Litany for Daily Prayer

[JM]

I myself agree regarding Cranmer, and I think the Oxford Movement was using casuistry to try to intentionally articulate an Evangelical Catholic interpretation of the BCP and the 39 articles since they lacked the numbers to change it. In 1928 the Church of England voted to adopt a new, much more Anglo Catholic Book of Common Prayer, which was almost as high church as the American and Scottish editions of the BCP, but it was defeated in Parliament despite a majority of Anglicans voting for it in the House of Commons, by some chicanery on the part of the low church MPs, who sought the assistance of other Protestants to vote down the BCP on the grounds that it was Romanizing, “shameless Popery”, as they sometimes say, when in reality the 1928 Deposited Book was theologically closest to Lutheranism. Fortunately the 1662 BCP remains the standard only in the UK, and the only parts of it in common use are Mattins and Evensong, which lack the offensive aspects such as the Black Rubric. And indeed, since the text of those offices is available in Common Worship, which also includes material drawn from the 1928 Deposited Book, increasingly Anglican parishes just use that. However, it is worth noting that the dramatic shift towards Anglo Catholicism that resulted in the Church of England being given control over its own liturgy after the 1928 incident, and the legalization of the wearing of chasubles, and of incense, and other things theoretically banned previously, was the result of the message of the Oxford Movement catching on.

By the way, as an interesting aside the traditional Lutheran hymnals in the US obtained their liturgical texts from the BCP, which was edited to produce “the Common Service,” which in turn served as the basis for all of the major hymnals with just a few exceptions, until the 1979 Lutheran Book of Worship was released, followed by Lutheran Worship, but these works were influenced instead by the English translation of the Novus Ordo Missae, and were jointly developed with the Episcopal Church and Rite II in the 1979 BCP.

I'm sure there is some crossover but I haven't read anything detailing what was borrowed from the BCP, what was translated from the German.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I'm sure there is some crossover but I haven't read anything detailing what was borrowed from the BCP, what was translated from the German.

It was my understanding that it was a bit of both at the same time. What we call the "Common Service" used music used for the common German Mass; which borrows it's music from the Lutheran Latin Mass, which borrowed/retained from an older pre reformation setting in use in Germany.
So, the english had to fit the music. A good example is the Kyrie in Greek (as used in the Latin and German Mass fits the music. Translation should be "Lord have Mercy, Christ have Mercy... So to make it fit the tune it became Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us. ( We still have and use a Greek setting from time to time; 944 LSB.) Also, the Nicene and Apostles Creeds took the German translation Christliche Kirche and translate "Christian Church" rather than Catholic Church. BCP did a good enough job from the Latin and Scripture that intentionally or not, most of the Anglican liturgies and Lutheran Liturgies from that period often appear to be verbatim. Certainly Cranmer marrying the German niece of noted Lutheran Pastor and theologian. Look at Elizabeth I's upbringing; she was for all intents and purposes Lutheran in upbringing.

 

[Shane R]

Lot's of good information in this book. I'm preparing a review of it for the North American Anglican web-zine.

 

[The Liturgist]

It was my understanding that it was a bit of both at the same time. What we call the "Common Service" used music used for the common German Mass; which borrows it's music from the Lutheran Latin Mass, which borrowed/retained from an older pre reformation setting in use in Germany.
So, the english had to fit the music. A good example is the Kyrie in Greek (as used in the Latin and German Mass fits the music. Translation should be "Lord have Mercy, Christ have Mercy... So to make it fit the tune it became Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us. ( We still have and use a Greek setting from time to time; 944 LSB.) Also, the Nicene and Apostles Creeds took the German translation Christliche Kirche and translate "Christian Church" rather than Catholic Church. BCP did a good enough job from the Latin and Scripture that intentionally or not, most of the Anglican liturgies and Lutheran Liturgies from that period often appear to be verbatim. Certainly Cranmer marrying the German niece of noted Lutheran Pastor and theologian. Look at Elizabeth I's upbringing; she was for all intents and purposes Lutheran in upbringing.

Indeed. @JM there is I believe an entire chapter on the Lutheran adaptations of the BCP, as the Common Service material, in the Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer, which is one of several interesting books on the history of the BCP and Anglican liturgics to grace my library.

I will try and put together a public domain summary or fair use quotation of these sources which discuss the Common Worship project.

One thing I am wanting our LiturgyWorks charity (which exists to compile new, traditional public domain worship resources for traditional churches) to do since we have completed work finally on the modular BCP, is a a project for Lutheranism.

My present thought is something like a BCP for Lutherans which would combine the functions of the Altar Book, Agenda and the liturgical text in the Hymnal, without containing a Hymnal, the idea being to allow for multiple musical settings of services and the use of different hymnals such as the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal, or the 1994 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, or the 1979 LBW (unlikely but it has some fans) or the gorgeous 2006 LSB, or the exciting new hymnal that WELS is cranking out, by disconnecting the liturgical text from the music. Also this might be useful for smaller Lutheran denominations. And this would all be quite easy since we would just use the modular system that allows us to instantly adapt the BCP for different localizations and churchmanship to replace the core text with that of Common Worship. My thought is this would also make use of the traditional one year lectionary, which thankfully the LCMS and other confessional churches still allow, more accessible.

 

[The Liturgist]

View attachment 338946

Lot's of good information in this book. I'm preparing a review of it for the North American Anglican web-zine.

Indeed, I have that.

 

[Shane R]

Also, Cranmer is a very mixed bag. He seems to have held three distinctly different views of the eucharist over his career. This was examined in some detail by an Australian chap who had a website called something like: Anglican Eucharistic Theology. His domain has gone out of service and it is truly a loss to Anglican scholarship. He had profiles on probably about 60 Anglican divines and their view(s) of the eucharist.

 

[JM]

Also, Cranmer is a very mixed bag. He seems to have held three distinctly different views of the eucharist over his career. This was examined in some detail by an Australian chap who had a website called something like: Anglican Eucharistic Theology. His domain has gone out of service and it is truly a loss to Anglican scholarship. He had profiles on probably about 60 Anglican divines and their view(s) of the eucharist.

Baptism, that to

Anglicans should've just become Lutheran.

 

[The Liturgist]

Baptism, that to

Anglicans should've just become Lutheran.

Facetiously, I would argue that would have caused a problem insofar as I would have one fewer traditional Protestant church to namedrop when arguing with these aliturgical Radical Reformed / non-denominational / Restorationist heterodox-types who think Sola Scriptura means Sufficiency and Perspicuity of Scripture and requires the outright rejection of all tradition, and also any doctrine believed in by the Roman Catholics must be false, because they believe in it, and the Orthodox and Assyrian churches (and prior to the 11th century, the Western churches) were either somehow under the control of the Pope without realizing it for the past 2,000 years or else simply do not exist, since their presence is incompatible with the Rome vs. Protestant false dichotomy that their equally false prophets have revealed to them in texts they secretly regard as more important than the Holy Gospel.

In all seriousness, however, I agree - I think a church that united the Lutherans, the surviving Moravians and the Anglicans in the 16th century would have had the best attributes of all three communities, and would have been able to enter into full communion with the Eastern Orthodox and also potentially would have had the strength to dislodge the Pope and abolish the errors of Scholastic theology in the Church of Rome.

But there must be a reason why God did not see fit to allow things to work out in this manner; perhaps a major heretic might have seized control and caused unimaginable devastation. We must trust that God is guiding His church since he promised the gates of Hell would not prevail against it, so I trust He had a reason for keeping the churches apart. Also for that matter, for allowing the 17th century high church Anglicans led by the martyred King Charles I, who I am increasingly inclined to regard as venerable, to be defeated by the corrupt dictator Oliver Cromwell and his band of heretics. The 1960s film Cromwell tried very hard to glorify the tyrant, but in its efforts to do so it was completely undermined by a brilliantly subversive performance by Sir Alec Guinness, who made one feel great empathy for the King, and this combined with the strident antics of Cromwell causes one to greatly dislike him, despite the film pulling out all the stops in order that he not come across as the villain. I suspect if King Charles I had remained in power, union with the Lutherans would have followed at some point, since Archbishop Laud was clearly closer to Lutheranism than to the Continental and Scottish Reformers. Indeed it was because of Archbishop Laud that we have the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Non-Jurors which facilitated the continued existence of Anglicanism In the United States after the Peace of Paris By ordaining Bishop Seabury. And this in turn helped facilitate the emergence of Anglophone Lutheranism as a major form of Christianity.

At present, Anglicans represent the largest Protestant grouping, followed by the various Lutheran churches. Obviously these figures include both liberals and traditionalists, even where they are not in communion, for example, the conservative Lutherans of the LCMS/:LCC and of Latvia and Lithuania.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Are any of you familiar with this: The Lutheran Missal

 

[The Liturgist]

Are any of you familiar with this: The Lutheran Missal

I recall discussing it recently with @Shane R and we are both excited about it. I am looking forward to having one in my liturgical library.

Alas it is only a missal rather than the complete unified liturgical text I find myself wishing for, derived from the original BCP-and-German-translated Common Worship material but with the extra bells and whistles of hymnals since the 1959 Lutheran Hymnal and Service Book, which the 2006 Lutheran Service Book does so well.

I am also for that matter optimistic about the new WELS hymnal, which looks to be a massive improvement on the one they did in 1993, which I use enthusiastically if the alternative was to use the 2006 ELCA or 2009 PCUSA hymnals, but otherwise my advice to WELS congregations would be that the classic 1941 Lutheran Hymnal is preferable.

By the way I wish out of solidarity for those suffering, more Lutheran churches in North America would learn how to do the Ukrainian Lutheran recension of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which has been translated into English, and since the Litany of Peace is already in use, and remains in use largely thanks to the LCMS/LCC, it would not be difficult to use the rest, and it has been tweaked to reflect the fullness of Lutheran theology; I think the Ukrainian Lutherans have had it for at least 200 years or so. Since there are already multiple settings of the Divine Service my thought is it could be added as another.

As an aside it annoys me that the best recording I have of Slavonic Church Music from churches other than the Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox and the Ukrainian Greek Catholics oddly enough comes from the Ukrainian SDA, including the only recording I have of a lesser known setting of the Cherubic Hymn by the baroque maestro Dmitri Bortniansky, whose 7th setting is famous but whose 6th setting I have found nowhere else, and as for settings 1 through 5, I worry they might not exist (JS Bach’s Passion according to St. Mark is sufficiently lost so that all that exist are reconstructions, and his Passion according to St. Luke is tragically lost in its entirety, but we know he composed one, and it even has a BWV number, but if the score survives it is probably in an attic or basement somewhere in Europe, lost to time as it were.

Fortunately we do have his four usable Lutheran mass settings in addition to his much loved Mass in B Minor, which alas is not ordinarily liturgically useful (considering the level of a choir it requires and also the fact it takes about half an hour just to sing the Credo), but churches with a very good choir who can partner with local Baroque musicians could use it as a kind of concert piece, and it could perhaps even be celebrated in such a special context.

 

[Shane R]

Are any of you familiar with this: The Lutheran Missal

I believe there are two Lutheran Missals in production. I have followed that one casually but I have many of the trial texts for the version ELDoNA is preparing for publication next year.

 

[JM]

I only recently found out about it.

The Lutheran Missal Project

"The Lutheran Missal project aims to make available to the English-speaking church of today the lectionary, prayers, and other accompanying rites and resources that were available to and used by the Lutheran Church in the first century following the Reformation." About Yours in the Lord, jm

www.christianforums.com

 

[The Liturgist]

I believe there are two Lutheran Missals in production. I have followed that one casually but I have many of the trial texts for the version ELDoNA is preparing for publication next year.

It’s the ELDONA version I was aware of, that must be what we discussed.

 

[Shane R]

It’s the ELDONA version I was aware of, that must be what we discussed.

I was only able to get one copy of the texts and have leant them out to my area NALC dean, who interestingly was deeply involved in the attempt LCMC made to produce a hymnal and service book. It's not bad. He was more in favor of the Common Service tradition than most who participated in the project. Ultimately, to get it finished, it fell on him and one other guy. He felt it was woefully short on hymns, with only about 400, but he said it was getting expensive to typeset the music. I don't really care about the hymns, I'm more interested in the various Rites.

 

[The Liturgist]

I was only able to get one copy of the texts and have leant them out to my area NALC dean, who interestingly was deeply involved in the attempt LCMC made to produce a hymnal and service book. It's not bad. He was more in favor of the Common Service tradition than most who participated in the project. Ultimately, to get it finished, it fell on him and one other guy. He felt it was woefully short on hymns, with only about 400, but he said it was getting expensive to typeset the music. I don't really care about the hymns, I'm more interested in the various Rites.

Me too. Hence my desire that LiturgyWorks do a sort of Lutheran BCP that could be used with any of the great Lutheran hymnals presently in use, such as the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal and the 2006 LSB. And since the Common Service is so close to the BCP in many respects, we could literally just fork the source tree in git* (the modularized BCP is implemented using XML which is what makes it modular), and change the base module as needed, actually by writing another module and merging it. The net effect of all of this technology is that we could get a customizable Lutheran “BCP” (I am leaning towards a title such as Lutheran Prayers and Divine Services) would be remarkably easy. But I need a Lutheran on board to theologically supervise such a project, and I would draft Mark, but between his secular and spiritual life he is fully booked and is doing splendid ministry as the deacon of his LCC parish. I enjoy watching their services on YouTube, especially the ones Mark himself leads.

By the way all of the Eastern liturgical rites’ service books, with just a few exceptions**, can be thought of as hymnals, albeit without included musical notation since there are many different settings, although some are optimized for Byzantine chant and these are annoying to read otherwise, but there are always alternatives since despite its prominence, only a minority of Orthodox Christians use Byzantine Chant, although those that do tend to be fiercely loyal to it, which I can understand, it having the same appeal as Gregorian chant or Coptic tasbeha. This I believe also applies to the Ukrainian Lutherans, since my understanding is they are using modified Eastern Orthodox service books, although they may have rearranged things, so I intend to investigate this.

Also I am sure you’ve heard of the English Hymnal developed around the turn of the century, by which I mean the previous one, twenty years later I still find myself wanting to only use that phrase for the 1900s, by a notable group including Robert Vaughan Williams. Interestingly, what you might not know is that it comes in an edition with musical notation and an edition without, the latter obviously enabling changing the chorales used for specific hymns. I have PDF scans of both versions. From what I have heard, among Western church musicians, the three most universally beloved conventional hymnals are the Lutheran Hymnal of 1941, the Episcopalian Hymnal from 1940, and the English Hymnal. There is also an updated New English hymnal most of which was recorded and is in my library.

*git is a distributed revision control system, originally developed by Linus Torvalds for use with the Linux kernel development community, that is now the preferred system in open source development, very user friendly, and it can be used as a safe for XML files, which represent the best format for storing assets like service books in a manner allowing easy export to print and web applications, and indeed Microsoft Office even uses a variant of XML called OOXML as its default file format. That said most LiturgyWorks contributors never need to even touch this. One of our members, an Orthodox priest with a splensis sense of humor, called the tech “click and pray” and it will be once I put in place a front end, on the website which is still being developed.

**The only one I can think of is the Coptic agpeya, which contains most of the invariant part of the Coptic divine office, specifically the Hours, and is also the Psalter (albeit some psalms are not included since they are used elsewhere such as Psalm 150 at the end of the Divine Liturgy and others in the Psalmody) and since the Coptic Hours, which are totally invariant except during Holy Week, are not completely sung, but rather parts are read and the Psalms are read silently (and in a congregation different people will be assigned different Psalms to silently pray, with each person usually getting two, while the monks will memorize the entire Psalter and pray them throughout the day, which also used to be common in Byzantine Rite monasteries, but there it was displaced by the Jesus Prayer.

 

[JM]

To encourage you to worship.

 

[The Liturgist]

To encourage you to worship.

Do you know the specific Gregorian mass that is from?