"The Liturgical committee has been considering some of the suggestions that people have been making about the Series 2 Order for Holy Communion which we have been using for two years and intend to continue to use until the experimental penod comes to an end in 1971, when a further revision is due to be made. We have also been thinking about ways of enabling members of the congregation to take a fuller part.

Nearly everybody feels that the service is a great improvement on the older order, even if still far from perfect. Some would of course say that it is still too penitential and servile, and that the joy of being children of God does not come out strongly enough.

‘We are not worthy’ needs to be countered by such assertions of our dignity in Christ as abounded in the ancient liturgies: ‘Thou hast made us worthy .... kings and priests unto God.’ We do get some great affirmations in the Thanksgiving - ‘thou hast fashioned us men in thine own image . . . hast made us a people for thine own possession’ - but they do not go far enough.

Some people naturally would like the old familiar comfortable words to be used - others the Ten Commandments. But there are objections to the use of both of these which we will just mention briefly. The Commandments seem to many an inadequate statement of what should be the Christian’s response to God and to man: and how for instance, does the fourth apply to us now we no longer have the old Jewish Sabbath (Saturday), but the First or Lord’s Day (Sunday)? One objection to the comfortable words, coming immediately after the Absolution, is that they seem to imply that the declaration of God’s forgiveness is not enough: it needs reinforcement by four passages from Scripture. This repeated affirmation of what is claimed as a certain fact indicates, and must often produce, doubt of its truth. One would not, for instance, in an airliner feel very comfortable if an announcement that all was well was made twice by the pilot, then by the wireless operator, then by the stewardes & one might be excused for fearing that something was seriously wrong. It is inevitable that what looks like Cramner’s deep lack of faith in God’s mercy should communicate itself to many who use his liturgy, and should produce in them that spirit of bondage again unto fear from which Christ came to deliver us. (H. A. Williams).

Then again, there are a number of people who have told us that they cannot bring themselves to join in the saying of the words of paragraph 27; ‘The cup of blessing which we bless. . . . We being many are one bread, one Body, for we all partake of the one bread.’ They may not have realised that these words come from St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10, vv. 16-17), and whether or not they are entirely appropriate at this point, they bear witness to an important truth which none of us has yet fully grasped.

The music of all our services is being reviewed by the Committee. One thing is clear - we certainly need new and modern words to sing, as well as those of times long past. It may be that we shall find help here in the new supplement to our hymn-book just published - ‘ 100 Hymns for Today’ - which we shall be considering in detail as soon as the sample copies are received.

With regard to greater participation, from November 2 members of the congregation will be leading the intercessions at the Parish Communion, and if you would like to be on the rota for this, please let Seymour Harris, Alan Taylor or the Vicar know. On any particular Sunday the leader in prayer might be one person, or a family, or a small group of people from one of our organisations. We hope that when the service receives its next revision in 1971, the versicle and response after each section will be changed. ‘Lord, in thy mercy, Hear our prayer,’ like other similar phrases we have been considering in our evening sermons recently, imply a false idea of God - that he may be reluctant and unwilling to hear us, and that we have to batter away at him to overcome this: whereas the reluctance is all on our side, not his! Better words would be: ‘Father, we thank thee that thou hast heard us, And we know that thou hearest us always,’ or more simply, ‘The Lord hears us, Thanks be to God.’"

Source: The Spire Magazine - 1969 October

Home | The Parish Church of St James - Hampton Hill | Site Map