1928 Proposed Book of Common Prayer: Preface · 1928 Proposed Book of Common Prayer: Preface

The Book of Common Prayer

	The
	Proposed Book of Common Prayer (1928)
	of the Church of England

	This
THE PREFACE	Preface initially appeared in the 1927 Final Draft
1927
THE
wisdom of our fathers under the good hand of God gave to the Church
of England the Book of Common Prayer in English speech. It is, and we
believe that it will always be, one of the great books of the world.
Nothing save the English version of the Holy Scriptures is enwoven so
closely in the language and the deepest thoughts of our people at home
and beyond the seas. Yet it was shaped but slowly and with many changes,
for no age may hope to forecast the needs or to order the thoughts and
words of those that follow. There will, indeed, always be some to whom
change in that which has been hallowed by long use seems grievous and
fraught with danger. They would stand upon the old paths and follow
in their worship of God the pattern which their fathers set. In truth,
however, they cannot quite so worship, because they cannot any more
than those around them be blind to what has been happening during two
hundred and fifty years. Since 1662 there has been change almost beyond
belief in the facts and modes of English life. Far and wide the country
has yielded place to the town, and the growth of knowledge has given
to millions instead of thousands new means of earning their daily bread.
Old barriers are broken down as by sea and land and air men are brought
ever closer together. The England of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
has become the mother of a great commonwealth of peoples still linked
together in a common loyalty. With the rise of numbers has come also
a shifting of power from the few to the many. Not less strange to the
men of the age of Elizabeth or of Charles II would have seemed a model
of government in Church and State which guards instead of mistrusting
liberty of thought and speech, and would set no narrower bounds to freedom
than those which belong to brotherhood and fellowship. In religion as
in all else truth is not prized less highly because it is no longer
fenced on any side.
We are living in a new world: it is ours, if we are true to the faith
that is in us, to seek to make it a better world. It is by prayer and
service that we may hope to do it. But we dare not think that a Book
of Common Prayer fitted for the seventeenth century can supply every
want of the twentieth: the marvel is that it calls for so little change.
New knowledge and new ways of life bring with them new customs and forms
of speech unknown before. As men think upon God's wonderful works unveiled
before them and are quickened afresh by the power of his Spirit, their
hearts and minds frame for themselves new prayers and thanksgivings
and seek new occasions of worship. It is -the duty no less than the
right of those who bear the burden of a great trust to see that plain
needs are plainly met, and that the book is still in our day, as of
old, understanded of the people. The task is no light one, nor has it
been lightly undertaken. We know that to some we shall seem to have
changed too much, to others to have allowed too little freedom. It was
not otherwise in earlier times. At least we have made no change for
the sake of change, and' denied, as we believe, no freedom which may
be rightly claimed. If the minds of any be troubled because we have
allowed another Order of Holy Communion as well as the old, and have
made further provision for the communion of the sick, let them not think
that we mean thereby any change of doctrine or intend that the Sacrament
be used otherwise than as our Lord himself appointed. In all things
we have set before our eyes the duty of faithfulness to the teaching
of Scripture and the godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers,
and we pray that by God's blessing upon our work those who use this
book may be enabled to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
IN	This
July 1927 a Measure was passed in the Church Assembly for the purpose	introduction appears in the 1928 Book immediately before the Table of
of authorizing the use of a Prayer Book which had I been deposited with	Contents.
the Clerk of the Parliaments, and was referred to in the Measure as "The
Deposited Book." The Measure and the Book had been previously approved
by large majorities in the Convocations of Canterbury and York. A Resolution
under the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, directing that
the Measure should be presented to His Majesty, was afterwards passed
in the House of Lords by a large majority. But a similar Resolution in
the House of Commons was defeated on 15th December, 1927, and the Prayer
Book Measree of 1927, therefore, could not be presented for the Royal
Assent.
Early in the year 1928
a second Measure (known as the Prayer Book Measure, 1928) was introduced
in the Church Assembly, proposing to authorize the use of the Deposited
Book with certain amendments thereto which were set out in a Schedule
to the Measure. This Measure again was approved by large majorities
both in the Convocations and the Church Assembly; but a Resoluution
directing that it should be presented to His Majesty was defeated in
the House of Commons on 14th June, 1928.
This Book is a copy
of the Deposited Book referred to in the Prayer Book Measure of 1927,
as amended in accordance with the provisions of the Prayer Book Measure,
1928.
The publication
of this Book does not directly or indirectly imply that it can be regarded
as authorized for use in churches.
NOTE.—If the Prayer Book Measure, 1928, had received the Royal
Assent, the following would have been printed as the title of this Book:
THE BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENTS AND OTHER RITES AND CEREMONIES
OF THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND TOGETHER
WITH THE FORM AND MANNER OF MAKING, ORDAINING, AND CONSECRATING OF BISHOPS,
PRIESTS, AND DEACONS. THE BOOK OF 1662 WITH ADDITIONS AND
DEVIATIONS APPROVED IN 1928

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