As a small addition to Sharon Arnoult's exposition it might also be
worth mentioning the role of the parish clerk in Church of
England worship (each parish had to have at least one literate
layman, to keep the registers). Sometimes when you read Victorian or
earlier accounts of Matins (the usual Sunday morning service) you can
observe the clergyman and the parish clerk going through some of the
service antiphonally, though ideally the parish clerk was supposed to
give the lead to the rest of the congregation.
Julia Barrow
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 13:18:51 -0500
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
Organization: Southwest Texas State University
Subject: Prayer Book Participation (was Summer Diversion)
From: Sharon Arnoult <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Forgive me for coming in late on this, but having completed a
dissertation on the Prayer Book in the 16th and 17th centuries, I feel I
must respond to Bill East's comment.
The truth is, that the congregation *was* expected to participate, and
that participation was justified by those who defended the Prayer Book
on the grounds that congregational participation, in the form of
responses and repetitions, emphasized the priesthood of all believers
and that worship was something the priest did *with* the congregation,
not *for* them. This point was made by Martin Bucer, who first
suggested congregational participation be added to the Prayer Book in
his _Censura_, a suggestion which Cramner adopted in his 1552 revision,
and by such later Prayer Book defenders as John Whitgift.
I would also like to point out that if things which are nowadays "said
by all" were then only said by the minister, much of this can be
attributed to changes in worship services between Elizabethan/early
Stuart times and today, as well as the differences between serving
mostly illiterate and virtually totally literate congregations. The
most usual form of Sunday service back then was Morning Prayer, the
Litany, and the first part of the communion service, "concluding with
the general prayer for the whole estate of Chirst's Church militant here
in earth, and one or more of these collects...." Communion itself, in
which the confession that Bill East cites occurred, was performed
irregularly -- the evidence seems to indicate that "godly" parishes
might have a communion once a month, but most parishes made do with the
annual Easter communion. Moreover, it was not the custom for the whole
congregation to take communion at the same time (the Easter communion
was spread over several weeks), so it would not have been appropriate
for the entire congregation to say the confession which was "in the name
of all those that are minded to receive the holy communion." Also, it
was not only the minister who could recite this confession (although
that was probably the usual custom); it could be said by one of the
intending communicants, "or else by one of the ministers, or by the
priest himself."
Much more telling, I believe, are the many places in which the
congregation was expected to either recite with, or after, the minister,
or to make responses. (The recitation "after", of course, had mostly to
do with the problem of illiteracy.) These included the confession during
Morning Prayer, which would, unlike the communion confession, have been
done every Sunday and holyday and which did pertain to the entire
congregation, the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer (twice if there was
a communion), and the responses in both the Litany and the Decalogue.
This did make the English worship service quite different from Reformed
services on the Continent & in Scotland, where, as Bill does point out,
the congregation was expected to limit itself to metrical psalms and the
occasional "Amen." This is, in fact, why congregational participation
was attacked by those who wanted the English church to be more in
conformity with its Reformed brethren. But, as I have pointed out, the
practice was explicitly defended by the Prayer Book's adherents on
religious grounds.
Sharon Arnoult
History Dept.
Southwest Texas State Univ.
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