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Abbreviation | PBSC |
---|---|
Formation | 1986 |
Purpose | Promotion of the use of the Book of Common Prayer |
Location |
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Chairman | Gordon Maitland |
Website | prayerbook |
The Prayer Book Society of Canada (PBSC), founded in 1986, is an organization of Canadian Anglicans encompassing members who are affiliated with both the Anglican Church of Canada and other jurisdictions such as the Anglican Network in Canada and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. [1] The Society promotes “the understanding and use of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) as a spiritual system of nurture for life in Christ” and upholds it as the standard of doctrine and worship for Canadian Anglicans. [2] It primarily supports the use of the 1962 Canadian edition of the BCP, and aims to encourage greater awareness and wider use of it through the publication of liturgical resources in print and online, advocacy to and collaboration with like-minded organizations and the broader church, and the provision of financial aid to theological students and parishes. [3]
The Canadian Book of Alternative Services (BAS) was introduced within the Anglican Church of Canada in 1985. The explanatory essays which preface the liturgies contained in it consistently presented them as a departure from the tradition of the Book of Common Prayer, [4] which caused friction between those who valued the spiritual and doctrinal tradition of the Prayer Book, and clergy who introduced the BAS into parish worship, sometimes to the point of entirely replacing the BCP.
In response, a fledgling Prayer Book Society of Canada was organized in Toronto early in 1986. It placed advertisements in diocesan and national church newspapers, outlining the issues at hand and inviting readers to join the organization. A regular newsletter was established to enable networking among like-minded people, to assist them with making their concerns known, to provide resources about the history and theology of the BCP, and to share information on the Society’s efforts to engage with church officials. Membership in the Society grew steadily, and branches began to be founded across the country to hold events for local members and to represent the Society at the diocesan level. By 1992 the number of branches had grown to 26, and by 1993 the Society’s membership stood at over 11,000, making it the second largest lay organization in the Anglican Church of Canada (after the Anglican Church Women).
In 1994 the PBSC partnered with Barnabas Anglican Ministries and Anglican Renewal Ministries to form the Essentials Coalition, whose stated mission was “to call the Anglican Church of Canada to embrace and live by its orthodox Christian heritage under the renewing guidance of the Holy Spirit”. The coalition continued its networking and advocacy over the next decade, producing a book of essays and other literature, and organizing various events. Differing views between those who wished to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada and those who wanted to align with more theologically conservative Anglican provinces in the Global South led in 2005 to the disbanding of the coalition and the formation of two new organizations, the Anglican Communion Alliance and the Anglican Network in Canada, which respectively pursued these two strategies. The PBSC maintained its independent existence during and after this period.
In recent years the Society has expanded its efforts with a rebuilt website offering various educational and liturgical resources, a quarterly electronic mailout and an active Facebook page.
The PBSC affirms the rationale for the BCP which Thomas Cranmer described in the Preface to its first edition in 1549: that the liturgies of the Western church had gradually been corrupted throughout medieval times, and that the Prayer Book restored them to their original biblical purity, while also translating and adapting them so that they could be more accessible to both clergy and laity. [5] Although the Prayer Book is fundamentally a book of worship whose purpose is to provide biblical and traditional structure to public and private prayer, the PBSC believes that the Prayer Book liturgies also teach doctrines, and that these doctrines are relevant to the church today. In addition, the PBSC seeks to promote the Prayer Book as a key element of the “formularies” or constitution of the church, arguing that its creeds, exhortations, rubrics, and other directives (like the obligation of clergy to recite Morning and Evening Prayer daily) having binding canonical force upon Canadian Anglicans. The PBSC as an organization does not endorse a “high church” or “low church” interpretation of the Prayer Book and has neither supported nor condemned the decision of some Anglicans to form new jurisdictions outside of the Anglican Church of Canada, although individual members are at liberty to maintain their own views.
The Society is governed by a National Council, made up of national officers (a chairman, up to five vice-chairmen, a treasurer, a recording secretary and a membership secretary), the presidents of the local branches, and up to twenty councillors. Each year the members of the National Council elect the national officers, who may be nominated by any member of the Society. The councillors are elected at the Society’s Annual General Meeting. [6]
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) used in Canada was originally compiled in 1962 and is a national expression of a tradition of Christian worship stemming from the original Book of Common Prayer published by the Church of England in 1549. The original 1549 BCP was itself a revision of the medieval forms of worship in use within the English Church prior to the Reformation. The BCP simplified older forms and made the Bible itself the standard of all Christian worship.
The BCP contains in one volume what previously had been contained in many separate tomes: The Daily Offices (which are the Church's daily Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer), the Liturgy of the Holy Communion, the Ordinal (services for the ordinations of bishops, priests, and deacons), as well as many other services of the Church such as the Penitential Rite (used on Ash Wednesday), and the Baptism services.
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The first prayer book, published in 1549 in the reign of King Edward VI of England, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contained Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion and also the occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also set out in full the "propers" : the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the Psalms and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be said or sung between the readings.
Mass is the main Eucharistic liturgical service in many forms of Western Christianity. The term Mass is commonly used in the Catholic Church, Western Rite Orthodoxy, Old Catholicism, and Independent Catholicism. The term is also used in some Lutheran churches, as well as in some Anglican churches, and on rare occasion by other Protestant churches.
The collect is a short general prayer of a particular structure used in Christian liturgy.
The Anglican Use, also known as Divine Worship, is a use of the Roman Rite celebrated by the personal ordinariates, originally created for former Anglicans who converted to Catholicism while wishing to maintain "aspects of the Anglican patrimony that are of particular value" and includes former Methodist converts to Catholicism who wish to retain aspects of Anglican and Methodist heritage, liturgy, and tradition. Its most common occurrence is within parishes of the personal ordinariates which were erected in 2009. Upon the promulgation of Divine Worship: The Missal, the term "Anglican Use" was replaced by "Divine Worship" in the liturgical books and complementary norms, though "Anglican Use" is still used to describe these liturgies as they existed from the papacy of John Paul II to present.
Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Within Christianity, liturgies descending from the same region, denomination, or culture are described as ritual families.
The Alternative Service Book 1980 (ASB) was the first complete prayer book produced by the Church of England since 1662. Its name derives from the fact that it was proposed not as a replacement for the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) but merely as an alternative to it. In practice, it was so popular that the various printers had to produce several editions very quickly and churches which retained the BCP drew attention to this fact as something to be noted. The Prayer Book Society soon complained that it was becoming hard to find a church which used the old prayer book and that theological colleges were not introducing students to it. It has now been replaced by Common Worship.
Anglican eucharistic theology is diverse in practice, reflecting the comprehensiveness of Anglicanism. Its sources include prayer book rubrics, writings on sacramental theology by Anglican divines, and the regulations and orientations of ecclesiastical provinces. The principal source material is the Book of Common Prayer, specifically its eucharistic prayers and Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Article XXVIII comprises the foundational Anglican doctrinal statement about the Eucharist, although its interpretation varies among churches of the Anglican Communion and in different traditions of churchmanship such as Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelical Anglicanism.
The Prayer of Humble Access is the name traditionally given to a prayer originally from early Anglican Books of Common Prayer and contained in many Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and other Christian eucharistic liturgies, including use by the personal ordinariates for former Anglican groups reconciled to the Catholic Church. Its origins lie in the healing the centurion's servant as recounted in two of the Gospels. It is comparable to the "Domine, non sum dignus" used in the Catholic Mass.
Lex orandi, lex credendi, sometimes expanded as Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi, is a motto in Christian tradition, which means that prayer and belief are integral to each other and that liturgy is not distinct from theology. It refers to the relationship between worship and belief. As an ancient Christian principle it provided a measure for developing the ancient Christian creeds, the canon of scripture, and other doctrinal matters. It is based on the prayer texts of the Church, that is, the Church's liturgy. In the Early Church, there was liturgical tradition before there was a common creed, and before there was an officially sanctioned biblical canon. These liturgical traditions provided the theological framework for establishing the creeds and canon.
A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, sometimes known as the Deposited Book, is a liturgical book which was proposed as a revised version of the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Opposing what they saw as an Anglo-Catholic revision that would align the Church of England with the Catholic Church—particularly through expanding the practice of the reserved sacrament—Protestant evangelicals and nonconformists in Parliament put up significant resistance, driving what became known as the Prayer Book Crisis.
The 1549 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the original version of the Book of Common Prayer, variations of which are still in use as the official liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican churches. Written during the English Reformation, the prayer book was largely the work of Thomas Cranmer, who borrowed from a large number of other sources. Evidence of Cranmer's Protestant theology can be seen throughout the book; however, the services maintain the traditional forms and sacramental language inherited from medieval Catholic liturgies. Criticised by Protestants for being too traditional, it was replaced by the significantly revised 1552 Book of Common Prayer.
The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the official primary liturgical book of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. An edition in the same tradition as other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, it contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. It is the fourth major revision of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church, and succeeded the 1928 edition. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has been translated into multiple languages and is considered a representative production of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement.
Protestant liturgy or Evangelical liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Protestant congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Liturgy is especially important in the Historical Protestant churches, both mainline and evangelical, while Baptist, Pentecostal, and nondenominational churches tend to be very flexible and in some cases have no liturgy at all. It often but not exclusively occurs on Sunday.
The 1552 Book of Common Prayer, also called the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, was the second version of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and contained the official liturgy of the Church of England from November 1552 until July 1553. The first Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1549 as part of the English Reformation, but Protestants criticised it for being too similar to traditional Roman Catholic services. The 1552 prayer book was revised to be explicitly Reformed in its theology.
The 1962 Book of Common Prayer is an authorized liturgical book of the Canada-based Anglican Church of Canada. The 1962 prayer book is often also considered the 1959 prayer book, in reference to the year the revision was first approved for an "indefinite period" of use beginning in 1960. The 1962 edition follows from the same tradition of other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally. It contains both the Eucharistic liturgy and Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. The second major revision of the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church of Canada, the 1962 Book of Common Prayer succeeded the 1918 edition, which itself had replaced the Church of England's 1662 prayer book. While supplanted by the 1985 Book of Alternative Services as the Anglican Church of Canada's primary Sunday service book, the 1962 prayer book continues to see usage.
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is an authorised liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican bodies around the world. In continuous print and regular use for over 360 years, the 1662 prayer book is the basis for numerous other editions of the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical texts. Noted for both its devotional and literary quality, the 1662 prayer book has influenced the English language, with its use alongside the King James Version of the Bible contributing to an increase in literacy from the 16th to the 20th century.
The 1604 Book of Common Prayer, often called the Jacobean prayer book or the Hampton Court Book, is the fourth version of the Book of Common Prayer as used by the Church of England. It was introduced during the early English reign of James I as a product of the Hampton Court Conference, a summit between episcopalian, Puritan, and Presbyterian factions. A modest revision of the 1559 prayer book, the Jacobean prayer book became the basis of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, a still-authorized liturgical book within the Church of England and global Anglicanism.
The Edwardine Ordinals are two ordinals primarily written by Thomas Cranmer as influenced by Martin Bucer and first published under Edward VI, the first in 1550 and the second in 1552, for the Church of England. Both liturgical books were intended to replace the ordination liturgies contained within medieval pontificals in use before the English Reformation.