PRAYER BOOK REVISION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 5

PRAYER BOOK REVISION

A CHANGING LITURGY INTO LINE WITH MODERN CONDITIONS. (»I rr.LEGRAPU.—WtESS ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, 25th May. At the Church Congress to-day, the Bishop of Goulburn spoke on the question of Prayer Book revision. In general religion, worship in particular, he said, was the last stronghold of conservatism. The Prayer Book of to-day represented the last of a series of revisions extending over a century. It had not been understood that it was to be the "last revision. The cessation of revision had not been a deliberate policy; it being due to the silencing of Convocation. Eevision had become necessary, because the study of ancient liturgiology had revealed defects and faults in our incomparable liturgy and because the religious needs of changing circumstanced ,had brought home the fact that the Prayer Book must be brought into line with modern conditions. The Prayer Book, now in the final stages of revision, seemed appallingly cautious in the light of -war chaplaincy experience. The speaker outlined the position of the clergy in Australasia, regarding Prayer Book revision, stating that the dioceses were constitutionally and legislatively unable to alter the Prayer Book except with the full accord of "competent authorities" ■ in England. . They might accept the revised Prayer Book in toto, but they could not adopt it to their, particular requirements. Clearly, .the whole Australasian Church should be able to 6ay what the Australasian Prayer Book should be. By an act of autonomy in the 'sixties,, the Church had given away its autonomy, but even if that autonomy wera reclaimed the speaker could not help thinking that it would be a perilous task for a young church' in a young country,. to undertake to revise such a great catholic document as the Prayer Book. There was a fringe which might be varied, but material alteration, he thought, would be a disaster. He favoured the Dominion idea of a fixed canon with a variable fringe. The Western Prayer Book could not satisfy Oriental conditions..