Thinking allowed

Thanksgiving for the longest reign

on Saturday, 1 August 2015 at 8.11 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has draf­ted two pray­ers for use to cel­eb­rate Queen Eliza­beth II becom­ing the longest-reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory, on 9 Septem­ber this year. These have been approved by Buck­ing­ham Palace, and the Com­mis­sion has asked that they be cir­cu­lated as widely as possible.

Pray­ers for use when HM The Queen becomes the longest reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory (9 Septem­ber 2015)

A Col­lect for use after the Col­lect of the Day at BCP ser­vices
Almighty God, who hast set our gra­cious sov­er­eign Queen Eliza­beth upon the throne of this realm, and giv­en her to sur­pass all oth­ers in the years of her reign: Receive our heart­felt thanks for her ser­vice to her people, con­firm and encour­age her in the con­tinu­ance of the same, and keep her in thy heav­enly wis­dom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took the form of a ser­vant for our sake, and reigneth now in glory with thee and the Holy Spir­it, one God, world without end. Amen.

A mod­ern-lan­guage pray­er draw­ing on Phil­ip­pi­ans 2
Almighty God, 
whose Son Jesus Christ exchanged the glory of a heav­enly throne for the form of a servant,
we thank you that you have giv­en Eliza­beth our Queen a heart to serve her people,
and have kept her devoted in this ser­vice bey­ond all who were before her:
encour­age us by her example to serve one anoth­er, and to seek the com­mon good,
until you call us all to reign with Christ in your etern­al king­dom. Amen.

New baptismal texts; and rules on eucharistic ministers

on Monday, 13 July 2015 at 7.26 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Gen­er­al Syn­od of the Church of Eng­land, meet­ing in York, yes­ter­day gave final approv­al to the addi­tion­al bap­tis­mal texts. The texts are author­ized from 1 Septem­ber 2015.

The syn­od­ic­al report reads:

CHRISTIAN INITIATION: ADDITIONAL TEXTS FOR HOLY BAPTISM IN ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE (GS 1958B AND GS 1958X)

Art­icle 7 busi­ness Final Approval

The Bish­op of Sod­or and Man (Chair of the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee) moved:

‘That the litur­gic­al busi­ness entitled “Chris­ti­an Ini­ti­ation: Addi­tion­al Texts for Holy Bap­tism in Access­ible Lan­guage” be finally approved for a peri­od from 1 Septem­ber 2015 until fur­ther Res­ol­u­tion of the Synod.’

The final vote was approved after a divi­sion of houses, with the vot­ing fig­ures below:

House of Bish­ops: For – 23, Against – 1, Absten­tions – 1,
House of Clergy: For – 114, Against – 6, Absten­tions – 5,
House of Laity: For – 126, Against – 10, Absten­tions – 6,

The Syn­od also approved new reg­u­la­tions on the author­iz­a­tion of people to assist in the admin­is­tra­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion. The rules allow the bish­op, on the applic­a­tion of the incum­bent or priest in charge, to author­ize named indi­vidu­als. The bish­op may also give the priest gen­er­al author­ity to allow people to admin­is­ter (with PCC agree­ment), and this may include chil­dren who have been form­ally admit­ted to Com­mu­nion before Con­firm­a­tion. Chil­dren in church schools may be author­ized with the agree­ment of the head teach­er rather than the PCC. The full rules are in the linked file. The new reg­u­la­tions come into force on 1 Octo­ber 2015, and revoke the old 1969 rules.

ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION REGULATIONS (GS 1992)

Reg­u­la­tions under Can­on B 12 Art­icle 7 business

The Bish­op of Sod­or and Man (the Rt Revd Robert Pater­son) moved:

‘That the Admin­is­tra­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion Reg­u­la­tions be approved.’

which was approved.

Topical prayers from the Liturgical Commission (2)

on Friday, 26 June 2015 at 4.10 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has provided pray­ers and oth­er mater­i­al for a num­ber of forth­com­ing occasions.

These are:

• The Bap­tism of Prin­cess Char­lotte of Cam­bridge (on 5 July)
• The 70th anniversar­ies of Hiroshi­ma and Naga­saki (6 and 9 August)
• The 70th anniversary of VJ Day (Vic­tory in Japan) (2 Septem­ber 15 August)
• The cen­ten­ary of the exe­cu­tion of Edith Cav­ell (12 October)

The text of the mater­i­al for the first three is in the pre­vi­ous post. This post con­tains the mater­i­al for Edith Cavell.

(more…)

Topical prayers from the Liturgical Commission (1)

on Friday, 26 June 2015 at 3.58 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has provided pray­ers and oth­er mater­i­al for a num­ber of forth­com­ing occasions. 

These are:

• The Bap­tism of Prin­cess Char­lotte of Cam­bridge (on 5 July)
• The 70th anniversar­ies of Hiroshi­ma and Naga­saki (6 and 9 August)
• The 70th anniversary of VJ Day (Vic­tory in Japan) (2 Septem­ber 15 August)
• The cen­ten­ary of the exe­cu­tion of Edith Cav­ell (12 October)

The text of the mater­i­al for the first three is in the full post. The mater­i­al for Edith Cav­ell is sep­ar­ated into a post of its own.

(more…)

Liturgy for the reburial of a king

on Friday, 27 March 2015 at 7.43 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as history, liturgical texts, liturgy

The remains iden­ti­fied as those of King Richard III were re-interred yes­ter­day in Leicester Cathed­ral in a ser­vice broad­cast live on Chan­nel 4.

The order of ser­vice for the re-inter­ment is avail­able as a pdf file on this page, or (dir­ect link to pdf) or here.

Additional Texts for Holy Baptism (GS 1958A)

on Thursday, 29 January 2015 at 5.19 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Agenda for the Feb­ru­ary ses­sions of the Gen­er­al Syn­od was pub­lished recently. On Thursday after­noon, the Altern­at­ive Bap­tism Texts return to the Syn­od after the revi­sion com­mit­tee stage:

The fol­low­ing items (full details of which are con­tained in Spe­cial Agenda II – see page 9) will be taken:

600 Altern­at­ive Bap­tism Texts (GS 1958A)
– Report of the Revi­sion Com­mit­tee (GS 1958Y)

and the note on page 9 says:

ALTERNATIVE BAPTISM TEXTS (GS 1958A)
Art­icle 7 Business
Con­sid­er­a­tion of a Report by the Revi­sion Com­mit­tee (GS 1958Y)
The Chair of the Revi­sion Com­mit­tee (the Bish­op of Truro) to move:
600 ‘That the Syn­od do take note of this Report.’

Notes:
1. Notice of motions for re-com­mit­tal under the pro­vi­sions of Stand­ing Order 77(a) must be giv­en in writ­ing to the Clerk to the Syn­od by not later than 5.30pm on Tues­day 10 Feb­ru­ary 2015 (Stand­ing Order 10©). Any such motions will appear on a Notice Paper.

2. If no such motion is car­ried, the litur­gic­al busi­ness will auto­mat­ic­ally stand com­mit­ted to the House of Bish­ops under Stand­ing Order 77(f).

The texts (GS 1958A) and the report of the Revi­sion Com­mit­tee (GS 1958Y) can be found with oth­er papers for this group of ses­sions here.

More Canadian trial liturgy

on Wednesday, 3 December 2014 at 7.37 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

I noted earli­er the pub­lic­a­tion by the Anglic­an Church of Canada of tri­al Year A Col­lects ‘from Pente­cost to the Reign of Christ’.

The Cana­dian Church has added con­sid­er­ably more resources to that page in the inter­ven­ing peri­od. It now contains

• Morn­ing and Even­ing Pray­er: Advent, Christ­mas and Epiphany
• Tri­al Use Litur­gic­al Psalter
• Tri­al Use Col­lects and Sea­son­al Pray­ers over the Gifts and after Com­mu­nion from Advent to the Bap­tism of Christ — Year B
• Tri­al Use Col­lects and Sea­son­al Pray­ers over the Gifts and after Com­mu­nion from Advent to the Bap­tism of Christ — Year A
• Tri­al Use Col­lects from Pente­cost to the Reign of Christ — Year A

In the Cana­dian Church each dio­ces­an bish­op can author­ize the this mater­i­al for tri­al use in their dio­cese, and the task Force encour­ages feed­back on their use.

(Thanks to Rod Gil­lis for draw­ing my atten­tion to the new mater­i­al. As before, I wel­come read­ers send­ing sug­ges­tions of suit­able links either by email or as a com­ment on an exist­ing article.)

Marking the centenary of the start of the First World War

on Friday, 1 August 2014 at 8.25 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Church of Eng­land has pro­duced a set of Litur­gic­al Resources for use at ser­vices com­mem­or­at­ing the anniversary of World War One. They are avail­able here as part of a sec­tion of the web­site ded­ic­ated to the com­mem­or­a­tion.

• Read­ings, Pray­ers, Hymns, Art and Music:
  Word / PDF

• An out­line for a ser­vice around a First World War memorial:
  Word / PDF

• Prop­ers for a Requiem Eucharist:
  Word / PDF

• Vigil Ser­vice for either 3 or 4 August, 2014:
  Word / PDF

A candle-lit vigil of pray­er and an act of sol­emn reflec­tion to mark the cen­ten­ary of the start of the First World War will be held in West­min­ster Abbey on 4 August 2014. The ser­vice is one of a num­ber of events being announced by the Gov­ern­ment to mark the cen­ten­ary of the Great War. Draw­ing upon Sir Edward Grey’s fam­ous remark that “the lights are going out all over Europe”, the Abbey will mark the cen­ten­ary by mov­ing from light into dark­ness, until one candle remains at the Grave of the Unknown Sol­dier, which will be extin­guished at 11.00pm to mark the moment at which Bri­tain entered the war.

• Vigil Struc­ture PDF / Vigil Resources PDF

UPDATE
West­min­ster Abbey has now pub­lished the Order of Ser­vice for the Vigil Ser­vice. It can be found as a pdf file on this page. You can access the pdf dir­ectly here

Additional Texts for Holy Baptism (GS 1958)

on Sunday, 13 July 2014 at 8.54 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

Updated with press reports

The addi­tion­al texts for bap­tism were con­sidered by the Gen­er­al Syn­od, meet­ing at York, on Sunday after­noon, and sent to a revi­sion com­mit­tee, which is the nor­mal pro­cess. The offi­cial report records that:

Drafts for First Con­sid­er­a­tion intro­duced by the House of Bishops

The Chair of the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, the Bish­op of Sod­or and Man, moved:

‘That the litur­gic­al busi­ness entitled “Addi­tion­al texts for Holy Bap­tism” be con­sidered for revi­sion in committee.’

The motion was approved by the Synod.

Press reports

There is cov­er­age of this in some of Monday’s papers:

• The Times has a story head­lined Dev­il demoted to ‘car­toon-like char­ac­ter’ (most of the story is behind the Times’s paywall)

• In the Tele­graph Philip Almond expresses his opin­ion on the role of the Dev­il: Giv­ing the Dev­il his Due

trial Canadian Collects

on Friday, 27 June 2014 at 6.41 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Anglic­an Church of Canada is tri­al­ling some new collects

The [Cana­dian] Gen­er­al Syn­od of 2010 man­dated Faith, Wor­ship, and Min­istry to estab­lish a Liturgy Task Force to work on the revi­sion of our con­tem­por­ary lan­guage litur­gic­al texts. This Task Force has, in turn, been author­ized by the Coun­cil of Gen­er­al Syn­od to release the first phase of its new texts for tri­al use and feed­back as they become avail­able. These draft mater­i­als — begin­ning with Col­lects for Sundays — are encour­aged for use where per­mit­ted by the dio­ces­an bish­ops. We ask that those who use them also par­ti­cip­ate in the pro­cess to feed back your eval­u­ation of the resources to the Liturgy Task Force for its con­sid­er­a­tion in the final edit­or­i­al phase.

The text of the Col­lects for use this year (Year A) ‘from Pente­cost to the Reign of Christ’ can be down­loaded as a pdf via the above link. Unlike the Col­lects in Com­mon Wor­ship which are determ­ined by the named Sundays after Trin­ity, these pray­ers are aligned to the Sunday read­ing cycle.

(Thanks to Phil­lip Tovey for draw­ing my atten­tion to this. Read­ers are wel­come to send sug­ges­tions of suit­able links either by email or as a com­ment on an exist­ing article.)