Saturday 20 October 2012

THE ANGLICAN BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER: ITS VIRTUES & VICES (Part 13)

THE ANGLICAN BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER:
ITS VIRTUES & VICES

OR

THE ALTERNATIVE WESTMINSTER DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC
WORSHIP (1645) CONSIDERED

Being the substance of a paper first presented to the
1989 Westminster Conference in London

by Dr Alan C. Clifford
 PART 13
Conclusion: Worship in Spirit and Truth

I would like to conclude on this note of joy in true worship. After all, the psalmist declared 'In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures for evermore' (Ps. 16: 11). One wonders if this was always the dominant note during the seventeenth century. True, there were great theologians, mighty preachers, and occasional revivals. But there were also  to use the subtitle of Richard Baxter's Catholick Theologie (1675)  the 'dogmatical word-warriors', whose bitter disputings and ultra-orthodox contendings tended to drown the note of praise. Alas, the Puritans duplicated their confessions and their energies. It was a century which ended on the low notes of heresy, fragmentation, deadness, and secularism. And all this despite the faithful though formal attempts of the Puritans to complete the English Reformation. Do we not feel burdened by these things today? Do we not yearn for those seasons of revival and refreshment which would cure many  if not all  of our present ills? We dare not think that the mere reformation of worship will guarantee worship itself, any more than reformation itself automatically brings revival. There must be an earnest pleading with God and a humble dependence on the Holy Spirit.

Unlike the Westminster divines whose prescribed services  including solemn fasts and public thanksgivings  were quite formal, the Methodists of the next century restored the less formal love-feasts referred to in 2 Peter 2: 13 and Jude 12, and known in the early church. Thomas Manton77 doubted whether they had any permanent place in the fellowship of the church whereas Calvin is happy just to acknowledge that these 'frugal' and 'restrained' gatherings were 'feasts which the faithful held among themselves, to witness to their brotherly concord.'78 During the early days of the evangelical revival, something very remarkable occurred at a Methodist love-feast. As if to prove that God only meets with those who seek him with a whole heart, whatever forms they use, John Wesley recorded in his Journal for Monday, January 1, 1739:

Mr. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present at our love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his Majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.'79

May the Lord in his infinite mercy so visit us again in our day. Let us pray:

Grant, Almighty God, that we may ever be attentive to that rule which has been prescribed to us by thee in the Law, as well as in the Prophets and in the Gospel, so that we may constantly abide in thy precepts, and be wholly dependent on the words of thy mouth, and never turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, but glorify thy name, as thou hast commanded us, by offering to thee a true, sincere, and spiritual worship. Grant also that we may truly and from the heart turn to thee, and offer ourselves to thee as a sacrifice, that thou mayest govern us according to thy will, and so rule all our affections by thy Spirit, that we may through the whole of our life strive to glorify thy name, until having at length finished all our struggles, we reach that blessed rest, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus so Christ.
Amen
.80

NB: The Reformed Liturgy of Norwich Reformed Church (prepared by the author)
is offered as an alternative to both the BCP and the WDPW. This may be seen on
the NRC website at www.nrchurch.co.nr.

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