The final breach between the English provinces and Western Catholic Europe is pinpointed by the Feast of the Nativity of S John Baptist, June 24 in 1559. On that day, it became illegal, according to statute law, for that Liturgy to be celebrated which had formed and sanctified the peoples of England since 596. From this rupture, affecting every parish church in the kingdom, flowed all the other discontinuities which have marred and corrupted our national life since that day.
I'm sure readers will be able to think of their own ideas for an appropriate way to commemorate that day. For myself, I cannot think of anything better than to make absolutely sure that - whatever Eucharistic Prayer one might normally use - on that day one uses the Roman First Eucharistic Prayer: the prayer brought here by S Augustine and used daily for nearly a millennium.
Wise words from the great Anglican liturgist G G Willis: In liturgical quality, both of language and structure, it excells all other Eucharistic rites...it is the best one available ... It is time for the Church of England to forsake inveterate prejudices derived from Reformation Protestantism, and to accomplish something in liturgical revision which would give unity and peace on the basis of an ancient and well-tried form of prayer.
"[O]n that day [use] the Roman First Eucharistic Prayer: the prayer brought here by S Augustine and used daily for nearly a millennium."
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion is most excellent and worthy of high praise.
Now that the secular statute is no longer in force, I am amazed at the number of "Anglicans" who, like a dog snarfing emesis, insist that Cranmer's is the gold-standard Eucharistic prayer. What good is our freedom if we don't exercise it? And it mystifies me to hear lips un-advisedly speak of Cranmer's as merely a translation of the Latin Canon. Ho ho ho--I'm off to my laughing place!
P.S. I know the dynamic equivalent of 'pro multis' is 'all,' but what does it really mean - 'pro multis,' that is?
You seem to have forgotten that in the 1640's ALL the liturgy of and in the Church of England was abolished. That which we can legally use now is that which has been restored and permitted since the Restoration, and that only. Anglo-Protestants who want to use 1552 hit the same problem; only they admit it.
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