Activities at All Saints
Special Mass in February 2006
All Saints Anglican Church was blessed with a full house of 25 communicants on Sunday, February 5, 2006 for a special Mass conducted according to the 1549 Book of Common Prayer by the Rt. Rev. Wellborn Hudson. He was assisted by Fr Bob Gregory, Vicar of All Saints. Bishop Hudson's sermon/homily centered on the history of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, but he also linked the ancient Canon of the Mass to modern forms of worship and gave it a current relevance. Visitors expressed their thankfulness for his informative talk. Our Guest Book records visitors from as far away as Colorado and Iowa and as close as Tubac and Green Valley. This was an inspirational day for all.
Bishop Hudson's Remarks
A Brief History of the Emergence of the English Liturgy
Reform of the Church's worship was one aspect of the larger Reformation movement of the 16th century which affected Christian doctrine, organization and morals. Concern with liturgy was to be found among both Roman Catholic and Protestant reformers. In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, there was a thorough-going revision of its inherited rites.
In England, there were a number of rites throughout the country, and one would find variations depending on which diocese one found oneself in.
All these reforms acted upon one another, but it is commonly conceded that the liturgical reform accomplished in England exhibited unusual marks of genius. For this we are chiefly indebted to the learning and literary skill of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1556. The two prayer books issued during the reign of Edward VI (the 1549 and 1552 books) were largely the work of Archbishop Cranmer.
The basis of Cranmer's reform was the Sarum adaptation of the Roman liturgy. It was from the Diocese of Sarum, now known as Salisbury. Cranmer also made large use of a Breviary issued by Spanish Cardinal Quinones, a work that was originally commissioned by the Pope. Cranmer borrowed freely from the Lutheran experiments in liturgical reform, and he tapped into the liturgical work of Saints Basil and Chrysostom, for he was thoroughly familar with the old Greek liturgies. From these sources, Cranmer derived ideas, forms and phrases. The whole heritage of the Church's worship contributed to the making of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.
The liturgy was conservative in character: the form and structure of the older rites was preserved and most of the old ceremonies were kept. But what had originally been Latin or German or Greek was now translated into English. One of Cranmer's most brilliant strokes was his decision to put the liturgy into his native tongue.
The old canonical hours (all eight of them) were reduced to two and are known as Matins (Morning Prayer) and Evensong (Evening Prayer). This was partly due to the dissolution of the monasteries which were organized around a twenty-four hour cycle of prayer: now there was no longer a need for lengthier and more elaborate daily offices.
Our focus today is on the Holy Communion. We should note here that with the Cranmerian revision, the Holy Communion again became a corporate act, including regular offerings by the people of both alms for the poor and the bread and wine that were to be used in the Communion service. Non-communicating attendance was discouraged. (The Burial Office saw a shift away from emphasis on Purgatory to a new emphasis on resurrection, joy and the triumph of the redeemed soul.
Inevitably in the times of reformation, there are those who are dissatisfied with the work of the leading reformers. Such was the case in that age: those of strongly Protestant sympathies felt that the 1549 Prayer Book had not gone far enough in reaction against certain "medieval abuses." Any suggestion that the Eucharist was in any way a propitiatory sacrifice for sin and any trace of the dogma of transsubstantiation as a definition of the Real Presence of the Lord in the sacrament was especially abhorrent to them. The communion rite was thoroughly re-arranged in the 1552 book. All mention of the Offertory of bread and wine was eliminated and the consecration prayer was broken into several parts, some of them coming before and some of them coming after the communion.
The so-called "Black Rubric" appeared just before the 1552 book was issued. It was added at the last moment solely at the direction of the King's Council and over the strenuous objections of Cranmer. It declared that by kneeling to receive the sacrament was not meant "...that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental bread or wine bodily received, or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood."
All of this came to naught, for Edward died eight months after the 1552 Book of Common Prayer was issued. Queen Mary, a devout Roman Catholic, succeeded him and promptly did away with both versions of the English Prayer Book. England didn't have another Prayer Book until some time after Queen Elizabeth took the throne, near the end of the Reformation. The book currently in use in England is the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which was also used by the Anglicans in the United States until 1789.
There was a time when what a man believed meant everything, but by the end of the Reformation, public consensus was that religion was no longer worth fighting over What one believed was a private matter and didn't make much difference in other areas of life. And that is pretty much how matters stand today.
So why is all of this such a big deal? It is because we believe that there is a spiritual continuity across generations of Christians who have always believed in a Saviour who transcends time and space. It is important to us to worship God in the same way our ancestors worshipped, and this first English liturgy is the way we English-speaking Anglican Catholics do it. It has to do with Christian family, not with ancestor worship, because the focus is upon God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holyt Ghost, and all who have been redeemed as a result of Christ's promise.