7-Why I Use the Book of Common Prayer

7- The text is immediately below. Below that are my own observations, correlation, interpretation, and applications. Why I use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for daily and evening Prayers?

Real men kneel in heart, mind and body in prayer. These low views of God and this sitting-stuff has to go!! Sitting on the bottoms must go!! My Marines soon learned and soon were doing as these men on the right did and do--often!!

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Kneeling:

Priest. O God, make speed to save us. Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us.

Here all standing up, the Priest shall say,

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Priest. Praise ye the Lord. Answer. The Lord's Name be praised.

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Observations:

1. Scriptural verses on sin, Exhortation to Confession of Sin, Confession of Sin, Declaration of Absolution, and the Lord’s Prayer precedes these versicles and Doxology. Following these versicles and Doxology comes the saying or singing of Psalm 95 (the Prayer Book is full of Psalms…more than enough to make the head spin for a Psalm-singing Covenanter). See our earlier posts on “Why I Use the Book of Common Prayer 1-6.”

2. Here is the spirit of importunity. “Priest. O God, make speed to save us. Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us.”

We’ve already addressed the “priest” question. An appropriate rubric needs to be added, to wit, that this is a vocational and lawfully called priest serving among fellow priests, the laity.

3. The entire Psalter breathes this spirit of importunity. This is why the recovery of singing the Psalms is an important corollary to Prayer Book piety. If Prayer Book piety is anything, it is supplicatory and reflects utter reliance upon God for support. It is Augustinian throughout, not synergistic Greek Orthodoxy.

4. Psalm 31.2 is representative of the versicles: “Bow down your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a mighty fortress to save me.” The sense is deliver me quickly, promptly, and at the appointed time. There is "no commanding" of God as is seen in the "Pentecostal Word of Faith" movements.

5. This spirit is infrequently manifested in non-Reformed liturgies in the Protestant world. In fact, it is lessened in the Reformed liturgies. We are Prayer Book Anglicans here. We are unfamiliar with Lutheran liturgies but we do expect a similar ethos; they weren’t Radical Reformers and they weren't enthusiasts. We fear that some of the Puritans were forerunners of enthusiasts. Baptists have no liturgy and no connection to historical worship.

6. The sense of the word “to save” us is widely understood including many things as well as justification, adoption, sanctification, and preservation therein. Evangelically and evangelistically, it is highly appropriate for the confession of sin and the “calling on the name of the LORD.” This evangelistic perspective needs to be pointed out. Also, it is highly appropriate for the justified saint for the prayer for strength and persevering faith.

7. The people move from kneeling—appropriate to prayer—to standing and giving praise.

8. The versicle of petition is met by the Trinitarian Doxology sometimes called the Gloria.

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”

This phrase recurs regularly throughout the Prayer Book and is recited after every Psalter lection, like a refrain or coda to an hymn. Disciplined use of the Gloria is a given.

9. The Priest and fellow-priests, or believers, offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving:

Priest. Praise ye the Lord. Answer. The Lord's Name be praised.

Interpretation:

In sequence to the praying for the opening of the lips, the petition for divine aid of enablement to worship, the praying priests seek speedy deliverance along with the expression of praise, the Trinitarian Doxology or Gloria.

Applications:

1. It becomes clearer why this scribe cannot tolerate or go near contemporary worship; it is also clear why this scribe cannot abide non-liturgical and often--quite unbiblical--worship services; advise youth to avoid professors, seminaries, elders or deacons that advance this shallowness re: Law and Gospel said to include, but not limited to Rick Warren, general evangelicals and others ; advise them to get into Confessional Churches that are liturgically mature; however, we cannot recommend the American Anglican breed (ACNA); their Prayer Book is as defective as the educations and "confessions" (sola mish masha) of their leaders (sola confusa). Seek a Confessional Reformed congregation where the theology is solid, while tolerating the non-liturgy. Use the Prayer Book privately until any Reformed Anglican works develop.

2. Use the Prayer Book daily until death. As the evangelical Anglican, Charles Simeon, stated (in essence), “I never was or felt closer to heaven than when praying and reading the prayer book.

3. Advocate for the recovery of Psalm-singing rather than hymns in connection with the BCP.

4. No revisions except the standing objection: one rubric to identify the laity as “fellow priests and kings” with the lawfully called and ordained priest. Without the rubric, the mischief continues. Or, adopt the 1552 BCP by Cranmer or the 1873 BCP of the REC that wisely replaced "priest" with "minister." We've identified this objection previously.