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Other: B. Compton

RITUAL CONFORMITY.

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RUBRICS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK, AGREED UPON BY A CONFERENCE HELD AT ALL SAINTS, MARGARET-STREET, 1880-1881.

PARKER AND CO.

OXFORD, AND 6 SOUTHAMPTON-STREET,

STRAND, LONDON.

PREFACE

At a Conference of some friends interested in the subject of Ritual, held on January 17, 1880, the following propositions were, amongst others, agreed to:

With the view of carrying these propositions into effect, it was arranged that a series of meetings should be held; and the Vicar of All Saints, Margaret-street, kindly provided a room at the clergy-house for the meetings of the Conference.

Those who had met in the first instance were duly summoned, and others were invited to join them. The meetings were held at first on two consecutive days in alternate weeks, . Latterly, in order to expedite the work, meetings were held on three consecutive days in alternate weeks. In all, forty-eight meetings were held between January 17, 1880, and July 13, 1881.

It was thought possible that by the co-operation of several minds, information might be collected from sources not commonly accessible, and perhaps hardly within the reach of any one individual. Among the members of the Conference also were those who had had experience of parish-work, as well as those who had devoted time and attention to historical enquiry into the origin and meaning of the Rubrics of the Prayer-Book, or who had made ancient Liturgies their special study: some, it may be added, combined these various qualifications. A hope therefore was entertained, as the second proposition implies, that by considering on very wide grounds , and not from any one point of view, the various divergencies of ritual practice, some agreement might be arrived at even on the most controverted points.

This hope has been realized. It was found that points which seemed at first to afford no basis on which agreement was at all probable, were settled, after long discussion, almost unanimously; but this involved expenditure of time, and much investigation into matters on which existing text-books were often silent.

With regard to the actual diversities in ritual which came under the attention of the Conference, some appeared to be such direct infractions of the Rubrics that no explanation of the Rubrics could make their irregularity more evident. Others seemed to arise from well-meant attempts to interpret the Rubrics. These last formed the chief subject of the labours of the Conference.

The main line of procedure laid down was a true and loyal adherence to the spirit of the Prayer-Book. A mere literal interpretation of the Rubric was found in many cases to be insufficient. Even if the existing Prayer-Book had been composed for inaugurating some new religious system, it would be scarcely reasonable to depend upon the abstract meaning of the words employed, without any reference to the circumstances under which the book had been written. But when we remember that the Prayer-Book of 1662 was the last of several revisions of the original English Prayer-Book of 1549, which was itself avowedly based upon the Ancient Liturgies, and carried on the existing and ancient worship of the Church of England , no mode of interpretation could be more misleading if rigorously insisted on, or so likely to cause error in practice.

The Prayer-Book, however, in spite of the Revision of 1662, retains many vestiges of the foreign Protestant influence, which affected the Revision of 1552. With these the Conference have attempted to deal in a loyal spirit. However much they may be regretted, Churchmen are bound to accept them. For it must be clearly understood that nothing was further from the intention of the Conference, than to attempt Revision. So far from this, it was hoped by some that a careful series of notes explaining the true character of disputed Rubrics might go some way to allay the present agitation for change.

The Conference cannot be blind to the conviction that they have to face much modern prejudice. On the one hand there is still rife in the Church of England the Puritan spirit, which condemns in one and the same category things essentially Roman, and things which are really primitive, but which have been retained by Rome. On the other hand, there undoubtedly exists an occasional reaction from this Puritan spirit, which has produced a prejudice in favour of things--whether primitive or not--simply because they are Roman. The Conference have felt that to yield either to one or the other prejudice was not the right way of dealing with the Prayer-Book.

They have also been brought face to face with what are called "Legal decisions" on some questions of Ritual. Apart from the fact that the courts have given directly opposite decisions on the same question, and have given reasons in one case inconsistent with the reasons given for their decision in another; apart also from the fact that these are chiefly decisions of secular courts in purely spiritual matters; the Conference have been precluded from entertaining them, as guides or as helps, in consequence of the courts having generally acted upon principles of interpretation entirely different from those which the Conference had adopted.

They have, moreover, found themselves in opposition to much modern practice, originating in carelessness and neglect in the due performance of the Services of the Church during past generations, but alien to the spirit of those Services, though often mistaken for their exponent.

The Conference have had to investigate the origin and to consider the meaning of many practices, which appear either to be enjoined or implied in the existing Rubrics, and have, in the light of these investigations, set down unflinchingly what they believed to be the true interpretation of these Rubrics. At the same time, they have not shut their eyes to ancient customs, which, though less prominently connected with the Rubrics, appear to have held on concurrently with the Prayer-Book; being consistent with its principles, and not authoritatively condemned either by name or by implication.

The Comments, which have been the result of their discussions, the Conference have printed, in the hope that they will be received by others as suggestions towards the solution of difficulties which must press upon all who desire to obey the spirit as well as the letter of the Prayer-Book.

The entire adherence of any one to all the interpretations here offered is not to be expected. Indeed, those members of the Conference who have had experience in parish-work, are well aware that in comparatively few villages it is possible to carry out the fuller Ritual which the Prayer-Book admits: this can only be successfully adopted in large towns, or where endowments are provided, or other resources are available, for sustaining a high Ritual.

It should be said, in conclusion, that amongst the members of the Conference, some have taken part in the work to a greater extent than others, and are consequently more directly responsible for the Comments, and able to give a fuller assent to them. It was impossible to consult every member upon each individual point. All that was done to ensure the expression of the general sense of the Conference, was to determine to insert no comment which was not approved of by two-thirds of the members present. Practically, it was found that in very few cases a formal division was called for, the agreement to the final form of the comments being generally unanimous.

Wm. Jno. Blew. H. G. Morse. J. H. Blunt. James Parker. Wm. Cooke. Thos. W. Perry. C. L. Courtenay. James Baden Powell. J. Fuller Russell. R. F. Wilson. R. F. Littledale. Chr. Wordsworth.

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RUBRICS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK.

It is important to bear in mind, in interpreting the prefaces and rubrics of the Prayer-Book, that they were written at various times, and that their language is not generally the current language of our own day, but the technical language of the times at which they were respectively written.

The first section, headed "The Preface," was added in 1662 to the second, entitled "Concerning the Service of the Church," which is the original Preface to the Prayer-Book of 1549, with some important additions and slight omissions made in 1552.

The "Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read," dates mainly from 1549.

The "Order how the rest of Holy Scripture is appointed to be read," with the Tables of Proper Psalms, and Lessons, and the Calendar--originally forming part of the book of 1549--was adopted with slight alteration in 1662, but was much varied in 1871.

When more than one Collect is appointed for the day, by reason of the coincidence of Holy Days, the question arises which Holy Day should take precedence.

Coincidence includes occurrence , and concurrence, when the one falls on the morrow of the other.

But in certain cases of occurrence, noticed in the following Table, a memorial of the inferior day should be made, by using the Collect appointed for it in addition to, and after, the Collect for the superior day, at all services at which the Collect for the day is to be said.

In other cases, the services of the inferior day must be entirely omitted for that year, or transferred to the morrow, or some subsequent date, in accordance with ancient custom. The Prayer-Book gives no directions for such transference, but the total loss for the year of such Festivals as the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, or of the Dedication and the Title of a Church, would be much to be regretted.

The following Table exhibits the precedence of Holy Days:

First Sunday in Advent takes precedence of St. Andrew's Day.

Fourth Sunday in Advent takes precedence of St. Thomas' Day.

St. Stephen's Day | St. John the Evangelist's Day take precedence of First Holy Innocents' Day / Sunday after Christmas. The Circumcision |

The Epiphany takes precedence of Second Sunday after Christmas.

The Conversion of St. Paul takes precedence of Third Sunday after Epiphany, but memorial is to be made of the Sunday.

The Purification takes precedence of Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, also of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima Sundays, of which three Sundays memorial is to be made.

Septuagesima, Sexagesimang gesture of disapproval or impatience, his piety none the less was confirmed, if it needed confirmation, in the eyes of the Lord Himself.

It was many years ago now, years before Philip was born. Reb Monash at last was emigrating from Russia to the Western world. His family and half a dozen other families had been packed into the uncovered emigrants' cart which was to take them to the railway terminus many leagues away, where they would entrain for Germany and Hamburg. It was a matter of no interest to the authorities that at most a dozen people could breathe comfortably and stretch their limbs in the vehicle they provided. Family after family was bundled in, every half-foot of extra space was crammed with bedding and the few household goods which, the more cumbrous they were, they found the more indispensable.

"But there we were," said Reb Monash, "Chayah," this being Mrs. Massel, "with little Rochke, peace be upon her, at her breast, and myself and Dorah and little Channah. Oh, what a wind was blowing! Knives! Packed like dead men in coffins we were! Then the driver cracked his whip and we were away. It was a desolate country, only we could see the long road in front and overhead the cold clouds and the fir trees running along the road by our side, patiently, like wolves! We could only hear the wind and the bells of the horses and their hoofs, click-click, click-click, hour after hour. But though the wind blew so cold in our faces, there was no room to breathe, no room. To stretch out the chest, an impossible thing. And then there was a station at the roadside where we stopped and--imagine it! they put another five, six people in the cart. Think of it! We started to grumble and some of the women and girls began to cry. What do you expect? They were half-dead for sleep. But how could they sleep, crushed like that, standing, with no room to bend, let alone lie down, and the wind driving through their chattering teeth. There was an official there. 'Curse you!' shouted he, when he heard us lift our voices, 'Curse you!'

"May he be cursed to his father's father!" every one in the kitchen muttered bitterly.

But Mrs. Massel could never bear the telling of this tale. She would be in the scullery peeling potatoes. Not washing up. It was indiscreet to make a noise when Reb Monash was talking. If Philip dropped a book, Reb Monash had to pause a full minute until he recovered the evenness of his flow.

Again there was a pause. The suffocation which had gripped the child in that monstrous cart years ago seemed to occupy the kitchen in Angel Street. It was not only the shut window; the beneficence of the architects of Angel Street had declared that kitchen-windows should be close-sealed as a wall. It was not the shut doors; the doors were always shut because a "draught" aggravated Reb Monash's cough and rendered him speechless for minutes. That suffocation from the Russian road had descended upon Angel Street. Some one opened his collar and craned his neck for air.

"But, of course, Chayah would not believe that anything had happened to the child. I could only see Rochke very indistinctly because we'd been separated by the crowd. 'It's only a fit! Shake her, shake her, if thou canst!' I said. 'Or perhaps a sickness of the stomach!' said Chayah. 'It will be well with the child when we stop and get down! She'll have some air and food, and she'll be all right, no? Oh yes, she will, she will! Sleep then, sleep then, babynu, all in mammy's arms!' she sang.

"God alone knows what the place was where we stopped to change horses. And Rochke, peace be upon her? Well, what need to talk? She's happier than you or me. Oh, but what an ornament to the race she would have been! Such eyes, the little one, holy, like an old woman's! But wait, the story's not finished yet. Can it be believed? The officials there, they wanted us to continue the journey with the dead child! The smirched of soul, the godless ones! Wanted us to go on with the dead child! And when even they saw it was against God and Man, they wanted to bury her there and then, in unconsecrated ground! Oi! Oi! has it been heard of since Moses? But always put your trust in the Above One and all will be well with you. Know that! Think of us, in the wilderness, with a dead baby, and no holy ground to bury her and not a friend anywhere. The cart had gone on to the next stage, with Dorah and Channah. Think of us!

"It was then the Above One came to our help. A Jewish merchant was on the road with a load of dried fruit. He stopped, God be thanked, at the station, and we told him how things lay with us. And would you believe it? Not a penny he would take--not much was there to give--but he took the baby away and gave her holy burial in his own town! Be his years long in the land! May his seed multiply to the fourth and fifth generation! And so all is well with Rochke, peace be upon her!"

Reb Monash obviously drew much consolation for the whole episode from the fact that the Above One had shown him this signal favour, and the last offices had been performed unimpeachably over Rochke's body.

But perhaps Philip was too young to be comforted by the thoughts of the propriety with which the incident had closed. He could only see very clearly the figures of his mother, blank-eyed, her hands empty, standing alone in Babylon, in that bleak Russian night.

Philip had not yet recovered from the dull dismay with which he had found himself installed as a scholar in the Infants' Class of the Bridgeway Elementary School. He had attained the age of five. Within quite recent memory he had been breeched. He still remembered the pocket in his skirt which was crammed with "stuffs"--the main merchandise of his companions, snippets of prints, calicoes, alpacas and linen rags picked up below the maternal needles and generally on the doorsteps of Angel Street.

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