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Fleming Rutledge is a preacher and teacher known throughout the mainline Protestant denominations of the US, Canada and parts of the UK. She is the author of seven books and has received a grant from the Louisville Foundation to complete a book about the meaning of the Crucifixion.
One of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, she served for fourteen years on the clergy staff at Grace Church on Lower Broadway at Tenth Street, New York City. Fleming and her husband celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2009 and have two daughters and two grandchildren. She is a native of Franklin, Virginia.
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Ruminations: Prayer Book revision for better and worseSunday, May 31, 2009Prayer Book revision for better and worseOn the Day of Pentecost we attended a confirmation at a Presbyterian church and were both amazed and thrilled that the presiding minister borrowed the episcopal prayer from the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:Defend, O Lord, this thy child with thy heavenly grace, that s/he may continue thine forever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until s/he come unto thy everlasting kingdom. Amen. Every churchgoing Episcopalian knew this prayer by heart, having heard it repeated over and over, year after year, confirmation class after confirmation class, by the bishop as he placed his hands on the heads of each successive confirmand. My husband and I have said it for our own children and grandchildren. Here is the prayer from the 1979 revised Prayer Book: Strengthen, O Lord, your servant with your Holy Spirit; empower him/her for your service; and sustain him all the days of his/her life. Amen. Will someone please explain why and how this pedestrian new prayer, utterly lacking the cadence and majesty of the older one, is better? (It has been called to my attention that the 1979 BCP does include the old prayer--with "thy" changed to "your"--but I had not noticed it because all the bishops in my purview have used the new one. However, wonder of wonders, just this past Sunday, June 14, Bishop Peter Lee used the old one at a service of confirmation in Leesburg, Virginia. It occurs to me that the newer prayer is a result of the shift away from the biblical view of the human predicament. We do not believe we need to be defended from anything, but only "strengthened," "empowered," and "sustained," as though we were essentially OK but could use some extra help. In the apocalyptic view of the New Testament, we are defenseless against the principalities and powers without the intervention of "the Lord God of Sabaoth [Hosts]").
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4 Comments:
It isn't, but the older prayer is there, too, as an alternative, on p. 418. It wasn't replaced.
re Peter Toon:
"People have been blind to the problems of Rite One. This is because it incorporates innovations from the 1979 Prayer Book in simply being placed within its order.
Rite One Holy Communion does not stand alone, it is wholly and totally dependent for much of its content on the Rite Two material ...
The choice and editing of certain Biblical passages in the new lectionary, the more political bias of various prayers, and so on, served to keep people away from the historic, classic Anglican worship, doctrine and devotion by pretending to be 'BCP-Lite'.
The years between 1976 and 2008 have revealed just how deeply embedded in the 1979 Prayer Book are certain relativist and innovatory principles and teachings. The present state of The Episcopal Church, and the exodus of thousands of would-be orthodox in the last decade, demonstrate the continuing and regrettable influence of the use of the 1979 Book ..."
1979 is one of the most pernicious and sinister events in the life of the church. Yet, only Peter Gomes, a Baptist, seems able to articulate the loss. Yet 1979 carefully laid the foundation for the subversion that has come, and at least finally Pierre Whalon at least is admitting it.
Sorry to deflate your joy, Flemming, but this "1928[1662] Confirmation prayer" is also the one appearing in the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship 1946, pg 133. I guess the minister was using the denomination's "old book." There are a lot of Anglican borrowings in this service book and some revisions of classic BCP prayers also. I would commend it to the ACNA for consideration in their eventual prayer book (unlike either the two catholic ritual compromised ones of the BCPs 1928/ 79-- very faithfully Reformed and yet catholic). This prayer appears on pg. 452 of the same title of the 1993 updated service book for "Reaffirmation of The Baptismal Covenant for those making a public profession of faith"--so much for the theology of confirmation.
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