Preface

PREFACE

This book was first planned and undertaken by the late Bishop Slattery, to whose memory we have dedicated it. He had written but a few fragmentary sections when his early death brought irretrievable loss to the Church. Later, his papers were turned over to me, to complete the work he had projected. With the help of the Reverend Doctor John W. Suter, the distinguished Secretary of the Joint Commission during most of the long process of revision, and now filling the same office for the Liturgical Commission, the work was outlined and begun. From that point, I have had the collaboration of the Reverend Bayard H. Jones, without whose diligent labors and thorough liturgical scholarship it could not have been completed. The book rightly appears as the product of our joint effort, since it contains hardly a page that has not felt the hand of each of us;1 but I am making myself responsible for this preface in order to put on record this appreciation of my collaborator.

The reason for the publication of the book is obvious. The American Revision of 1928, and the contemporary revisions in other parts of the Anglican Communion, were not only literary revisions. They brought into use again much that in the controversies and crises of the past had been lost. They were influenced by new understanding of the ancient sources; and on the other hand they introduced much that was thoroughly modern into the worship of the Church.

There was no book of convenient size which treated these old and new factors in a way available to theological students, the clergy, and the interested laity. “Proctor and Frere,” for seventy-five years the standard English work of its kind, has had no revision since 1905. The Book of Common Prayer by the late Doctor Samuel Hart, which for twenty-five years has been the familiar and admirable textbook of American students, could no longer be sufficient. Doctor Chorley's interesting and accurate study of the 1928 Prayer Book was intended to be only an introduction for the general reader. Something of the scope of Doctor Hart's book was needed. We have followed in the main his plan, but have dealt somewhat more fully with the sources.

This last has seemed necessary in view of the new light which the studies of the last twenty years have thrown upon the earliest periods of the history of Christian worship, and which has involved a general revision of received opinions throughout the whole field of Liturgics. In these as in later periods, we have drawn heavily upon the independent studies of my collaborator. Although limitations of space have made it necessary for him to state his conclusions in the briefest compass, without such documentation and discussion as I trust he will later publish, it is hoped that their value will appear as a rational solution of some immemorial enigmas of liturgical studies.

We have three general comments to make:

(1) It is impossible to combine in one volume the general literary history of the Book of Common Prayer, and the study of the various Offices with their history and rationale, without some duplication. We have felt however that the historical background is of such importance as to warrant some measure of repetition, and that for intelligent appreciation of the Prayer Book, the literary history is even more important than the detailed exposition.

(2) It is equally impossible to deal with the Prayer Book and its offices without coming constantly upon controversial matters. We have attempted to treat them as objectively as possible. Although here and there our own views are apparent, the fact that we have approached these questions from rather different starting-points has helped, we believe, to make the book available for all schools of Churchmen. We send it out with no label either ancient or modern.

(3) And finally we would wish to record here our belief that in Worship we have one great and essential factor in the movement towards the reunion of the Christian Churches. Worship is after all the supreme function of the Church. Whatever contributes to the better understanding of its nature, whatever reveals the essential unity of the worship of the Christian ages, whatever helps to make worship more worthy of God, must have its place in drawing Christians closer together. The comprehensiveness, the variety, and the unity, which constitute the real Catholicity of our faith, are nowhere more adequately illustrated than in worship. We trust therefore that our work may make some contribution to the great cause of Unity.

We wish to make special acknowledgment of the generous kindness of the Reverend Doctor Burton S. Easton for a careful reading of our manuscript, in order not only to check our statements against the most recent conclusions of the literature of the subject, but to contribute freely many valuable suggestions from the riches of his own profound scholarship.

The number of others to whose work we are indebted is too large to make it possible to mention names; though some attempt has been made to give credit to primary authorities in the footnotes throughout the volume. To the saints and scholars of the past, and to our fellow-workers of today, we offer our grateful appreciation, hoping that our modest effort may serve the great cause of Our Lord and His Church.