Liturgy as Proclamation of the Word 1

by
S. M. Gibbard *
This Quarterly is one of the results of the confluence of the ecumenical,
liturgical and biblical movements. Though these movements are of
comparatively recent growth, we may live to see them used by God to
promote a renaissance of Christendom.
For the purpose of this article I take liturgy to mean the full pattern
of corporate worship of the various Christian confessions. Within such
pattern I should not wish to exclude "free prayer". There is evidence
for it in the liturgical practice of the early church. The General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland, when authorizing admirable set forms of
prayer in the Book of Common Order in 1940, stated that "the pro-
vision of such forms implies no desire to supersede free prayer" 2.
Again in the canon of the Roman mass the celebrant is directed at the
two Momentos to pray somewhat ('arat aliquantulum') for individuals:
and I have even noticed in some of the 'avant-garde' Roman catholic
churches members of the congregation have been permitted at these
moments to offer up aloud brief petitions.
Within the liturgy in this broad sense most Christians would, I
presume, give primary place to the eucharist; and for the sake of brevity
I shall have to confine myself to the eucharist in this article.
It seems to me that there is a great deal to be said for having the Bible,
not only read, but also preached as the Word of God at all the main
celebrations of the eucharist: and for this there is much precedent in the
practice of the early church. But many from almost all parts of Christen-
dom are dissatisfied with the lack of a balanced relationship between
the liturgy and the Word in our present practice. Karl Barth wrote over
twenty years ago words which are still widely and unpleasantly true:
"What we know to-day as the church service both in Roman Catholicism
and in Protestantism is a torso. The Roman Catholic church has a sacra-
mental service without preaching. And we (protestants) have a service

* The Revd. S. Mark Gibbard il a member of the (Anglican) Sotiety of St John the Evan-
gelilt (Million HOUle, Marston Street, Oxford, England).
I The original draft of this article was read at an ecumenical liturgical conference
at Swanwick, England (see page 75 of this issue) and at at an ecumenical liturgical
weekend at Rotterdam, Holland.
6 2 Book of Common Order, Preface, p, iii.
with a sermon but without sacrament. Both types of service are im-
possible" 1.
But many are now pleading for better ways. Dr. Max Warren, one of
the most respected leaders of the Evangelicals in the Church of England,
has written: "The sermon itself is an act of worship not to be divorced
from but most closely associated with the breaking of the bread and the
blessing of the cup" 2.
And from the Roman Catholic side at an international liturgical
congress at Assisi in 1956 Cardinal Bea, a Jesuit, declared, "The
assembly of the faithful who gather together for the eucharistic sacrifice
is in reality the most propitious place for the reading and faithful
exposition of the Word of God.... (Here) the liturgical movement
and the biblical movement ought to meet and to fuse so as to interpene-
trate. A priest who knew how to celebrate the holy sacrifice, 'fractio
panis', but did not know how to break for the faithful the bread of
the Word of God, would be only half a priest" 3.

The primitive balance of Liturgy and Word; its loss and resto-
ration
Almost all over Christendom there is a "return to sources", not least
amongst liturgists; but this is in no spirit of antiquarianism. The dis-
tinguished liturgical scholar Josef Jungmann, S.J., speaks for many
outside as well as within his own communion, when he says, "The
liturgy of the Catholic church is an edifice in which we are still living
to-day. In the course of the centuries the structure has become more
and more complicated with constant remodelings and additions, and so
the plan of the building has been obscured. Hence we must look up
the building plans, for these will tell us what the architects of old
really wanted, and if we grasp their intentions we shall learn to appre-
ciate much that the building contains and even to esteem it more highly.
And if we should have the opportunity to make changes in the
structure or to adapt it to the needs of our own people, we will then
do so in such a way that, where possible, nothing of the precious
heritage of the past is lost" 4.

The earliest full description of Christian worship is, as all know, the

1 K. Barth, The Knowledge of God and the Servi&e of God, 1938, p. 211.
2 M. A. C. Warren, Strange Victory, 1946, p. 114.
3 Art. in La Mauo« Die", 47-4 8, pp, 140-145.
4 J. A. ]ungmann, S.]., The Early Liturgy, Eng. trans!' 1959, p. 2. 7
 First Apology of Justin Martyr, (c. 150 A.D.) with its two accounts
of the eucharist; in the latter (c. 67) he states that all Christians come
together on the Lord's day; a lector reads from "the memoirs of the
apostles or the writings of the prophets as long as time permits"; then
the president in a sermon "urges and invites to the imitation of these
noble things"; after some prayers bread is brought, and wine and
water; the president offers up "to the best of his ability" (8G'Y] M'Vaf.lt~
avrcp) prayers and thanksgivings (evxaetG-dw;), and the people assent
by saying Amen. This seems to correspond to the later eucharistic
prayer or anaphora or canon, and at this date it appears to be "free
prayer". All receive of the elements (evxaetGr'Y] 19 e'VuJ)'V), which were
also taken by the deacons to the absent, presumably because of the
importance attached to this weekly bond of eucharistic union of the
faithful with one another and with the Lord. It was possible to substitute
for that first part of the service, which preceded the bringing of the
bread and wine, some other service, such as baptism (Justin Martyr,
Apology, I, 65) or the consecration of a bishop (Hippolytus, Apostolic
Tradition 2 - 4; 21 - 23: early in 3rd century). But in the second
century the normal Sunday service seems to be this eucharist with the
reading of the Old and New Testaments and preaching of the Word
of God and the receiving together of the sacrament. How much earlier
than Justin this practice was we cannot say with assurance. Certainly
St. Paul combined preaching with the breaking of the bread at Troas
"on the first day of the week" (Acts 20.7-12). But Cullmann seems
to me to go far beyond the evidence when he says of New Testament
wor ship: "The Lord's supper is thus the basis and goal ofevery gath-
ering">, Similarly although Jewish forms of prayer influenced early
Christian worship, we cannot say exactly to what degree, because to
the best of my knowledge the oldest extant forms of the Jewish liturgy
are later than the rst century A.D.
But before the end of the fourth century of the Christian era this
balanced pattern of Word and liturgy, as seen in Justin's Apology,
was beginning to disintegrate. First the general communion of the
faithful on Sundays disappeared. Already in the fourth century St. John
Chrysostom in the East thundered at his non-communicating people,
"In vain do we stand at the altar; there is no one to partake. Art thou
then worthy of sacrifice, but not of the participation? If so, then

1 O. Cullmann, EarlY Christian Worship, 1953, p. 29 (Eng. trans. of Urchristentus«

8 und Gottudienit).
neither art thou of the prayer. He, who partakes not, is as one of those
under penance'P. In the West the Synod of Agde had to insist that
those who did not communicate at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost
should not be accounted catholics (catholici non credantur)", Then the
biblical readings were curtailed. For example, there seems to have been
a regular Old Testament reading as the first of three lections in the
Roman rite, but it largely disappeared in the sixth century, except for
certain special liturgical days, such as ember-days''. Furthermore al-
though as Jungmann rightly points out that in the patristic age the
homily on the lections "appears almost as an indispensable part of
public worshipt", such preaching at the liturgy seems to have greatly
decreased during the Dark Ages. This was probably partly due to the
increasing popularity of the low mass. It was also due to the ignorance
of some of the clergy: for example, the Canons of Cloveshoo in 747
had to enact that those priests, "who know it not, learn to translate
and explain in their own tongue the creed and the Lord's prayer and
the sacred words which are solemnly pronounced at the celebration of
the mass and in the office of baptism'", All this was part of the declining
participation of the laity in the liturgy of the Church. St. Caesarius of
Aries, who presided at the Council of Agde, reprimanded his people
because, when the deacon cried Flectamus genua, most of them "remain
standing stiff as columns'?", Many of the laity were no longer regular
communicants or truly hearers of the Word, but passive spectators.
The great leaders of the Reformation desired to return to the primitive
pattern of worship on biblical grounds. They had perhaps insufficient
knowledge: and on certain points their followers were blindly con-
servative. From the Book of Common Prayer it is clear that the Anglican
reformer Cranmer desired a celebration of Holy Communion each
Sunday with a sermon or at least a homily, providing a certain minimum
of communicants were present. But so set were the English in their
medieval non-communicating ways that they would not come. So
Cranmer's plans were frustrated. Earlier Calvin had similarly "declared
that the sacrament might be celebrated in the most becoming manner,

I Chrysostom, In Eph. hom., 3, 4 (P.G. 62, 29).

2 Can. 18 (Mansi, viii, 327).
3 J. A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, ii, 395: Eng. trans!' of MiJJarum
Sollemnia.
4 J. A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, i, 456.
5 H. Gee and W. J. Hardy, Documents of Eng/ish Church History, p. 20.
6 Serm. in app. Spuria of St. Augustine, 285, P.L. 38, 2285. 9
 if it were dispensed to the church very frequently, at least once a week"l
with prayers, sermon and the sacred feast: but the citizens of Geneva
would not have it. Earlier still Luther had demanded that "on Sundays
the mass is to continue with communion of the people and sermon">,
He elaborated his plans in the Formula Missae et Communionis in 15 2 3
and in his more radical Deutsche Messe in 1525. But in time this led
to a disintegration of liturgical structure and eventually to infrequent
celebrations of the communion.
But in the twentieth century we are seeing restored in many parts of
Christendom and not least in the Roman Catholic church the primitive
pattern of the liturgy and the Word as in time of Justin Martyr. This
restoration is called for not on archaeological grounds, but on biblical
principles.

Biblical grounds for the restoration of the primitive pattern of the

Liturgy and the Word
In many passages the Bible gives us the 'raison d'etre' of the church
and of its activities, and perhaps most clearly in 1 Peter 2.9. There it
declares, borrowing expressions from Exod. 19.5-6, Deut. 7.6 and Isa.
43. ZI, that the Church is "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God's particular possession" (A.ao~ elc Jre(!tJro{rJGW for Heb.
i1S.1D). This bed-rock doctrine is common to all Christians, Protestant
and Catholic: for example, J. A. Jungmann, S.J., writes, "The faithful,
who through baptism are joined to Christ, form a spiritual fabric, a
holy priesthood'P,
May I say in parenthesis that there seems to me no inconsistency
between the whole Church forming a royal priesthood and there being
ranks of ministerial priesthood within this total priesthood of the whole
Church. The Old Testament offers an analogy: there were Aaronic
priests, although the whole nation was to be "a kingdom of priests"
(Ex. 19.5). I hasten to add in view of many passages in the epistle to
the Hebrews that I do not desire to draw any precise parallel between
the Aaronic priesthood and the Christian priesthood.
The Church is a royal priesthood in order to proclaim 't"lk aee.a~ of

1 ]. Calvin, Institutes, iv, 17.43.

2 Y. T. Brilioth, Eucharistic Faith and Practice, Evangelical and Catholic (Eng. transl,
1930 ) , P IIS·
10 3]. A. ]ungmann, Early Liturgy, p. 17.
God who has called believers out of darkness into his marvellous light.
This noun (rd~ aeera~) could have one of three meanings: -
(i) "excellencies, virtues": it is likely to have this sense when applied
to men as in Phil. 4.8, but less likely when applied as in this passage to
God, although the English Revised Version takes it so here.
(ii) "praises": this is the rendering of the English Authorized Version,
and certainly the LXX uses it to translate "praises" (m~ml1) in Isa, 43.2.1,
which apparently underlies this verse in 1 Peter.
(iii) "wonderful deeds": Deissmann- produces evidence for this
meaning in Hellenistic Greek; and Moulton and Milligan in their
Vocabulary of the New Testament more evidence from inscriptions;
Bauer in his W6rterbuch hesitates between the second and third mean-
ings; Dr. E. G. Selwyn combines the third with the first meaning:
"noble acts, especially the redemption brought about by Christ's death
and resurrection; and the divine wisdom, love, power and mercy which
lay behind it and in it" 2. There seems a growing consensus amongst
translators in favour of the third meaning: Dr. ]. Moffatt (192.4) renders
"wondrous deeds"; Dr. F. W. Beare'' and the American Revised
Standard Version (1946) both give "wonderful works": Mgr. R. A.
Knox (1945) "the exploits of God" and the New English Bible (1961)
"the triumphs" of God.
The author of I Peter would, I think, have the Church proclaim
primarily the redeeming acts of God in Christ, but also God's mighty
acts in creation, in the call of Abraham, in deliverance of the exodus
and throughout the Old Testament. The Church, the new Israel, takes
over not only the titles of the old Israel but also the record of God's
mighty acts of redemption in its history. These acts "prefigure" the
greater redemption in Christ, which is in its turn "postfigured" in bap-
tism and the eucharist (I Cor. 10.1-4; Revel. 1503-4). So the Christian
Church proclaims the full range of the Heilsgeschichte, indeed the whole
p,varnewv of God, his secret counsel, now disclosed, to gather together
into one in the fullness of the times all things in Christ (avaxEcpal.aeWaau{}at
T<% navra ev Tip XeeUTip, Eph. 1.10).
All this the Church is called to proclaim. Moulton and Milligan
provide evidence that this verb (e;ayyEl.l.w) has a strong meaning. If
as is likely the author of I Peter had in mind Isa. 43.2.1 ("the people

1 A. Deissmann, Bibtl!/udien, p. 9 1 •
2 E. G. Selwyn, r Peter (1946), p. 167.
3 F. W. Beare, I Peter (195 8), p. 105· II
 whom I formed for myself, that they might set forth my wonderful
works", aeeTck), he changed the LXX 6t1]yeraDat (set forth) for the
stronger e~ayyO.;'etv. Dr. Selwyn boldly renders it "advertise".
The Bible shows that the Church is called to a threefold duty of
proclaiming the mighty acts of redemption: (i) as good news to the
world outside, (ii) as praise before God, and (iii) as a living word to
the worshipping congregation. These three duties, evangelism, worship
and preaching, are all related to the eucharist, the first indirectly, the
second and third directly.

(i) The duty of evangelism

This in the mind of the author of 1 Peter was an essential part of
the proclamation. If in our concern for liturgy and ecumenism we
became less concerned with evangelism, that would be disaster. "Woe
is me, if I preach not the gospel" (I Cor. 9.16). Evangelism may well
have to be done largely by new methods, probably by the over-flowing
love of Christian communities, with the interpreting word of the gospel
wherever it is needed. This means all Christendom recapturing the
spirit of its first days. When the first Christians through love had all
things in common, then "the Lord added to their number day by day
those who were being saved" (Acts 2.47)' I have seen this re-enacted
before my eyes, not least among the fraternities of the Petits Freres
and of the Petites Soeurs of Charles de Foucauld; and Dr. Max Warren,
the general secretary of the great evangelical missionary society of the
Church of England, has spoken of this Roman Catholic venture as
"beginning to demonstrate the meaning of community, of evangelism
in depth, of a new horizon of what evangelism involves in the missionary
task to-day'", This love is more than human affection, though it
sanctifies human affection; it is the love spoken of in John 17.26: "that
the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them".
This supernatural love both bears witness to the supernatural redeeming
acts of God, and is also conveyed to the Christian community in the
eucharist. "Day by day they broke bread at home" (Acts 2.46); "On the
first day of the week we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts
20.7); "the bread which we break is it not a participation in the Body
of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one body" (I Cor. 10.16-17). Thus the New

I M. A. C. Warren, Cha1/enge and Response: lectures given at the Co1/ege of Preachers,

Washington, p. 70: for these fraternities, see R. Voillaume, Au Coeur des MaUll
12 (Eng. transl. Seeds of the Desert.)
Testament recalls us to regular and frequent communion, if our
Christian congregations are by their supernatural love to proclaim the
supernatural redeeming acts of God to the deeply secularised world of
to-day.

(ii) The duty of worship

The Church has always seen in worship and praise an essential part of
its proclamation of the mighty acts of God.
It was so with the old Israel. The Old Testament supplies many
examples: in Nehemiah 9.6-15 (attributed in LXX to Ezra) God is
praised and blessed for creation, for the call of Abraham, for the
exodus, for the pillar of fire, for the giving of the Law and for the
manna as bread from heaven; very similar praises occur in Ps. 136
with its refrain "for his mercy endureth for ever"; in Ps. 105 God is
praised "for his marvellous works" ("Zli~,m-'~:l) from the call of
Abraham to the entrance into the promised land; and in Ps. 1°7.22 in
a similar context the actual verb e;ayyO.Aw appears in the LXX as in
Peter 2.9: "that they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and tell out (e;ayyetAarwaav) his works with gladness".
When we turn to the Last Supper, we know our Lord blessed and
thanked God (evA.oy~aa~, evxaetar~aa~, Mark 14.22-23), though what
exact words he used is uncertain. As far as I know there is no con-
temporary evidence for the liturgical words used at a kiddush, or
passover, or an anticipated passover, whichever the Last Supper may
have been. But scholars, and in particular the Dominican Pere Audet 1,
seem to have established that at the benediction of solemn meals God
was blessed for his wonderful deeds. Thus presumably our Lord
blessed God for his "wonderful deeds" over the bread and wine at
the Last Supper; and so presumably this was the custom at the eucharists
of the apostolic age.
Certainly when we pass out of the New Testament times, we find
the president at the eucharist blessing God over the elements of bread
and wine in a similar way. This is so in Didache 9-10, if those chapters
refer to the eucharist proper. It is clearly referred to in Justin Martyr's
Dialogue with Trypho: "The bread of the eucharist which Jesus Christ
our Lord commanded us to make in remembrance of the passion which

I ]. P. Audet, Didache (Gabalda, Paris, 19,8), pp. 372-410: and art. in Studia
Evangelica (Berlin, 19'9). 13
 he underwent for those who purify their souls from sin; and that we
should at the same time give thanks to God both for his having created
the world and all that therein is for the sake of man, and for his having
delivered us from the sins in which we were born, and overthrown
with an utter destruction the principalities and powers of evil" (41.1).
Our next witness is in the eucharistic prayer of Apostolic Tradition
of Hippolytus, where God is praised for his creation of all things
through Christ, for the coming of Christ into the world, for his
"voluntary suffering that he might abolish death and rend the bonds
of the devil and tread down hell" (4.8) and for the Lord's resurrection.
The corresponding anaphora in Book viii of the Apostolic Constitutions
(probably from Antioch c. 375) gives thanks to God at great length
for creation, for his mighty deeds towards the old Israel as well as for
his redeeming work in Christ.
Thus there is something like a continuous tradition, from the Old
Testament right up to the classical form of the eucharistic prayer, of
blessing God for his mighty works. This must be kept in mind in all
liturgical reform.

(iii) The dtlty of preaching the Word to the congregation

There is an imperative need to proclaim the redeeming acts of God,
not only to the world, but to the congregation. The sermon at the
Sunday eucharist is addressed not to the "general public", but to baptised
(and in Anglican churches confirmed) and to some extent instructed
people. It should not normally be a brief devotional instruction, but
rather a serious exposition of the scripture. An exposition can be serious
without being lengthy or lugubrious I
So the eucharistic sermon often looks back to baptism, as well as
forward to the communion of all the faithful and their life as the Body
of Christ in the world. The members of the congregation have been
buried with Christ and raised with him to the newness of the risen
life. Many of them may be vague in their grasp of this truth; few may
be able to derive that assurance in the certainties of the Gospel that
Luther found amidst storms and temptations in his great affirmation,
"Ego baptizatus sum". Frequently and in varying ways we need to
show our people what this dying and rising with Christ means and
what it involves. "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication,
uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness" (Col. 3.3-5), which
14 is indeed a contemporary idolatry I They have to be gradually led to
see that the only authentically Christian life consists in "always bearing
about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may
be manifested in our mortal flesh" (a Cor. 4.10). This leads to personal
self-oblation, which finds its focus in the eucharist: "present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable worship" (AU.eela, Rom. 12.1). So the whole Church is "a
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ" (I Peter 2.5); and clearly the sacrificial service of our
whole lives can only be acceptable through Jesus Christ and his one,
all-sufficient sacrifice.
But this life of dying and rising with Christ and this sacrificial service
of the Church, his Body, in the world is, according to the New Testa-
ment, all Spirit-inspired response to the love of God, manifested in his
mighty acts. "Therefore I beseech you, brethren, on account of the
mercies of God (!5uI nuv olxTtelUnV .ofi -&eofi) present your bodies a
living sacrifice", Rom. 12. I.
This response may be made at what Richard Hooker calls "our
custom of the bare reading of the Word of God" without preaching 1.
So it certainly was when St. Francis of Assisi heard the words in the
gospel at mass, "Go, preach, get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass
in your purses; Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves".
But normally the exposition of scripture should be, as in the early
church, an integral part of the Sunday communion. Perhaps this is the
more necessary as the danger increases of the secularism of modern
society threatening to percolate into the church. Certainly in Russia,
where issues are seen more clearly, I have heard seminarists and young
priests being told that this preaching at the liturgy is essential, in
order to make Christ and the work of redemption living and con-
temporary for the congregation. This will never come by "nagging"
at the people. The aim of the preacher at the eucharist is to use the
scripturallections in such a way that "the Word which God spoke in
his historic actions may come to contemporaneous effectiveness'P: then
the baptised may associate themselves more profoundly with the great
eucharistic prayer, which blesses God for these historic actions; then
they may be drawn more deeply into communion with Christ and his
perfect offering; and so live the living-and-dying life in his Church's
sacrificial service to the world.

1 R. Hooker, Ealesiastiea! Polity, V, xxii.

2 J. Marsh, art. in Ways of Worship (ed, by P. Edwall, E. Hayman, W. D. Maxwell.
S.C.M .• 1951), p. IH. 15
 This means for preachers a life-time's work of reading and expounding
the Word of God. They need to bring a love for their people and a
creative understanding to this task of proclamation. They know that
this cannot be done by word only, but also by life, making themselves
"ensamples to the flock". And how pastorally vital it is that they should
have a satisfactory selection and arrangement of lections, from the Old
as well as the New Testament, so that in the power of the Spirit the
record of God's mighty acts of redeeming love may be systematically
read and expounded.

Current attempts towards the restoration of the primitive pattern

Besides restoring the eucharistic sermon to its classical function and
importance, there are at least three other related matters, which need
reform: (i) the calendar of the Church's year, (ii) the use of lections
and psalms at the eucharist, and (ill) the content of the great eucharistic
prayer.

(i) The calendar of the Chttrch's year

A faithful use of the Church's year should help to elicit through the
power of the Spirit the full self-oblation of believers by proclaiming in
due order and proportion all the mighty acts of redemption; it would also
do something towards preventing the preacher hammering on his own
pet ideas I Some communions which at the Reformation largely or
entirely rejected the traditional Christian year are now seeing the value
of taking it back into their systems. But they would be well advised,
I think, not to copy too closely the Roman or the Anglican calendar I
The Roman church itself has recently revised its calendar: by the
Cum Nostra decree of 1955 all octaves were abolished except those of
Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, thus restoring a wider use of the
ferial office; by a new code of rubrics introduced on January rst, 1961,
the importance of the Sunday mass was increased at the expense of
saints' days, and certain feasts were suppressed, for example, the chair
of S. Peter at Rome, the finding of the Cross, and St. John before the
Latin Gate. Behind these comparatively small changes lies a great deal
of research into the development of the calendar by Roman Catholic
liturgists: some of it usefully summarised in 'The Christian Calendar'
by N. M. Denis-Boulet (Eng. translation. Burns and Oates, 1960).
A very interesting and drastic departure from tradition has been
made for his parish church by the Presbyterian Dr. A. A. McArthur
16 in "The Christian Year and Lectionary Reform" (S.C.M., 1958). He
has divided the Sundays of the year into six groups, roughly as follows:-
a. Advent and Christmastide: The Incarnation.
b. Epiphany to Good Friday: The Ministry and the Passion.
c. Easter to Ascension: Resurrection and Ascension.
d. Pentecost and about 18 Sundays following (according to the date
of Easter): The Church and the Christian life.
e. Six Sundays towards the end of the period after Pentecost: Crea-
tion and Providence.
f. Two Sundays before Advent: The Christian hope.

(ii) A revised eucharistic lectionary

The authorities of the Roman Catholic Church are said to be con-
sidering a new two-year or even longer cycle of lections for the mass,
so that those who come regularly to mass on Sundays and on the few
days of obligation may receive a fair and balanced panorama of the
biblical story of our redemption. Certainly such a project is much
discussed in liturgical conferences and reviews of the Roman comm-
unionl, Dr. McArthur has drawn up a fine Sunday lectionary for his
new ecclesiastical year. The Bishop of Knaresborough has put up as a
"ballon d' essai" a suggested modification of the eucharistic lessons of
the Book of Common Prayer from Advent to Whitsunday; he has also
suggested that the observance of the Annunciation, the Presentation of
Christ in the Temple, the visit of the Magi and the Transfiguration
should always be kept on Sundayss,
Any such revisions would raise the question of restoring to the
eucharist an Old Testament lection. Then we should cease to be
"eucharistic Marcionites" 1Such a lection for the principal eucharist on
all Sundays was recommended by the sub-committee on the Book of
Common Prayer at the conference of Anglican bishops at Lambeth in
19583; it is already provided for optional use in the Anglican dioceses
of the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon; and it is an integral
part of the new eucharistic rite of the Church of South India. For
pastoral reasons these sets of three eucharistic lections would need to
be kept comparatively short - at least among the English 1An admirable
example of how this could be done is seen in the suggested forms of
ante-communion (or synaxis) contained in the report on Baptism and

1 See H. Kahlefeld, L'organisation des lectures de la messe, in La Maison Dieu, No. 51:
and G. Ellard, S.]., The Mass in transition (Milwaukee, 19S6), ch, 12.
2 H. de Candole, art. in Theology, December, 1960.
3 Lambeth Conference Report (19S 8), 2.82. 17
 Confirmation by the Church of England Liturgical Commission. This
document also shows a good and practicable way of using psalms in
eucharistic worship, and provides models for eucharistic homilies 1.

(ill) The content of the eucharistic prayer

In many of the Christian confessions there is a growing desire for
a new form of the central eucharistic prayer, which shall be more
adequately biblical. For example, Anglicans are faced with their in-
heritance of the communion office of 1662. and its consecration prayer
in particular. Two lacunae at least are obvious. First there is no re-
ference to the Lord's resurrection in the eucharistic prayer. Indeed in
the normal Sunday communion the resurrection is only mentioned
explicitly once, and that is in the creed. Yet in the profoundly true
words of James Denney the resurrection is "the first and last and
dominating element in the Christian consciousness of the New Tes-
tamenr'". Secondly Anglicans need to express far more clearly than the
1662. communion service does praise to God for the wonders of the
natural creation; there is serious spiritual, as well as theological, loss
in failing to stress the link between creation and redemption. Anglicans
are not alone in this loss. It is not enough to proclaim in the synaxis
(or antecommunion) the full range of God's mighty acts; we ought
also to bless God for them over the bread and wine in the great eucha-
ristic prayer as in the early church. This would mean ultimately the
preparation of a new prayer of consecration. It would not, I think, be
enough to modify the material in the Book of Common Prayer by adding
an anamnesis, such as that used in the Anglican province of South
Africa, "having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death,
his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension". For the liturgists in
the Church of England would then have to relate such a new clause
to the present prayer of consecration; and that would involve them
expressing what each of them understands by the words "Do this in
remembrance of me"; and that in turn would involve what each under-
stands by the term "eucharistic sacrifice" and probably by "eucharistic
presence". On those points Anglicans have not come to agreement;
they may be nearer to it one day; but it will take years of study and
discussion. But we need not until then leave things as they are. An
interim measure could, I think, be taken soon without raising these

I Baptism and Confirmation, S.P.C.K., I9~9'

18 2. ]. Denney, StlldieJ ill Theology, p. 49·
difficult doctrinal issues. That would be to name all these mighty acts
of God in an invariable preface before the Sanctus. This is what we
find in the anaphora in the Eastern rites. Indeed for a temporary, and
perhaps experimental, measure it would be enough to conflate our
present Prayer Book's three proper prefaces for Christmas, Easter and
the Ascension, preferably inserting first a short reference to creation.
To show this is a question which concerns others than Anglicans, we
may notice that Jungmann has recently pleaded for a similar enrichment
of the Roman rite: "We feel the poverty of our thanksgiving prayer
especially in the common preface: but if we put these (proper prefaces)
together we have a perfect eucharistia in the olden style 1.

The suggestions in this article are not merely academic: they are
pastoral. First, they would help our people to come to communion
with a living faith: "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of the Lord" (Rom. 10.17). Secondly, they would make clearer that at
communion the faithful are called in response to God's redeeming love
to offer themselves in union with the perfect offering of Christ. Thirdly,
they might well bring our people to grasp more firmly what it means
to be the Body of Christ, in practice as well as in title, in worship and
in life.
For the implementing of these suggestions the various Christian
confessions need one another. Roman Catholics and Orthodox bring
to this task, besides their great erudition, a tradition of spirituality,
rooted in the liturgy. The Protestants and the Reformed have a com-
paratively clear site for liturgical reconstruction, as they are not so tied
to rigid forms from the past. What disadvantages and advantages
Anglicans may have in this field, it would be invidious for me to say.
We all need one another.

Appended note: A provisional "invariable preface" for the Anglican rite.

As a temporary measure this preface is tentatively suggested. It com-

memorates the major acts of the redemption through Christ, by using
material from the Prayer Book prefaces for Christmas, Easter and
Ascension day. The only insertion is the brief reference to creation.

I J. A. Jungmann, The Early Liturgy (1959), p. 49.

 Is is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all
times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, 0 Lord, Holy Father,
Almighty, Everlasting God, Creator of all things visible and invisible;
Because thou didst give Jesus Christ thine only Son to be born for
our salvation; who, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, was made
very man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his mother; and that
without spot of sin, to make us clean from all sin;
For he is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath
taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death,
and by his rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life;
And hath ascended up into heaven to prepare a place for us; that
where he is, thither we might also ascend, and reign with him in glory;
Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of
heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising
thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and
earth are full of thy glory; Glory be to thee, 0 Lord most High. Amen.

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