General Synod 2003: Wednesday's News

This is a thumbnail image of the Archbishops and the Honorary Secretaries at General Synod

This is a thumbnail image of Members voting at General Synod

This is a thumbnail image of the Archbishops, Bishops, Honorary Secretaries and Members at General Synod

This is a thumbnail image of the Archbishops' table at General Synod

WEDNESDAY'S NEWS

New Book of Common Prayer due next year
(report courtesy of Rev Gregg Ryan of the Church Times)

A new prayer book, replacing both the current Book of Common Prayer and the Alternative Prayer Book, is due to come into use in the Church of Ireland following a lengthy debate, thirteen Bills and 40 amendments at General Synod on Tuesday.

It was, said the proposer of the Liturgical Advisory Committee Bishop Richard Clarke (Meath & Kildare), a process which began in the 1960s and worked through to 1997 (The APB has been used in tandem with the BCP since 1984) when at General Synod the construction of a new prayer book encompassing the traditional and the contemporary was embarked upon.

The Most Rev RL Clarke, Bishop of Meath & Kildare

“We must realise that this point is not the end of anything. We have now to use the BCP and use it well. I firmly believe that liturgy is a weapon of mission. Many people today walk into a church service almost on an impulse (literally off the street sometimes) and judge the Church, Christianity, the Gospel itself, on what they encounter in that single act of worship. If the worship is working, a journey of discipleship may begin or be resumed. If the worship is sloppy, careless or lifeless, a potential disciple may have been turned away,” he said.

Rev. Dr. Maurice Elliott, (Dromore) said he hoped the book would become a vehicle for unity. “By nature we are a liturgical church, but in reality we are an exceedingly diverse church, and within limits that diversity is something which the new BCP seeks to encourage. The very essence of the book is that it enshrines both the traditional and the contemporary, and a blend of both must surely somehow cater for everyone.”

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The diversity of the church was soon apparent in the variety of amendments put forward – many of them dealing with the substitution of single words, the deletion of a rubric or the question of whether two versions of the psalter should appear.

The issue of ‘inclusive’ terminology became too much for some delegates; the Dean of Tuam, Very Revd. Alastair Grimason, declared himself “fed up being totally PC and walking on eggshells.”

A lay delegate from Killaloe, Mr. Peter Reid, expressed his ongoing nostalgia for the old BCP and declared it would remain in his pew until the Lord took him.

Canon George Hilliard, chaplain to University College, Cork, said he had disliked the idea of ‘tinkering’ with the BCP at all but the Synod had proceeded and the only thing to do was complete it as quickly as possible. “I would have liked to have dealt with the amendments in one fell swoop and reject the whole lot of them,” he said.

The third, and final reading of the Bill was scheduled for Thursday and the new Book of Common Prayer is due to be formally introduced on Trinity Sunday, 2004.

(report courtesy of Rev Gregg Ryan of the Church Times)

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