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The Book of Common Prayer represented for many generations the standard of worship and doctrine of the Church of England.
In the Free Church of England, the Book of Common Prayer (revised 1876) remains the standard of worship and doctrine, in practice as well as in theory. The language of the Prayer Book is beautiful and dignified; but not only that, it accurately teaches the doctrines of the Church of England as established at the time of the Reformation, doctrines for which Thomas Cranmer and others went to the stake.
Here is what the great, Christian author C. S. Lewis wrote about the Book of Common Prayer:
"[The Prayer Book's] temper may seem cold to
those reared in other traditions but no one will deny it is strong. It offers
little and concedes little to merely natural feelings: even religious feelings
it will not heighten till it has first sobered them; but at its greatest it
shines with a white light hardly surpassed outside the pages of the New
Testament itself."
It is a common misunderstanding that the Prayer Book is 'difficult'. It isn't. It is memorable, in a way that modern language liturgies fail to be. With constant use, its prayers and readings become part of our mental furniture, and are instantly available to us in times of distress and of joy alike.
In some Christian traditions, clergy and people have different service books and the part of the priest is often secret from the people. Other traditions do not use a prayer book at all, the Minister does everything, and other than singing hymns, the people's role in worship is passive. In still other traditions, worship is a free-for-all, in which members of the congregation are encouraged to pray extempore or to comment on scripture readings, to sing or to play an instrument, 'as the Spirit moves.'
The most important thing to remember about the Book of Common Prayer, is that it is common prayer, prayer that is common to minister and people alike. Clergy and people share the same book, and that book provides for both to have an orderly part in public worship. As St. Paul wrote "Let all things be done decently and in order." (1 Corinthians 14:40)
The Book of Common Prayer also provides a lectionary of daily scripture readings (morning and evening) which, if followed, ensures that the Bible is read through during the course of the year (the Old Testament once, the New Testament twice), while the Psalms are so arranged that by reading those set for each morning and evening, all 150 Psalms will be read through each month. This lectionary provides a systematic and matchless grounding in the Scriptures.
How is the Free Church of England Prayer Book different from the standard 1662 Prayer Book that has now largely been abandoned by the Established Church?
The FCE Prayer Book of 1876 is substantially the well-known CofE Prayer Book of 1662, in common use until recently. The FCE revision removed from the 1662 book all ambiguous words and phrases that could be (and have been) taken by Ritualists to support what were perceived as sacerdotal teachings and practices not in accordance with Holy Scripture.
Priest or Presbyter?
In the 1662 book, for example, the term 'priest' is retained for one of the three kinds of Ministers found in the Church from the earliest times. The English word 'priest' comes from the Greek word presbuteros, or 'elder', via the Anglo-Saxon word for elder, preost. Unfortunately, 'priest' is also used to translate hieros, a Greek word for a religious official who offers a propitiatory sacrifice. No Christian Minister can be a 'priest' in this sense, because Jesus Christ offered the only propitiatory sacrifice of Himself, once and for all on the Cross. Jesus Christ is the Christian's only priest. The FCE Prayer Book, then, replaces the word 'priest' with the less controversial and more historic term, 'presbyter', or with the more general term, 'minister'.
The 1662 Prayer Book itself acknowledges all this in the Prayer of Consecration at Holy Communion, stating that Christ upon the cross, "made there by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world..." It is inconsistent, then, in the same service to refer to the presiding minister as 'the priest'. In the FCE Prayer Book he is referred to as 'the presbyter'.
Interestingly, the current Ordinal of the Established Church (the ASB Ordinal) speaks of the "Ordination of Priests, also called Presbyters." The modern Methodist Church, too, refers to its Ministers as 'presbyters', as does the URC.
Again, the FCE book has removed from the Baptismal service, phrases and Collects which taught, or seemed to teach, the unscriptural doctrine of baptismal regeneration in a mechanical sense. Baptismal regeneration is the unscriptural doctrine that a person is made regenerate, or born again, by the rite of baptism carried out at the font by a minister. The Free Church of England acknowledges that being born again comes about by faith, through the grace of God, and may happen before, at or indeed a long time after baptism. Baptism is the solemn sacrament by which a person is made a member of the visible church. Our Prayer Book seeks to make this clear.
The changes are not many and are not really obvious, a careful study is needed to spot them, but they are significant in that they aim to bring the Liturgy of the Free Church of England fully into line with scripture.
As well as removing things, the 1876 revision has added some things - a Collect, Epistle and Gospel for Harvest Thanksgiving Communion, for example; a form of service for receiving a Presbyter from another church; a form of service for the Installation of a Minister to a parish; and a simple, children's service based on the Office of Morning Prayer.
Because of this necessary revision, there are some who will say that the Free Church of England has 'a different Prayer Book'. But, anyone could use our Prayer Book for the ordinary services of Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion in a traditional C of E Prayer Book service, without noticing any incompatibility. The changes which have been adopted simply restore the original intentions of Cranmer and the English Reformers.