Liturgy resolutions — Feb. 2022
Please read here about how online hearings for the upcoming General Convention will work! Online hearings start on February 17. I am serving (for the first time!) on Committee 12 — Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Music. So I can tell you a little bit about the resolutions that are coming before that group, so far. (Resolutions can and will still be submitted!)
One significant set of resolutions offers a way to move forward with the ongoing liturgical renewal of our church, without a wholesale revision process. These three resolutions came out of the Task Force for Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision that has been at work since the 2018 General Convention. The first, A057, invites the church to continue the work of creating, sharing, and collecting new liturgical texts. It basically extends a resolution passed in 2018. The second, A058, recommends that the website episcopalcommonprayer.org — which was developed by the Task Force, become the official liturgical website of the Episcopal Church. This would solve the long-term problem of not having a centralized, accessible place where liturgical texts of various levels of authorization can be found, while also being a tool for the ongoing liturgical work of the church.
Which brings us to A059, with the uninspiring title “Amend Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church.” What this resolution proposes is that the Book of Common Prayer shall be understood as “those liturgical forms authorized by General Convention” by the same process that changes to the Book of Common Prayer have always been made — the vote of two successive General Conventions. What’s being proposed is that we begin to understand that set of liturgical forms (which includes, and will always include, the 1979 Book of Common Prayer) as expanding beyond the bound book. All liturgical forms which have been authorized in this manner, and thus count as part of the Book of Common Prayer, will be housed on the website described above — in addition to trial use and alternative liturgies, which can be approved by the vote of a single General Convention, and will be clearly distinguished on the site from fully authorized BCP materials.
In a very real sense this simply names and clarifies what’s already been happening for decades. We’ve already revised the Book of Common Prayer a number of times, especially with respect to the lectionary and calendar. In practice, what this would mean is that you can keep using the books you already have in whatever ways they are useful in your context, but you would also have a clear place to go online to find up to date, authorized liturgical resources. It’s easy to miss the gist of this important resolution, which is why I’ve taken some pains to try and explain it as best I can.
In addition to these resolutions, Committee 12 is handling resolutions that deal with criteria for inclusion on the church’s calendar of commemorations and a proposed clarification of the difference between the Book of Common Prayer calendar and the calendar contained in Lesser Feasts and Fasts; some guidelines for developing local commemorations; a number of specific requests to amend the church’s calendar, by adding or removing people or occasions, or changing dates, etc.; a call for the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music (which works between Conventions) to explore the anti-Semitic impact of some Holy Week lectionary readings; and some work on clarifying the meanings of “inclusive” and “expansive” language, and bringing forward an inclusive language version of Eucharistic Prayer C.
