in the 1979 prayer book and remains missing in the 2019. To my ear, this (as with “miserable offenders”) substantially weakens the penitential nature of the service. A booklet (rather than Prayer Book) parish could restore it, since it is prayer #31 on the list of “Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings”.

Eucharist Service

While the Ordinal was the ACNA’s initial priority, from a practical standpoint, Holy Communion is the only service that the typical parishioner will see most of the year. The changes to Holy Communion are numerous and detailed.

While both 1979 and 2019 have two rites, there the similarity end. In the 1979, the Rite I uses traditional language (if not the sequence) of the 1549-1662-1928, while Rite II has major changes both to the liturgy and language. In 2019, there are two contemporary language liturgies: “Anglican Standard Text” is like a modern language version of Rite I, while “Renewed Ancient Text” is very similar to Rite II.

Keane takes a guess about the reason for the latter similarity.

Although the Renewed Ancient Text is clearly based on 1979 Rite II, the preface “Concerning the Service” seems less than forthcoming regarding the source: “The Renewed Ancient Text is drawn from liturgies of the Early Church [and] reflects the influence of twentieth century ecumenical consensus.” Yes, 1979’s Rite II did draw from some ancient liturgies and reflects the influence of the mid-20th century ecumenical Liturgical Movement, but the particular text — its selection of which ancient liturgies to follow, where, and to what extent — constitutes an original liturgy, a source that this preface obscures.

However, task force member Fr. Jonathan Kanary says the circumstantial similarity is misleading:

…the first version of the "Ancient Canon" wasn't based on 1979 at all, but was an entirely independent liturgy, although it was (like Rite 2 Prayer A) based loosely on Hippolytus. Because of feedback we received (including from some bishops), the revision drew in a fair bit of the familiar language from Prayer A, while retaining the things that had worked well from the first version of the Ancient Canon. The Living Church article seems to assume that the rite is simply an adaptation of the 1979 Prayer A, and I understand how someone glancing over it now might think so, but the history is much more complex.

For my recent liturgy class, I looked at the Prayer of Consecration from 1549 to 2019, including Cranmer’s prayer books, the 20th century American prayer books and the ACNA liturgy.

Although modernized in language, the “Anglican Standard” mainly differs in the order of the prayers:

1549 BCP	1928 BCP/1979 Rite I	2019 Anglican Standard
Words of Institution Invocation Oblation Concluding Doxology	Words of Institution Invocation Oblation Concluding Doxology	Invocation Words of Institution Oblation Concluding Doxology

Meanwhile, the “Renewed Ancient Text” follows closely Rite II, except for changes in the language of the Invocation:

1979 Rite II	2019 Renewed Ancient
Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.	Sanctify them by your Word and Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Sanctify us also, that we may worthily receive this holy sacrament, and be made one body with him, so that he may dwell in us and we in him. And bring us with all your saints into the fullness of your heavenly kingdom, where we shall see our Lord face to face.

Keane also notes three changes that move the liturgy in a (slightly) more Anglo-Catholic direction:

• The Benedictus qui venit is included in the Sanctus. This is not included in the historic prayer book tradition, but by the late 19th century was commonly inserted in High Church circles; it was provided as an optional addition in 1979’s Rite I.

• The Agnus Dei follows the Prayer of Humble Access rather than the other way round as in 1979. This order was common in American Anglo-Catholic parishes that inserted the Agnus Dei into the 1928 prayer book service.

• Along with the Invitation from 1979, “The gifts of God for the People of God,” a second option is provided in both rites: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Taken from John 1:29 and Revelation 19:9, Anglo-Catholic parishes commonly inserted these scriptural sentences into the old text as an Invitation to Communion, and a version of this invitation is part of the Church of England’s Common Worship.

Conclusions

The liturgy is different enough that faithful (clergy or laity) moving between the ACNA and Rite II or Rite I (let alone earlier prayer books) will have to carefully read every sentence for several months until it becomes familiar. I feel bad for supply priests who are in a diocese with more than one liturgy. However, at least any confusion caused by trial use of interim liturgies will soon be over.

In the 21st century, one of the great resources for learning the liturgy is the Internet — whether via web pages or a cellphone app. Flipping through tables and paper books to find lessons works for printing a Sunday bulletin, but is a bit daunting for laity doing the Daily Office twice daily.

The ACNA is fortunate to have a website, www.legereme.com, that helps solve this problem. It provides

• A complete order of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, with lessons
• The lessons for the Sunday Eucharist service

An entrepreneurial church planter is currently taking a collection fund iPhone and Android versions of a stand-alone app for the Legerme texts.

A hymn for ordination

On Saturday, I attended the ordination of my friend John Heffron to the vocational diaconate in the Diocese of Ft. Worth. From the ceremony, I got to hear the new ACNA ordinal, had a rare visit to Hymnal 1982 and learned a new (perhaps unique) hymn for ordination. Bp. Jack Iker has been ill, so Bp. Keith Ackerman (listed as the dicocese’ assisting bishop) performed the ordination.

ACNA Liturgy

When the ACNA created its new liturgy from the 1979 prayer book, the first priority was creating a new ordinal for deacons, priests and bishops. The most relevant differences would appear to be in the presentation and examination of the candidates. (In both liturgies, the ordination is normally followed by the normal Eucharist service, as it was on Saturday).

The Presentation

1979 Book of Common Prayer

Proposed ACNA 2019 Texts for Common Prayer

The Bishop says to the ordinand Will you be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them?  And will you, in accordance with the canons of this Church, obey your bishop and other ministers who may have authority over you and your work? Answer I am willing and ready to do so; and I solemnly declare that I  do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.

The Bishop shall then require the Ordinands to take the Oath of Conformity saying The Canons require that no one may be ordained a Deacon in the Church until such person has subscribed without reservation to the Oath of Conformity. It is also required that each Ordinand subscribe without reservation to the Oath of Canonical Obedience. In the presence of this congregation, I now charge you to make your solemn declaration of these oaths. Each Ordinand then declares separately I, N.N., do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and therefore I hold myself bound to conform my life and ministry thereto, and do solemnly engage to conform to the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of Christ as this Church has received them. Each Ordinand then declares the following Oath of Canonical Obedience as well, saying And I do swear by Almighty God that I will pay true and canonical obedience in all things lawful and honest to the Bishop of ________, and his successors: So help me God. Each Ordinand then signs the Oath of Conformity and the Oath of Canonical Obedience in the sight of all present.

The Examination (The Exhortation and Examination in 2019)

1979 Book of Common Prayer

Proposed ACNA 2019 Texts for Common Prayer

All are seated except the ordinand, who stands before the Bishop. The Bishop addresses the ordinand as follows My brother, every Christian is called to follow Jesus Christ, serving God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. As a deacon in the Church, you are to study the Holy Scriptures, to seek nourishment from them, and to model your life upon them. You are to make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among whom you live, and work, and worship.  You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world. You are to assist the bishop and priests in public worship and in the ministration of God’s Word and Sacraments, and you are to carry out other duties assigned to you from time to time. At all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself. My brother, do you believe that you are truly called by God and his Church to the life and work of a deacon? Answer: I believe I am so called. Bishop: Do you now in the presence of the Church commit yourself to this trust and responsibility? Answer: I do. Bishop: Will you  be guided by the pastoral direction and leadership of your bishop? Answer: I will.

Bishop It belongs to the Office of a Deacon, to assist the Priest in public worship, especially in the administration of Holy Communion; to lead in public prayer; to read the Gospel, and to instruct both young and old in the Catechism; and at the direction of the Priest, to baptize and to preach. Furthermore, it is the Deacon’s Office to work with the laity in searching for the sick, the poor, and the helpless, that they may be relieved. The Bishop examines the Ordinands as follows Bishop: Will you do this gladly and willingly? Answer: I will do so, the Lord being my helper. Bishop: Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Spirit to take upon yourself this Office and ministry, to serve God for the promoting of his glory and the edifying of his people? Answer: I so trust. Bishop: Do you believe that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in accordance with the Canons of this Church, to the ministry of the same? Answer: I so believe. Bishop: Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all Doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? Answer: I am so persuaded. Bishop: Will you diligently read the same to the people assembled in the church where you are appointed to serve? Answer: I will. Bishop: Will you be diligent to frame and fashion your own lives, and the lives of your families, according to the Doctrine of Christ; and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lies, wholesome examples to the flock of Christ? Answer: I will do so, the Lord being my helper. Bishop: Will you reverently obey your Bishop, and other Ministers, who, according to the Canons of the Church, may have charge and authority over you; following with a glad mind and a good will their godly admonitions? Answer: I will do so, the Lord being my helper.

Bp. Ackerman ordaining Dcn. Heffron

Set List

The parish choir and organist accompanied five hymns from Hymnal 1982 (one with a different tune):

1. I bind unto myself today
2. Come holy ghost our souls inspire
3. Seek ye first the kingdom of God
4. The King of Love my Shepherd is
5. Lord you give the great commission

I did some research on these five on Hymnary.org,  The Hymnal 1940 Companion, and some other online sources. #1 and #4 were the familiar hymns with Irish tunes, present in every Anglican hymnal since The English Hymnal (1906).

• “I bind” is the famous 5th century text attributed to St. Patrick, set to two tunes by Ralph Vaughan Williams for TEH. My interviews with congregation members and church leadership suggest that while musically straightforward, due to its length “St. Patrick’s breastplate” is one of the more demanding hymns in the Anglican canon.
• “King of Love” is an 1868 text by Henry Williams Baker, made famous as the editor in chief of Hymns Ancient and Modern for the first 17 years of its existence. The pairing to the Irish tune (named St. Columba) was first made in TEH.

Of course, #2 is the historic (9th century?) latin text Veni Creator Spritus, the rare hymn text that is part of of the Book of Common Prayer — first in 1549 (Cranmer’s text) and later updated in 1662 (the version we use now). The tune is believed to be older than the text, appears in the earliest manuscripts.

#3 is the well-known 1972 folk song with text and music by then-Calvary Chapel musician Karen Lafferty, and later published by Maranatha! Music. It seems ideal for singing with a guitar at camp — and some hymnals including guitar chords for that purpose — but I have mixed feelings about using it in congregational worship. (Of course, among Episcopalians or Protestants more generally, I’m almost certainly outvoted).

A Hymn for Ordination

There aren’t a lot of hymns specifically for ordination, so this hymn was a welcome surprise. It was written in 1978 by Fr. (later Rt. Rev. Dr.) Jeffrey Rowthorn, then a liturgy professor at Yale Divinity School who retired in 2001 after seven years as PECUSA bishop for Europe. The five verses begin

1 Lord, you give the great commission:
2 Lord, you call us to your service:
3 Lord, you make the common holy:
4 Lord, you show us love’s true measure:
5 Lord, you bless with words assuring:

(While the full text is on Hymnary.org, Hope publishing has placed restrictions on its use.)

The fourth verse is dated by the author’s reference to the PECUSA “social gospel” movement, when it calls on God to “lead us to a just society.” But if you drop that, with the refrain asking “with the Spirit’s gifts empower us for the work of ministry,” the hymn does seem ideally suited for ordinations.

The editors of Hymnal 1982 sought in hymn #528 to sell a new purpose-written tune for the hymn. But I’m guessing that at some point that people figured out that a text that was sung rarely (perhaps for some parishioners, once or twice in their life) should from a practical standpoint set to a familiar tune.

Later hymnals have used Abbot’s Leigh, the tune written in 1941 by Cyril Taylor when patriotic Englishmen and women complained to the BBC that “Glorious things of thee are spoken” was being sung to the Austrian National Anthem. (Thus earlier hymnals list Austria while later hymnals list Abbot’s Leigh or both). The text and tune appear together in (among other places) the 1989 Methodist hymnal, the 1990 and 2006 Presbyterian (PCUSA) hymnal, PECUSA’s 1997 Wonder, Love and Praise and various Catholic hymnals. As best I can tell, the Methodists were the first to use the better known tune with the text by then-Bp. Rowthorn.

How many ways can we say Gloria Patri?

This semester, I've been doing sung morning and evening prayer on campus. One of the interesting challenges is that sometimes we sing from different hymnals or liturgies in a single service, and thus we sing two (or even three) different Gloria Patri. (Similar changes have been made in the Gloria in Excelsis, but that’s a topic for another time).

The Latin version is nearly 15 centuries old:

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

New Advent says it was universal throughout christendom by the 17th century. For example, Shepherd (1950: 9) says about the Gloria Patri after the psalms:

Gloria Patri (see commentary, p. 8). The use of this doxology has been traditional in the Church from the earliest times, and is intended to give to the Psalms a Christian reference and intention. 

Blunt (1889: 186) dates it even earlier

Clement of Alexandria, who wrote before the end of the second century, refers to the use of this hymn under this form, …“giving glory to the one Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,” and a hymn of about the same date is printed by Dr. Bouth, in which there is an evident trace of the same custom :… “Praise we the Father and Son, and Holy Spirit of God." It is also referred to even earlier by Justin Martyr. 

The 14th and 15th century manuscripts of the Sarum Missal (Legg, 1916: 23) list this text as

chorus. Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto.
clerici. Et laus et honor potestas et imperium.
chorus. Sicut erat in principio et nuncet semper et in secula seculorum amen.

400 years of the Book of Common Prayer

In the Daily Office, Cranmer’s original 1549 Booke of Common Praier uses this translation:

Glory be to the father, and to the sonne, and to the holye ghost. As it was in the begynning, is now, and ever shal be, world without ende. Amen.

Except for spelling, we see that in the CoE prayer books through 1662, as well as the (unapproved) 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It’s also in the American prayer books from 1789 to 1928 as

Minister. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

And then came Vatican II.

Vatican II/ICET/ICEL

After Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church began a systematic translation of the liturgy into English (and other local languages). As Hatchett (1988: 132) notes in his summary of Anglican liturgy revisions since the 1950s

Various provinces have participated in ecumenical groups developing common translations of texts (International Consultation on English Texts, or its equivalent for other languages) and have adopted common lectionaries, based on either the post­ Vatican II Roman lectionary or that developed by the Joint Liturgical Group.

In the 1972 and 1975 proposed texts from the International Consultation on English Texts (published in Prayers We Have in Common), the Gloria Patri was rendered as

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.

However, this did not reflect what had already been used in the 1971 Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours:

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

This is, of course, also what ended up in the 1979 American prayer book.

Over the years, I was probably not the only one who was confused that both the Rite I (traditional) and Rite II (modern) liturgies have used the same GP. On the one hand, it made sense for simplifying the task of a priest celebrating both Rite I and Rite II in the same parish (a common issue in the 1980s and 1990s). However, it also meant that this part of Rite I is consistently different from the previous 400 years of English language liturgy — even though most of the rest of Rite I is intended to be similar to the historic liturgy.

One of the sources of confusion is that Rite I services can use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Daily Office canticles (and psalms), as in Hymnal 1940 (and now the Book of Common Praise 2017) — as well as any earlier American, English (or other) resources. So in singing the Daily Office, it matters whether we copy a canticle from H40, BCP17, or the Rite I part of H82.

21st Century Corrections

The Roman Catholic church accounts for more than one third of American Christians. After its 2008 English language correction to its liturgy of the mass  — the Roman Missal (3rd ed.) implemented in 2011 — around 2010 the American Catholic bishops started a related update of its Liturgy of the Hours. However, this new liturgy has not been officially approved, and I was unable to identify its plans for the Gloria Patri.

However, more directly relevant for American Anglicans, the ACNA has released drafts of Texts for Common Prayer, the liturgy its is scheduled to approve in June 2019. In the liturgy of the Daily Office — Morning and Evening Prayer — the new Gloria Patri is rendered as

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In other words, we are almost full circle. The Gloria Patri of 1549-1928 is back, with one change: consistent with late 20th century contemporary language, “Ghost” has been banished and replaced everywhere with “Spirit.” Under the circumstances, it seems like the most compatible revision of the historic liturgy.

With only about 100,000 members, the ACNA might seem lonely make its change on its own. However, it’s merely emulating the (gently modernized) language used by the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, with its two most recent liturgy books: Lutheran Worship (1982) and Lutheran Service Book (2006). While the LCMS is smaller than the more liberal ECLA, it is still larger than the Episcopal Church and ACNA combined.

Is this liturgical change by the ACNA the first step toward ecumenical cooperation with the most liturgically conservative of the largest Protestant denominations?

References

• Blunt, John Henry, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, rev. ed., London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1889.
• Hatchett, Marion J., “Prayer Books,” in Stephen Sykes and John Booty, The Study of Anglicanism (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1988), 121-133.
• Legg, J. Wickham, ed. The Sarum Missal. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916.
• Prayers We Have in Common: Agreed Liturgical Texts Prepared by the International Consultation on English Texts, enlarged and revised ed., Philadelphia, Fortress, 1972.
• Prayers We Have in Common: Agreed Liturgical Texts Prepared by the International Consultation on English Texts, 2nd rev. ed., Philadelphia, Fortress, 1975.
• Shepherd, Massey Hamilton, Jr., The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950

Church musicians have thousands of reasons to shine

Jonathan Aigner asked which praise song readers would like to ban. I put it to a vote of experienced church musicians, and the clear “winner” was “Shine, Jesus, Shine.”

A week ago, Aigner (a Methodist church music director) offered a thought experiment: if there were a charitable auction to ban (at least temporarily) one contemporary worship song, what would you pick. Here's a brief summary of his impassioned argument:

I wish I could ban the whole money-grubbing, golden calf-creating, pop star-copying, Spirit-impersonating, consumer audience-targeting worship industry, but I can’t. Not by myself, at least. I can’t even ban one whole song. But it might make for a fun blog post and some decent discussion.

After an hour or so of thinking, I came up with a mile-long list of dumb “worship” songs. But then it hit me. While there are a ton of crappy contemporary worship songs, there is one that I hate on a deeply visceral level, more than any other crappy worship song that has been inflicted on the church during the recent commercial worship hijacking.

The year was 1993. It was a simpler time. A 21-year-old, soprano-singing Thris Comlin had yet to ruin his first hymn. And most of us were blissfully unaware of the derivative musical empire that was being erected in the land down under. Darlene “Too Many Consonants, Not Enough Vowels” Zschzschzschech penned a cute little ditty for her “worship team” to sing at Hillsong Church in Sydney.

It was called “Shout to the Lord.”

This sort of concern is a major thread on a closed Facebook group of traditional church musicians. I put it to a vote, nominating four songs. Three are perennially popular — Shout to the Lord, Ten Thousand Reasons, In Christ Alone — while King of My Heart is a more recent CCM hit. Providentially, I left the poll open for others to add options.

The Votes Are In

I got 238 votes — 228 for specific songs and 10 that said “all of the above”. One song clearly won going away: “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” Below are the 21 nominees and the number of hymnals that include each hymn (according to Hymnary.org).

Votes	Song	Author	Date	Hymnals
42.1%	Shine, Jesus, Shine	Graham Kendrick	1987	31
12.7%	Gather Us In	Marty Haugen	1982	32
8.3%	Ten Thousand Reasons (Bless the Lord, O my Soul)	Matt Redman	2011	3
6.1%	All are Welcome	Marty Haugen	1995	17
5.7%	Lord of the Dance	Sydney Carter	1963	41
4.4%	Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)	(Hillsong)	2013
3.9%	Here I Am, Lord	Dan Shutte	1981	47
3.1%	Good, Good Father	Chris Tomlin	2015
2.2%	On Beagle's Wings (aka On Eagle’s Wings, aka the “You Who” song)	Michael Joncas	1977	4
1.8%	Amazing Grace	John Newton	1779	1,230
1.8%	I Am The Bread of Life	Suzanne Toolan	1966	23
1.8%	In Christ Alone	Keith Getty, Stuart Townend	2002	14
1.3%	Come, Now Is the Time to Worship	Brian Doerksen	1977
0.9%	Shout to the Lord	(Hillsong)	1993
0.9%	One Bread, One Body	John Foley	1978	26
0.9%	All Praise and Worship
0.4%	Strong and Constant	Frank Andersen	1973
0.4%	Companions On the Journey	Carey Landry	1985
0.4%	I Sing a Song of the Saints of God	Lesbia Scott	1929	22
0.4%	I'm Trading My Sorrows	Darrell Evans	1998	1
0.4%	King of My Heart	Bethel Music	2016

Even with this strong showing, there was disagreement among the musicians. Clearly many if not most of the musicians knew only a handful of these nominees, and so voted for the worst of the ones they know. For example, with the California ACNA parishes and diocesan activities where I have sometimes worshipped, the musical lingua franca are “In Christ Alone” and “Ten Thousand Reasons”; the latter was a communion hymn for a 2015 consecration. I voted for this one not because it’s the worst, but because I’ve seen it (and the catchy ear worm chorus) turn a worship service into a chance for people to rock out.

Some of the CCM big names are there: Hillsong (as nominated by Aigner), Marty Haugen (two nominations), Graham Kendrick and Matt Redman (for some very good Reasons). Interestingly, almost 10% went to six post-Vatican II Catholic hymns from 1966-1985. One is a former Jesuit with a controversial lifestyle while the other is a current member of the S.J. A third is by a (then) nun, while I believe the other three authors are priests

As Sesame Street would say, one of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn’t belong. With 1000+ hymnals, the 240-year-old “Amazing Grace” is a legitimate Christian hymn, even if a highly emotive one that some find trite or cliché.

While I thought I’d never say this, I’d like to add a word of defense for Mr. Kendrick. Like others, I find it objectionable for a worship service, but a music scholar I respect (who may not want to be associated with this blog) said that it was never intended for this purpose. She said it was originally used for evangelization at Christian street festival in England (although that’s not what the semi-official history says). If that’s the case, then I can’t fault the author or composer for bringing it into worship, but instead (as with any other song taken off the radio) would point to the music director or even the pastor.

It's a Free Country

In reading over the visceral objections to Aigner’s posting, I want to argue my own point of view (if not necessarily his or the voters in the poll). All of us are voting for things we don’t like and (I believe in most cases) are inappropriate for a worship service. However, in the consumer-driven American church marketplace, in a big enough city just about everyone can find a church that suits their worship preferences. So all the people who love these songs — including some of my closer friends — are free to rock out to them this Sunday or any other Sunday, no matter what Aigner or 238 Facebook subscribers say.

It also appeared that some of the readers didn’t realize that blogs — particularly like other humorous commentaries — are often exaggerated for effect. I hope that no one actually reading what was written would conclude that Aigner (or the gang of 238) thinking that demon worship is preferable (or equivalent) to singing one of these songs.