Covenant With
God
There are two Sacraments instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ as generally necessary for salvation. One of these, Holy Baptism is given once as the entry into the Christian life, whereas the other, the Lord’s Supper of Holy Communion, is received often as the nourishment of the Christian life. In the 1979 Prayer Book, there are two Rites with multiple options available within each for the “Holy Eucharist”; but there is only one rite provided, in “modern language” and without internal choices for “Holy Baptism.”
Baptism is the entrance into the
one, holy, catholic and apostolic
The structure of the service of
Holy Baptism in the 1979 Prayer Book conforms to the shape of the service used
from about the second or third century in the Church situated in the
The Baptismal service of the 1979 Prayer Book is further weakened by the opening formula, “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…” This Trinitarian ambiguity, which we have discussed in some detail in the chapters on the Catechism and translation, is nowhere more critically important than in a service where the candidates are to be baptized “in the Name of the Father
and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
In the first sentence of the 1979 Prayer Book’s introductory explanation of “Holy Baptism,” entitled “Concerning the Service,” we read: “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” The word initiation was not used widely in ecumenical and liturgical circles until after World War II. This is due to the influence of anthropology and the study of comparative religion, which takes a great interest in the rites of initiation among tribal societies and in the multiple religions of the world. It was rarely used in reference to the Sacrament of Baptism as it is generally considered to include baptism, confirmation and first communion. Regrettably, within the Episcopal Church the term “Christian Initiation is used in reference to Baptism and excludes confirmation from the process. Baptism as an initiation is considered complete for the Episcopal Church and grants full access to their services.
In the 1979 Prayer Book, Confirmation loses its traditional character as the completion or final part of Baptism. It becomes, instead, a separate, pastoral rite in and of itself, optional in its nature, which has reference primarily to the reaffirmation of baptismal vows. In spite of this dramatic change, the procedure in many American parishes since 1979 has not really changed. The parish priest does the Baptisms of infants and adults, and the bishop visits now and again to do “confirmations.” For whatever reasons, people in parishes still desire Confirmation, without concern for the demotion of its status in the 1979 Prayer Book.
The Baptismal covenant includes the previously discussed erroneous statement, “Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.” The Incarnation of the Son, which is his assuming of human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is accomplished by the Holy Spirit directly, personally, and supernaturally. The candidate for baptism ought to state that Jesus was conceived directly by the Holy Spirit. The Baptismal covenant requires that the candidate strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. These generalities open the door to a distinct social, economic, and political agenda, native to the 1960’s. The agendas of the General Conventions of the Episcopal Church are consumed by an ever-expanding list of “human rights,” “environmentalist concerns,” and “peace and justice issues” derived from the political agenda of Western Secularist society. The call to “respect the dignity of every human being has been expanded to include an obligation to accept and even to praise the individualist and self-centered choices of others, whether in sexual preference, elective abortion, acceptance or denial of all or any part of Scripture, the right to same-sex marriages,” and so forth. The potential of this openness resulted in a divorced, actively homosexual man, living sexually with another man, being consecrated an Episcopal bishop under formularies set forth in the 1979 Prayer Book.
The call of the Gospel, the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, is to accept Jesus Christ on the terms laid down by the heavenly Father of this same Jesus Christ. It bore no consideration for the social, cultural and secular preferences of a decadent society. The relationships of our culture are, by definition temporary. God’s Covenant is not.
The normal human being takes no pleasure in being told that he is sinful in the stark terms used by the Bible and by the classic Book of Common Prayer. By dumbing-down and diluting the doctrines of sin and redemption, the 1979 Prayer Book is pandering to this human weakness and attempting to gain favor or a larger “market share” with a “friendlier” form of Christianity. We recognize the Baptism of the new Rite because it is performed in the Threefold Name of the Blessed Trinity. However, we feel it fails the test that the traditional rite has passed for centuries.
The 1928 BCP clearly assumes that each of us suffers from original sin – that is, from a human nature that is biased towards sin and rebellion against God. Thus the dominant theme for the effect of Baptism on the repentant believer is regeneration, a new birth by grace. This does not neglect other complementary ways of understanding what God does for us in Baptism. The understandings of dying, being buried with and rising with Christ, and of being washed are also valid. However the general sense of the entire service is that each human person is both out of communion with God and heading for hell unless he is born anew, from above, by the Spirit, and given the gift of communion with God in eternal life.
The 1979 Prayer Book used second century practices to model their new approach to the Church Calendar. In doing so, they reconstructed the feast of the Great Fifty Days from Easter to Pentecost. Then with the typical zeal of some scholars for the implementation of the latest theory, the liturgists required that the Paschal Candle remain lit until Pentecost to signify the fifty days of Easter. Further, they explained that standing at all times, with no kneeling, is the “norm” for the celebration of this fifty-day Easter and, further, that the general confession of sins should be omitted because this fifty-day Sunday is a period of celebrating the resurrection, not of penitence for sins. Consider why confession should be removed from the greatest Feast day and then explain why it should be used on lesser days.
In the Fourth century, the early church grew beyond celebrating this unitary festival and honored Ascension Day and Pentecost as specific feast days with their own significance. This gave the ten days following Ascension a different ethos and spirituality from that of Easter. In the same manner, retaining Trinity Sunday gives Pentecost its own ethos and spirituality.
The Anglican Way is not based on
“primitivism” for its own sake, but it has always sought to follow the Early
Church in what might be called her “maturity” – after she had had time to
settle the Canon of Scripture, develop basic canon law, dogmatically express
the great truths of the Faith, and develop the basic festivals of the Christian
Year, under the Guidance of the Holy Ghost.
The 1928 BCP follows the
For more details, read “Neither Orthodoxy Nor A Formulary” by The Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil.
and The Rev. Louis Tarsitano
(Preservation Press of the Prayer Book Society of the USA 2004