TUESDAY'S NEWS

Report on Liturgical Bills 1 - 8
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

Eight bills on this year’s Synod agenda seek to provide services for inclusion in the Church of Ireland’s new Book of Common Prayer, to be published in 2004. Bills 2-9 have passed their second reading and, if they pass the final stages on the third day of the Synod, will provide services including a new Order for Confirmation, a Ministry to the Sick, General Directions for Public Worship and the Ordinal.

The traditional language Order for Confirmation (Bill No 2) returned to the Synod in 2003 following an unsuccessful attempt by the House of Bishops two years ago to delete a rubric in the service specifying that “Every person ought to present himself for Confirmation ... before he partakes of the Lord’s Supper”. An amendment was proposed this year replacing the rubric with one from the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer reading “And there shall none be admitted to the Holy Communion, until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed”.

Proposing the amendment, the Dean of Cork, the Very Rev Michael Burrows, spoke of his difficulty with the existing rubric, which was added in 1878 and had attracted an “unnecessarily harsh” and “absolutist” interpretation, whereas the 1662 rubric “just about” opened the door on communion before confirmation without paving the way for the communion of infants.

The amendment was passed by a large majority following a lively debate during which members spoke of the important contribution of children to the Church. Mrs Elaine Way of the Diocese of Derry and Mrs Hilary McClay of Down supported the amendment as mothers of children in parishes where young people were allowed to participate in communion before confirmation.

Bill No 3 provides a version of the baptism service passed last year to be used at Morning or Evening Prayer. Of nine proposed amendments four were passed, one of which will allow the service also to be used with A Service of the Word. A further amendment approved by the Synod added an alternative set of promises, and a third echoed last year’s decision to remove a rubric concerning the multiple signing of the cross. The final amendment passed sought will allow a choice of prayers following the baptism.

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Several other amendments were variously defeated and withdrawn following a lengthy debate during which the Rev Canon Michael Kennedy, Diocese of Armagh, told Synod members that amendment would create inconsistency between the service under consideration and the baptismal material passed in 2002. The Chairman of the Liturgical Advisory Committee, the Rt Rev Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore, reminded the Synod that it had agreed at that time that there should be only one baptismal service because there was “only one baptism”.

Bill No 4 provides occasional prayers and thanksgivings while Bill No 5 seeks approval for forms of Daily Prayer which will be familiar to users of the Church of Ireland’s Alternative Prayer Book.

The provision for Ministry to the Sick made in the book of Alternative Occasional Services in 1993 is expanded upon by Bill No 6, which includes forms of Holy Communion for use in hospital or at home and prayers tailored to the needs of sick and housebound people. The Bill contains a Celebration of Wholeness and Healing and also makes extensive provision for ministry at the time of death. One amendment was passed adding a prayer of blessing on the Church in its ministry of healing.

Bill No 7 provides a Service for Ash Wednesday, while Bill No 8 seeks approval for the use of the psalter from the Church of England’s Common Worship. An amendment sought to print alongside this the 1926 psalter, described by the Rev Canon Tom Keightley as a “well-spring of spirituality”. The amendment was defeated following an animated debate in which the Synod was reminded that it had decided last year to include only one psalter. Despite not being printed in the new prayer book the 1926 version of the psalter will remain authorised for use as an alternative to the Common Worship psalter.

The Ordinal (Bill No 9), comprising three services for the ordination of deacons, priests and bishops, passed through the committee stage with four amendments and was referred, along with Bills Nos 2-8, to the Synod for final consideration on the last day of the session.

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