wfn.org | Panel debates proposal for 2012 pra

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July 17, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

ENSGC-02-03

Panel debates proposal for 2012 prayer book

By Sharon Sheridan

PHILADELPHIA (July 17, 1997)  The Episcopal Church is preparing to revise its Book of Common Prayer early in the next century.

A revamped resolution being considered by the 72nd General Convention would direct the Standing Liturgical Commission to prepare for the first reading of a prayer book revision at the General Convention in 2009. The draft would require a second positive vote in 2012 for adoption.

The proposal differs from one by the liturgical commission, which called it "premature until the present and proposed revisions for trial and supplemental use have brought us to a place of greater clarity and consensus."

But the Rev. Gregory Howe of the Diocese of Delaware said, "It would be a good thing to begin to make some specifications so that there would be some hope of getting on with things." 

Howe said many people already use materials such as A New Zealand Prayer Book, and he wants to see work begin here "before we are superseded by borrowed works from elsewhere." 

Bishop Frank Griswold of Chicago, who chairs the liturgical commission, said revisions in most provinces  including the New Zealand book  technically are supplements. 

Alfred Price, a deputy from the Diocese of Western New York, asked during a hearing whether the commission could introduce a similar collection of what it considers the "most useful new developments."

The Rev. Marsue Harris of the Diocese of Rhode Island and the Rev. Tracey Lind of the Diocese of Newark both supported beginning the revision process. 

"We all know theres never a time when we can say, This is it," Harris said. "Some places will never use supplemental texts. I would like to encourage us to say, Lets do it.

 "Until we begin that process, supplemental texts will be seen as just that  supplemental, not authorized," Lind said.

But Bishop Sanford Hampton, assistant bishop in the Diocese of Olympia, recommended continuing with the 1979 version and supplemental texts rather than setting an "arbitrary date" for prayer book revision. "I just dont think were in a position at this point to be revising the prayer book," he said.

The Rev. Peter Cook of the Diocese of Western Louisiana said much confusion remains in areas of belief. "The best liturgy springs from a consensus of belief rather than an unresolved set of tensions," he said.

Sister Jean Campbell, vice chair of the deputies committee, said the concept of what a book of common prayer means needs broadening. "We are a multicultural church," she said, noting some groups, such as the Ojibwe American Indians, are developing alternative rites.

"Any assumption that one book is going to encompass the needs of this church, I think, is already outdated," Campbell said. "I think it is much broader than one text."

An open hearing on the proposal is scheduled July 18 before the legislation can be considered by the bishops and deputies.

 Sharon Sheridan is a freelance writer for the Convention Daily.