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The following draft Bill will be debated during this years General Synod. For further information on amendments and passage through General Synod please contact the General Synod Press Office.

BILL NO 11

This short Bill seeks to provide a Preface for the 2004 edition of the Book of Common Prayer which, as was done in respect of the 1926 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, will be inserted immediately before the Preface prefixed at the former revision of the Book of Common Prayer.

REV CANON RB ROUNTREE
VERY REV MAJ BURROWS

To insert in the 2004 edition of the Book of Common Prayer a Preface to precede the Preface prefixed at the revision of 1926

WHEREAS it is desirable that the 2004 edition of the Book of Common Prayer shall have a Preface in addition to those prefixed at earlier revisions of the Book of Common Prayer;

BE IT ENACTED by the Archbishops and Bishops and the Clergy and Laity of the Church of Ireland in General Synod assembled in Dublin in the year 2003, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

The following Preface shall be inserted immediately before the Preface prefixed at the Revision of 1926:-

THE PREFACE
PREFIXED AT THE REVISION OF 2004

In 1997 the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, after careful consideration, requested the Church’s Liturgical Advisory Committee to prepare a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Since disestablishment, two previous editions of the Book of Common Prayer had been produced (in 1878 and in 1926), but this new Book of Common Prayer was to include not only services of the Church handed down through the centuries but also services in contemporary language. In three decades prior to 1997 the General Synod had authorised a large number of services in modern language as alternatives to those contained in the Book of Common Prayer and thus this book, now given to the Church, represents the cumulative labours of committee and of Synod over many generations.

In undertaking our task, we embraced a time-honoured vision of Common Prayer which informs the contents and presentation of this book. We sought to unify the worship of God’s people, while allowing reasonable scope for diversity within the essential unity of the Church’s prayer. We were determined to produce a book which would have equal capacity to enrich private as well as corporate devotion. We desired that this book, like previous editions of it, should properly articulate and embody the Church’s faith. We hoped that the book would strengthen our bonds of unity with sister churches who share our approach to Common Prayer, and we were therefore fully attentive to the reports of successive meetings of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation.

We trust that this book will be used and treasured by many congregations and individuals in the years to come, and that its contents will permeate and shape their experience of prayer. Nevertheless, we must always remind ourselves that words, however admirable, beautiful or useful, are never to be confused with worship itself. The words set out on these pages are but the beginning of worship. They need to be appropriated with care and devotion by the People of God so that, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, men and women may bring glory to the Father and grow in the knowledge and likeness of Jesus Christ.

This book therefore leaves its compilers’ hands with the hope and prayer that it will prove to be a worthy instrument by which to proclaim the Church’s praise of God in the generation to come. It is of course only by God’s gift that his faithful people ‘do him true and laudable service’, but we pray also that this book will have the capacity to draw God’s people in our time to a fresh experience of the beauty of holiness.

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