Anglican Liturgy

Discussion in 'Liturgy, and Book of Common Prayer' started by Angelica, Aug 7, 2013.

  1. Angelica

    Angelica New Member

    Posts:
    10
    Likes Received:
    4
    Country:
    United States
    Religion:
    Finding a church
    I've been curious about the Anglican liturgy. I've checked out the Book of common prayer for the Church of England and Canada. Their mass or service usually starts with the Lords Prayers and then the collect follows. In the RCC the service does not start with the Lords Prayer and that usually is said in the Eucharist Prayer. The Penitential act in the Anglican use has the Ten Commandments. To me this is strange. Also there is a collect for the queen. I understand that. But to have someone like a sovereign as Head of a church is so strange for me. Some of them are not holy and are sinners, why would they be head of a church? The Gloria is usually said in the end of the mass in the RCC it is said in the beginning.

    I'm curious. What other parts of the mass are different from the Roman Missal?
     
    willkar likes this.
  2. AnglicanAgnostic

    AnglicanAgnostic Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    676
    Likes Received:
    302
    Country:
    New Zealand
    Religion:
    none
    The Queen is the secular head of the church not it's spiritual head. So the appearance of not sinning is not a requirement per se of this position. Though I'm sure she tries not to sin.
     
  3. The Hackney Hub

    The Hackney Hub Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    536
    Likes Received:
    385
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    The Episcopal Church
    The Gloria is at the end of the service as a form of praise for the benefits we receive in the Lord's Supper.
     
  4. The Dark Knight

    The Dark Knight Active Member

    Posts:
    138
    Likes Received:
    195
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    Anglican
    Check out the 1979 BCP of the U.S., too (link goes to free online versions).

    These are good questions! Use of the Ten Commandments is not as widespread as it used to be. Some parishes recite them every week, while others might only do so during Lent. Collects for the Queen are not really part of American practice. Despite what some people say around the internet :D, the Queen is not the head of Anglicanism; nor was Henry VIII the founder. The Queen's position is what it is in the U.K., according to their laws. But even there, she isn't making theological decisions or anything like that.

    In the U.S., there are a lot of different liturgies in use. Most Episcopal Church parishes use the 1979 Rite II, which would probably remind you of the current Mass in some ways. My parish uses Rite I, which is more influenced by the previous Book of Common Prayer (1928, which in turn is more like the English and Canadian books). Some Anglican (not Episcopalian) parishes here use the 1928, while others have their own books or use the Anglican or English Missals. And all of these are shaped by the old Sarum rite, so they will differ from the contemporary Roman rite in some ways.

    In my 1979 Rite I parish, a comparison of our service and that of the Catholic church two blocks away would look something like this (normal font for ours, italics for theirs):

    1. Opening Sentences and Collect for Purity (Opening Sentences and Penitential Act)
    2. Ten Commandments or Summary of the Law and Kyrie (Kyrie)
    3. Gloria and Collect of the Day (same)
    4. Lessons (same)
    5. Homily (same)
    6. Nicene Creed (same, but they use a new translation now)
    7. Prayers of the People (same)
    8. Confession of Sin and Absolution, followed by the Peace (they did their Act earlier and now begin the Eucharistic Liturgy)
    9. Eucharistic Prayers and Our Father (same, but they have the Peace after the Our Father)
    10. The rest of the service is rather similar in structure. The language used throughout is somewhat different, though! Our structure looks close to theirs, while our language is recognizably Anglican. And our language reflects our theology.
     
  5. historyb

    historyb Active Member

    Posts:
    243
    Likes Received:
    199
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    CEC (Anglo-Catholic)
    My Parish exactly
     
  6. Angelica

    Angelica New Member

    Posts:
    10
    Likes Received:
    4
    Country:
    United States
    Religion:
    Finding a church
    I'am aware of the Episcopal liturgy. I was talking about the Church of England that has a little different liturgy from the Episcopal church,
     
  7. Lux Christi

    Lux Christi Active Member

    Posts:
    118
    Likes Received:
    99
    Country:
    Canada
    Religion:
    Anglican (Anglo-Catholic)
    As a Canadian, most of the eucharistic services in my Diocese are from the BAS (or Book of Alternative Services), although funnily enough our parish does Morning and Evening Prayer according to the British 'Common Worship' book. In the BAS, we do the Lord's Prayer only right before Communion. We also do not recite the Ten Commandments, but sometimes the Greatest Commandment is featured instead. The Gloria is recited in the beginning of the Mass.

    The Queen is generally invoked during the Prayers of the People, and this is simply because Anglicanism is about praying for the head of the state and the country, whether it is a democracy with a president, or the Canadian prime minister with the queen as a representational secular head. We don't give her a special Collect during the service. XD

    Canadian parishes that do the old BCP 1962 will have more similar features to what you have described, but the Ten Commandments are generally replaced by the Greatest Commandment instead. I am absolutely not a Monarchist, but about half of Canadians are.

    But if you are matching the Novus Ordo rite from Roman Catholicism, it is quite similar to the structure of the contemporary rite from the BAS. You can download the BAS yourself and check it out over here. I go to an Anglo-Catholic parish, so what we have during our Mass is a little more traditional and Englished than the Roman Missal.