Objections to Resolution 2022-A059/2024-A072: Memorandum of the Liturgical Commission of the Diocese of Georgia
Memorandum on Resolution 2022-A059/2024-A072 to amend
Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church
The Liturgical Commission of the Diocese of Georgia
4 March, 2024
At the next General Convention, Bishops and Deputies will be called upon to consider Resolution 2022-A059 to amend Article X of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church for a second reading (classified for the 81st General Convention as 2024-A072). A resolution to amend the Constitution requires more discernment and deliberation than other resolutions; therefore, according to Article XII, constitutional amendments must be approved by two consecutive General Conventions to take effect. We urge the Bishop and Deputies of Georgia to vote against this proposed amendment to Article X. We briefly discuss our objections below.
Article X defines the Book of Common Prayer as the liturgy of this church and outlines the process for its amendment. The Constitution does not grant General Convention the authority to authorize for public use in this Church liturgies except as “trial use” amendments to the Book of Common Prayer. Liturgies that are not intended to amend the Book of Common Prayer, therefore, have an ambiguous status. There have been several attempts to address this anomaly, including, 2018-A063, a resolution submitted by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. The 79th General Convention adopted 2018-A063 on its first reading, amending Constitution Article X to authorize the use of alternative and additional liturgies to supplement the Book of Common Prayer, by following the procedure for adoption by any one meeting of the General Convention. In their separate reports to the 80th General Convention, both the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision endorsed 2018-A063 and recommended that the 80th General Convention adopt it on second reading. That did not occur. Instead, the Bishops put forward A059, which seeks to redefine the Book of Common Prayer to mean all of “those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by General Convention” and approved by two consecutive Conventions. The liturgical future apparently envisioned by this Resolution is one in which a library of authorized liturgies, which may never be printed between two covers, would be made available online, all of which have “Prayer Book status.” Parochial clergy would then be free to pull from any of these online resources to build the liturgy for their parishes.
This amendment does not immediately address the dilemma posed by presently authorized liturgies that apparently do not have any Constitutional status. Lesser Feasts and Fasts, The Book of Occasional Services, Enriching Our Worship, and other non-Prayer Book liturgies presently authorized or “made available” by Convention would remain in their present constitutional limbo unless or until two consecutive Conventions voted to approve them as amendments to the Book of Common Prayer.
While not providing a solution to that long-standing issue, if approved Resolution 2022-A059 would generate new confusion of at least two kinds.
First, A059 would complicate the role of the Book of Common Prayer in defining the doctrine of the Episcopal Church. The Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, the Preamble to the Constitution, and Canons IV.2 and IV.4.1(b) indicate that the Prayer Book articulates the doctrine that clergy vow to uphold and teach. If A059 passes a second time, every liturgy authorized by two consecutive General Conventions would define the doctrine of our Church, with clergy held responsible for it all in accordance with their vows. And, if such doctrine-defining liturgies are never meant to be printed together between two covers held by every member of this Church, this would have the cumulative effect of disenfranchising the laity, moving church teaching more and more into the abstruse province of ecclesiastical professions.
The internal consistency and cohesion achieved by the Book of Common Prayer (1979), which is vital to its role in defining doctrine, would be highly difficult to maintain if the Prayer Book were to be revised by continual additions that did not take the whole into account. Nothing in A059 requires that future additions to the newly defined Book of Common Prayer need to take the current 1979 revision into account, be doctrinally consistent with each other, or conform to any other doctrinal instrument.
Second, A059 proposes adding the following description to Article X: “The Book of Common Prayer in this Church is intended to be communal and devotional prayer enriched by our church’s cultural, geographical, and linguistic contexts.” This novel description of the Prayer Book narrows its purpose to “communal and devotional prayer.” The Prayer Book contains many other types of prayer (intercessory, penitential, etc.), as well as a catechism, lectionaries, and historical documents that together contribute to constituting the identity and norms of our Church.
Constitutional amendments must face greater scrutiny than other resolutions because the Constitution shapes our common life as a Church. Once language has achieved Constitutional status, it is detached from the circumstances and exigencies that led to its crafting and very often has consequences (for good or ill) beyond those within the design of the authors of the amendment. A059 does not immediately solve the problem presented by currently authorized liturgies that appear to be extra-constitutional. While not addressing the confusion that it was, at least in part, crafted to address, it introduces new confusion. While the Book of Common Prayer articulates the doctrine that the clergy of this Church vow to uphold and teach, the proposed amendment would remove the constraints that help to maintain the internal consistency and coherence of the Book of Common Prayer and the doctrine it expresses, while also making the doctrinal instrument less accessible to the non-professional (because it is no longer confined to a single book). Moreover, the proposed amendment would add a curiously novel and narrowing description of the Prayer Book into the Constitution. It is difficult to discern what value would be added to Article X by including this novel description of the Book of Common Prayer. Further, it is difficult to predict what narrowing effect it could have in the future.
For these reasons, the Liturgy Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia urges the Bishop and Deputies of this Diocese to vote against 2022-A059 when it comes before the next General Convention for a second reading. Instead, the Commission recommends that the Deputation consider submitting the proposed amendment to Article X prepared by the SCLM for the 79th General Convention (included below).
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Appendix
Resolution 2018-A063 Amend Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church (First Reading) (taken from the Reports to the 79th General Convention, pp. 148-151)
Preamble to Resolution A063
During this triennium, the Commission collaborated with the Standing Commission on Governance, Structure, Constitution, and Canons, to develop an appropriate Constitutional and Canonical “vessel” for liturgies, apart from the Book of Common Prayer, to be authorized by the General Convention. This collaboration led to many fruitful, complex discussions between the two commissions and to the proposed amendment to Article X of the Constitution and parallel amendment to Canon II.3.6. If adopted, such a structure would lend clear canonical status to worship materials already in use by the Church as well as those approved in the future and maintain the integrity of theology and ecclesiology of the Book of Common Prayer. Such a clarification is essential as we engage common worship in the Church, and continue to develop resources for the potential future revision of the Book of Common Prayer as well as exploring liturgies that on one intends to be part of any potential future revision.
Resolution A063 Amend Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church (First Reading)
Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church amend Article X of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church as follows
ARTICLE X
The Book of Common Prayer, as now established or hereafter amended by the authority of this Church, shall be in use in all the Dioceses of this Church. No alteration thereof or addition thereto shall be made unless the same shall be first proposed in one regular meeting of the General Convention and by a resolve thereof be sent within six months to the Secretary of the Convention of every Diocese, to be made known to the Diocesan Convention at its next meeting, and be adopted by the General Convention at its next succeeding regular meeting by a majority of all Bishops, excluding retired Bishops not present, of the whole number of Bishops entitled to vote in the House of Bishops, and by a vote by orders in the House of Deputies in accordance with Article I, Sec. 5, except that concurrence by the orders shall require the affirmative vote in each order by a majority of the Dioceses entitled to representation in the House of Deputies.
But notwithstanding anything herein above contained, the General Convention may at any one meeting, by a majority of the whole number of the Bishops entitled to vote in the House of Bishops, and by a majority of the Clerical and Lay Deputies of all the Dioceses entitled to representation in the House of Deputies, voting by orders as previously set forth in this Article:
(a) Amend the Table of Lessons and all Tables and Rubrics relating to the Psalms.
(b) Authorize for trial use throughout this Church, as an alternative at any time or times to the established Book of Common Prayer or to any section or Office thereof, a proposed revision of the whole Book or of any portion thereof, duly undertaken by the General Convention.
(c) Authorize for use throughout this Church, as provided by Canon, alternative and additional liturgies to supplement those provided in the Book of Common Prayer.
And Provided that nothing in this Article shall be construed as restricting the authority of the Bishops of this Church to take such order as may be permitted by the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer or by the Canons of the General Convention for the use of special forms of worship.
EXPLANATION
Currently, the Constitution sets out the process for amending or making additions to the Book of Common Prayer, a process that requires adoption by two succeeding General Conventions. An exception is provided allowing one Convention to “[a]mend the Table of Lessons and all Tables and Rubrics relating to the Psalms” and another allows one Convention to “[a]uthorize for trial use … an alternative … to the established Book of Common Prayer or to any section or Officer thereof . . .”
Other than authorizing liturgies and rites “for trial use” under Article X(b) of the Constitution, there is no other constitutional or canonical provision explicitly authorizing General Convention to approve alternate forms/language for any of the liturgies or rites in the Book of Common Prayer or to authorize liturgies or rites not contained in the Book of Common Prayer. However, the language in “Concerning the Services of the Church” on p. 13 of the BCP which states, in part, “… In addition to these services and the other rites contained in this Book, other forms set forth by authority within this Church may be used” may provide such authorization, although it is not entirely clear if that is the intended meaning of that instruction.
The Constitution and Canons are ambiguous on whether the General Convention has the authority to authorize liturgies or rites and subjects not included in the Book of Common Prayer (short of amending Article X) and the process for doing so if it is authorized. Nevertheless, since 1979 the General Convention has authorized collections of liturgies, prayers, and rites in The Book of Occasional Services; Lesser Feasts and Fasts; Holy Women, Holy Men; Enriching Our Worship; and A Great Cloud of Witnesses. The history of some of these rites in the Church may help in understanding the ambiguous state of the texts’ authorization.
In 1883, the General Convention began the process of revising the 1789 Book of Common Prayer that was to receive a second reading in 1886. However, by the time the General Convention considered this revision the second time in 1886, many changes had been made to the “Book Annexed,” the name given to the proposed revised Book of Common Prayer in 1883. In 1889 a separate volume; the “Book of Offices,” was proposed but a version was not authorized until the General Convention of 1916. This “Book of Offices” was the precursor of the “Book of Occasional Services” and “Lesser Feasts and Fasts” the two supplemental volumes first authorized by the General Convention in 1979. At no time have changes been made to Article X of the Constitution that would explicitly give General Convention power to authorize these well-loved supplemental texts. The only category mentioned in Article X is for allowing trial use liturgies intended for use in a revision of the Book of Common Prayer. However, nothing in the Constitution or Canons explicitly prohibits the General Convention from doing so either.
The process of Prayer Book revision has been ongoing since the publication of the first English Prayer Book. The 1789 Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church was a revision of the Church of England Book of Common Prayer. In 1811, the General Convention made explicit provision in the Constitution for revision of the Book of Common Prayer. The current language in Article X of the Constitution providing for “trial use” was added in 1964 and proposed revisions of the Prayer Book were used on a trial basis before final approval of the current Book of Common Prayer in 1979. Instead of presenting a final text of a revised Book of Common Prayer to the General Convention, the category of trial use liturgies provides the Church opportunity to “pray through” proposed texts before their inclusion in the Prayer Book.
Since the revision of the Prayer Book in 1979, the General Convention has authorized a wide variety of liturgical texts for the Church. Not all of these texts are intended for eventual inclusion in a revision of the Prayer Book. Nevertheless, they have helped to form the mind of the Church and have expanded our worship without being intended for a new Prayer Book. Trial use seems to be an inappropriate name for what are effectively additional texts, such as the Book of Occasional Services and Lesser Feasts and Fasts, or other texts authorized from time to time by the General Convention. Yet, there is no express provision of the Constitution under which such authorization can be undertaken.
The Constitutional changes proposed would address this anomaly. We propose a system to authorize additional and alternative texts to supplement the Book of Common Prayer. We recognize that some of these texts may be useful in the preparation of a new revision of the Prayer Book, while others will continue to supplement the Prayer Book, allowing for additional forms of prayer to be available to the Church. This use is not intended to preempt or stop Prayer Book revision; instead, it is to give the Church more flexibility in their approach to worship, and the General Convention a more transparent criterion for authorizing such worship.
While this amendment is intended primarily as a way of rectifying a long-standing anomalous situation in the Constitution, we also see it as an exciting opportunity to engage in a discussion of how we are formed by the way in which we worship.