November 2000 sees the demise of the Alternative Service Book (ASB) in the Church of England. Parishes and dioceses have been putting much effort into facilitating this change. The new Sunday book is to be called Common Worship, which will be supplemented by further volumes. This article gives an indication of the scope of Common Worship and some idea of what else is to be expected in the future.
These are contents of Common Worship as it will be published:
The Calendar A Service of the Word Morning and Evening Prayer on Sunday Morning and Evening Prayer from The Book of Common Prayer Night Prayer (Compline) Night Prayer (Compline) in Traditional Language Prayers for Various Occasions The Litany The Litany from The Book of Common Prayer Authorized Forms of Confession and Absolution Creeds and Authorized Affirmations of Faith Holy Communion Contents A Form of Preparation Order One Order One in Traditional Language Order Two Order Two in Contemporary Language Supplementary Texts Seasonal Provisions Notes Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child Holy Baptism Collects and Post Communions Collects and Post Communions in Traditional Language Rules Lectionary The Psalter Canticles
From this list it is important to note what is different from the ASB. What is not included is an ordinal, confirmation service, a daily office, or the texts of the readings. This shows one major difference, in that the ASB was designed to be a complete book. This is not so with Common Worship, for it is intended that there be a series of books, another being published in November, Pastoral Rites, and further volumes to follow. Also, there are differences in what is included, not least various services from the Book of Common Prayer (1662), which still is authorized in the Church of England and remains in use in parishes (mostly for 8 a.m. Holy Communion and Evensong). The inclusion of these services is in part a political sop to the Prayer Book Society, and it is arguable that most of that constituency will not want to buy a book with a mixture of modern and traditional-language services. Further, Common Worship will not include a traditional-language Psalter, which will limit its use for Evensong. Perhaps at this point some more detailed comment on sections of the book will be helpful.
Material for Morning and Evening Prayer is included for Sunday use. As indicated above, Evensong BCP is commonly used in parishes while modern offices on Sunday are rare. What is more often used is the Service of the Word in family worship (or “All Age Worship”). This latter service governs Common Worship’s modern-language Sunday provision, and will be the only modern-language office provision in the Church of England from November. What of Celebrating Common Prayer (CCP)? Well, this was never an official publication of the Church of England. The new rubrics of the Service of the Word for daily prayer will bring CCP within the definition of legal daily prayer, but it will also allow the Durham Office and arguably the Roman office. It is intended that there be a further volume for daily prayer which will hopefully make the position more clear.
Holy Communion comes in two orders, both with a modern-language and traditional-language alternative. This is perhaps the most important section of the book. Order One follows the structure of the modern eucharist (or Rite A and Rite B in ASB speak). This will be one of the major engagements that parishes will have with Common Worship, and they will not find it radically different. Order One modern language now has eight eucharistic prayers (one of which has already been the subject of an article in OPEN; see Winter/Spring 2000, pp. 17-18). Unlike the ASB, they follow a variety of shapes with both eastern and western structures. The first three prayers are new editions of the ASB eucharistic prayers, the next five are new. There is now flexibility based on a common structure rather that freedom based on a fixed rite. In this order the Church of England has seen fit not to follow ICEL (International Consultation on English in the Liturgy) texts, so if you visit England stay awake for the Creed (hours were spent discussing how to translate the Greek ek) and the Lord’s Prayer. Island-nation mentality rules in the General Synod of the Church of England, even if not with the three other provinces in Great Britain and Ireland.
Order One in Traditional Language replaces Rite B in the ASB. This is quite commonly used in places that wanted to move on from 1662 but wanted to keep traditional language. This is very common in country parishes. There are two eucharistic prayers from the modern-language order linguistically recast.
Order Two follows the structure of Holy Communion 1662. The ASB enabled a modern-language version of the BCP. While this is used in only a few parishes, there was large support for this provision continuing. Many parishes have local adaptations of the 1662 text, which can be confusing if you are a visitor. Order Two thus provides a version of 1662 Holy Communion “as commonly used.” This of course is virtually a revision of the 1662, but it is not legally so because it has not been done by parliament. As such it shows the nonsense of parliament hanging on to powers that should have been abandoned two centuries ago. The effect is to legalize the customary ways of using 1662, and thus this order will be in common use.
Baptismal material is only an extract from a previously published volume on baptism. Likewise the collects have already been published (and are not proving to be very popular). The Psalter is a new work based on the American BCP Psalter. This indeed is a very good piece of work that tried first to capture in modern language the Coverdale Psalter, which it does successfully.
Parishes are either buying the new volume and sending the ASBs to a recycling bin, or customizing their own edition. It is in part due to the advent of wordprocessing that many churches now produce their own booklets with their local choice of variations. One strategy that is growing in popularity is to produce three different eucharist booklets for white, green and purple seasons of the liturgical year. Each booklet then includes two different eucharistic prayers and seasonal responses. Prayer H is tending to be put into a separate booklet for “family communions” (you have to remember that the Church of England still refuses communion to many of her baptized members, i.e., children). To aid this new electronic era the services are being made available on the internet.2 The introduction of Common Worship is only a part of a longer-term process of second-generation liturgical revision in the Church of England. Already published are Calendar, Lectionary and Collects, and Common Worship: Initiation Services. In November there will be Common Worship and Pastoral Rites. Future publications will look at daily prayer, seasonal services and the ordinal. Worship leaders will be required to leave space on their bookshelves for future volumes, while the rest of the Anglican Communion may be interested to see the developments in a sister province, some of which represent the quirks of the Church of England.