Intro to the new Orthodox BCP

Good evening everyone. The following is taken from the official introduction to the new BCP that members of the Antiochian Archdiocese are putting together. The release date of this new BCP has been pushed back to February of 2009.

The Book of Common Prayer and Liturgical Worship

The Book of Common Prayer was first published in England and ordered to be used on Whitsunday, 1549. The idea was to put the Holy Mass and Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, the Psalms of David, the Lessons for the Year, with the Orders for Baptism, Marriage, and so forth, in one book.

This present Edition is from Lancelot Andrewes Press and is published for our English Orthodox Press division. God helping, it will prove to be a useful compilation of sacred Scripture and set prayers. This book sets forth the worship of God offered in English based on the examples of the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611), the Psalter, and centuries of English usage.

Our small contribution is to make a Prayer Book that is more comprehensive and organized in a rather more linear order. In this Book of Common Prayer the Daily Prayers are found in the beginning with the Psalter, then the Litany, then the Mass with the Proper of the Season and of the Saints, followed by the Pastoral Offices and Sacraments, followed by other helps, such as the Calendar, at the back of the book.

In Liturgical terminology this Prayer Book is organized as 1) a parochial Breviary; 2) a Missal; 3) a Ritual; and 4) a Calendar and Lectionary with Tables, Tutorials and Sentences of Scripture.

For those who are familiar with the Prayer Book there will be few surprises in these pages. The conventions of language and grammar throughout are traditional English usages. The Morning and Evening Prayer are conventional. The Psalms are the familiar texts of the Psalter of Miles Coverdale that has served as a standard for the Book of Common Prayer for nearly five centuries.

The Litany has restored to it the opening petitions as first published in 1544 and has added the petitions for the Faithful Departed proposed in 1928. The Occassional Prayers adopt the bidding, versicle, and response format of the 1929 Scottish Prayer Book. The Church Year follows the course of Sundays from Advent Sunday through Christmas, Septuagesima, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Trinitytide to the Sunday Next before Advent.

There are parallels to the traditions of the Latin Missale and the Byzantine Euchologion. However, this Prayer Book reflects an English Orthodox usage in many particulars, such as the numbering of the Sundays after Trinity Sunday, the use of the Litany, and the distribution of Gospels and other Lessons through the Year.

This Book of Common Prayer differs from earlier versions by the addition of the weekday Old Testament Canticles to Morning Prayer. These are borrowed from Monastic Lauds. The Anthanasian Creed is included as in the English Prayer Book. Orders for Prime (3rd Hour), and Sext (Midday) and Compline (after Evensong before bedtime) are provided. The Psalms are placed in the first part of the book for convenience as they are read daily with Morning Prayer and Evensong.

The Proper of the Season includes all of Holy Week and the full texts of the Ember Days. The Proper of the Saints has been enlarged to include St. George, St. Benedict, and St. Anne, as well as a number of the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin. Some of these are ancient borrowings from the Eastern Church and others are latter additions, such as the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, which was introduced upon the 1500th anniversary (1931) of the Council of Ephesus.

The Simple Outline of the Mass includes the following elements:

The Preparation, followed by the Introit Psalm, The Summary of the Law, The "Lord Have Mercy Upon Us," The "Glory be to God on High," (The Gloria is sung on most Sundays and Feast Days but is not said on the Sundays of Advent or on the Proper Ferias or Sundays of Lent or at Requiem Masses or Nuptial Masses. Please follow the lead of the Priest for this usage), The Collect, which is a prayer proper to the Mass of the day and read in the Mass and in the orders of Morning and Evening Prayer, A lesson from Scripture, which may be an Epistle from the New Testament or a Prophecy or other reading from the Old Testament.

Next follow Psalm verses or other texts that compose the Gradual and Alleluia verses before the Gospel Reading. In Lent this is replaced by the Tract.

Next follows a reading from one of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John properly said by the Deacon or Priest at Mass. The Creed is recited by all on Sundays and Feast Days as appointed.

There may be a Sermon on any occasion and certainly on Sundays. The Offertory verses are said and the Altar is prepared with the elements of bread and wine. Incense is offered at a Solemn Mass.

Intercessions, a general confession, the Preface, and the recitation of the angelic hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts" (Sanctus) follow the preparation of the Altar and Holy Gifts.

The Eucharistic Canon is recited by the Priest; and this is concluded with the "Our Father" (Lord's Prayer), the hymn "O Lamb of God" (Agnus Dei) and communions of the clergy, acolytes, and faithful. The Communion verses are recited as provided in the Propers.

The Mass concludes with a Proper Collect, a Thanksgiving prayer, Dismissal and Blessing.

A more complete outline of the Mass will be set forth and a Brief Guide to the Mass will also be included in this book. In parish churches on Sundays and Feast Days there will be additional Hymns and service music for the choir and congregation. It is common for a pipe organ or other instrumental music to be included in the liturgical worship. In some places only monophonic chant (Gregorian Tones) will be heard and in other churches there will be polyphonic chant and four-part singing from the vast literature of sacred music.

Other resources for worship include the Antiphons for the Canticles at Morning Prayer and Evensong from the Monastic Diurnal and set to plainchant melodies in the Monastic Diurnal Noted. Patristic sermons and Saint's lives may be found in the Monastic Breviary Matins. The whole of the Psalms and many settings of the Canticles with the Marian Anthems and the rest of Morning Prayer and Evensong set to simple Gregorian Chant tones is available in the St. Dunstans Plainsong Psalter.

For the Sundays, Feast Days, and Proper Ferias of the Church Year, the Mass Propers may be found set to simple Gregorian tones in the various editions of St. Austin's Plainsong Missal. These simple tones can be sung by a Cantor and congregation even where the resources of a rehearsed text are not available.

For the many para-liturgical devotions that may be used during the Year and at particular seasons, such as the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin and the Stations of the Cross, there are many resources. A Scriptural Rosary is available as a tract. A complete volume of Devotions suitable as a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer is now in print in a portable volume, and is called the St. Ambrose Prayer Book.

All the above titles are in print and available from Lancelot Andrewes Press. These titles are easy to order from www.andrewespress.com. Lancelot Andrewes Press is a non-profit religious publishing house whose purpose is to serve those who pray and offer Divine Worship in English. The Book of Common Prayer is published as a title from our distinct division, The English Orthodox Press.

Our hope is to provide a useful prayer book for congregations of English speaking worshippers. This particular edition reflects the usages of the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. For example, the Credo is recited without "Filoque," or the double procession of the Holy Ghost.

The Mass Canon restores a direct Invocation of the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Virgin and Saints are mentioned in the Prayer for Christ's Church. There is a provision for two additional weeks after Epiphany in the Lectionary due to the Byzantine calculation of the Vernal Equinox (old Julian Calendar) and thus in some years a very late date for Easter Day.

Where the reformed Julian Calendar (Gregorian) is consulted for the Easter date (as in the Orthodox Church of Finland) there is no need for the extended Epiphany season.

Our thanks to an anonymous Patron for the commission to produce this Book of Common Prayer. Our thanks to the many readers by whose good work and good sense this book has been prepared for publication.

"ASSIST us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by Thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN."

This preface with some light edits is by Father John Conelly, Rector of Saint Marks Antiochian Orthodox Church.

I believe this new BCP will be a great blessing to Orthodox and Anglican Christians alike.

Sincerely,

Columba Siluoan.