ITEM OF INTEREST















 

Preference to the First Book of Common Prayer (1549)
This preface written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as a rational for the revision of the liturgical rites for Daily Office has been included in subsequent prayer books, perhaps because it is an eloquent expression of the theology undergirding the Anglican practice of common prayer.  

Cranmer notes first that the offices of prayer were "not ordained, but of a good purpose, and for a great advancement of godliness (BCP 866)-thus establishing the ground for revision of these prayers of the church rather seeing them as divinely ordained and unchangeable. He then goes on to recognize that "this godly and decent order of the ancient fathers" had been so "altered, broken, and neglected" that the daily offices from the early church stood in need of restoration and revision. 

Cramer further notes that although there must be "some rules" for an ordering of common prayer, these rules should be "few in number" and they should be "plain and easy to be understood" (BCP 866). And "all things shall be read and sung in the church in the English tongue, to the end that the congregation may be thereby edified".

Finally, in his preface Cranmer addresses the reluctance many of us have to embrace changes in the words and manner of our prayers. We too find it comforting to pray in ways that are familiar, when we can "say many things by heart". And yet he believes the great "profit in knowledge' gained by making such revisions to the prayer book are well worth the pain involved, and he trusts that the value of having a single book for common prayer will far outweigh the cost.

Source: Vicki K. Black, Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer. Morehouse Publishing Publishing: Harrisburg, PA, 2005, pp.138, 139.