{"id":4572,"date":"2021-09-19T13:40:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=4572"},"modified":"2021-09-19T13:40:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T17:40:35","slug":"common-prayer-a-dynamic-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=4572","title":{"rendered":"Common Prayer: A Dynamic Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Report by The Rev. Laurence G. Byrne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does your sacristy wall have a mysterious dent in it about five or six feet from the floor? Many do. Those mysterious dents are caused by the heads of rectors who have just heard yet another person say, \u201cBut we\u2019ve always done it that way!\u201d about something or other. While tradition is an extremely important part of the common life and common prayer of the church, it is not static, but rather dynamic. Because it is alive, it changes-sometimes subtly; sometimes dramatically.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In her presentation, \u201cThe Future of Common Prayer,\u201d at our recent Triennial Zoom meeting, The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and member of the General Convention Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision, led us on a swift trip from 1549 and our first <em>Book of Common Prayer<\/em> to our current book and a glimpse of what the future may hold.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The very fact of a common prayer book, Dr. Meyers pointed out was somewhat radical. Prior to that time, the holy books and the corporate liturgy were the purview of the clergy. A book that was increasingly accessible to the increasingly literate laity was new indeed. Imagine the difference between being able to engage in a liturgy in your own language and merely being present while a priest was blathering away in Latin. The whole feel of worship must have changed dramatically. The commonality and community of prayer was reborn. It reminds me of my experience with The Great Vigil of Easter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In eleventh grade I accompanied a friend to my first Vigil. She was Ukranian Orthodox. The service \u2014 all three hours of it \u2014 was conducted entirely in Ukranian. Though it was beautiful, I had at best a vague idea of what was happening, and could not wait for it to end. About fifteen years later, I went with my girlfriend to my second Easter Vigil. That one was at St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue. I was blown away by the liturgy and reduced to babbling, \u201cThis is so cool!\u201d through my tears of joy at The Great Noise. The difference was in understanding the language and in the fullness of participating.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The history of our common prayer is a history of changing and adapting our common prayer to the times in which we live without losing the focus and theological integrity of worship. It has been a history of increasing participation for those gathered. Many of us were raised on the <em>1928 BCP<\/em>. Much of that book was retained in the Rite I liturgies of the <em>1979 BCP<\/em>; however, if one were to attend a 1928 service, one would see how similar the language is, but how much less is participatory.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>1979 BCP<\/em> is perhaps the least static of any of its predecessors and invites a great deal of customization. It continues, and will continue to speak to us and lead us closer to God through our prayers, but it cannot be the last word. As the old hymn puts it, \u201cNew occasions teach new duties,\u201d and our common prayer will evolve and expand. New liturgies are being created and can be found not in a book but online. Dr. Meyers pointed us to episcopalcommonprayer.org to get an idea of where we are heading.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It seems likely that Episcopalians will always be \u201cPeople of the Book.\u201d It just might be an e-book. The church is remaining faithful to scripture, tradition and reason, but is growing and evolving with the times. Why? Well, because we\u2019ve always done it that way!&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does your sacristy wall have a mysterious dent in it about five or six feet from the floor? Many do. Those mysterious dents are caused by the heads of rectors who have just heard yet another person say, \u201cBut we\u2019ve always done it that way!\u201d [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[163,113,36,39,93,138],"class_list":["post-4572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-convention","tag-book","tag-convention-2","tag-liturgy-2","tag-meeting","tag-prayer","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4574,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions\/4574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}