General Synod 2003: Wednesday's News

This is a thumbnail image of the Archbishop of Armagh speaking 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 Members voting at General Synod

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

WEDNESDAY'S NEWS

Liturgy as a “weapon of mission” - Bishop Clarke
(from Elaine Whitehouse, Communications Dept, RCB)

The Church of Ireland will publish its new Book of Common Prayer in 2004 and for the past five years the General Synod has devoted large amounts of agenda space to approving material for inclusion in the book.

The Liturgical Advisory Committee (LAC) has been responsible for preparing all this material and this year marks the culmination of a long period of preparatory work for the Committee as the final bills come before the Synod for its approval.

At a time when the LAC is receiving plaudits for its work on the content of the new prayer book, the proposer of the Committee’s 2003 report told the Synod that this point was “not the end of anything... We have now to use the Book of Common Prayer and use it well.” The Most Rev Richard Clarke, Bishop of Meath and Kildare, referred to liturgy as a “weapon of mission” and emphasised that many people today would “walk into a church service almost on an impulse” and judge the Church on what they encountered there.

Rev Canon R Rountree - Central Liturgical Officer

Bishop Clarke drew attention to the resources being directed into the introduction of the new Book of Common Prayer and invited Synod members to join the LAC in wishing Canon Ricky Rountree well in his new role as Central Liturgical Officer with responsibility for facilitating that introduction. The Committee asked “that the Church, north and south, east and west, will use his energy and his expertise to the full”.

Bishop Clarke also paid special tribute to the work of longstanding LAC member Canon Edgar Turner, who had been a member of the LAC since its first meeting forty years ago.

Rev Dr Maurice Elliott, seconding, hoped that the new book would take its place as “a vehicle to unity and an aid to creativity”. The Church of Ireland was “exceedingly diverse” and the new book accordingly encompassed old and new, familiar and unfamiliar in the hope of encouraging creativity, flexibility and new heights of excellence in worship.

Answering a question from Mr Robert Simpson of Connor Diocese, Bishop Clarke said it was envisaged that a CD-ROM version of the prayer book would be produced.

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