TUESDAY'S NEWS

Report on Liturgical Bills
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

There are seventeen bills on this year’s Synod agenda, thirteen of which relate to the Church of Ireland’s new Book of Common Prayer to be published in 2004. Bills 1-17 are due to go through the first and second readings on the first day of the Synod session and the final stages on the Thursday.

If passed, Bills Nos 2-9 will provide service material including a new Order for Confirmation, Ministry to the Sick, a Service for Ash Wednesday and the Ordinal. Approval is also sought for the use of the psalter from the Church of England’s Common Worship.

In addition, Bill No 1 will bring the wording of texts into line with the recent English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), which aims to standardise the texts of prayers, creeds and canticles common to all churches of the Anglican Communion who use English in their liturgies. Bill No 10 gives General Directions for Public Worship and Bill No 11 provides for a new preface to be added to the prayer book.

Bill No 12 provides for ancillary matters such as the order in which the services will appear in the new book and Bill No 13 allows for the correction of inaccuracies that have arisen as services have passed through the legislative process.

A number of proposed amendments will be discussed and put to the vote at the committee stage, which immediately follows the second reading of the bills on the first day of Synod.

Meanwhile, Bills Nos 14 and 15 provide for the use of gender-inclusive language in the Canons of the Church of Ireland and for the consolidation of the Church’s Constitution. Bill No 16 completes a recent sequence of legislation by establishing a severance fund to provide for clergy whose ministry has suffered pastoral breakdown and Bill No 17 seeks to entitle boards of nomination to meet before a parish becomes vacant.

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