REVISED PRAYER BOOK.

Gisborne Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 9669, 16 April 1923, Page 2

REVISED PRAYER BOOK.

A PRAYER FOR' THE DEAD

LONDON, Jan- 24. The Church of England National Assembly will meet next week to discuss the Revised Prayer Book. The •text of the proposed changes has just been issued, and, though the new Prayer Book is only intended *for permissive use, it is already being subjected to drastic criticism. Neither High Church nor Low Church partisans are satisfied with the compromise. That Australasian Churchmen, may judge the suggested alterations, the chief changes are set out here. Nothing is likely to arouse more controversy than the following prayer for the deadr-

FOR THE DEAD

Let us remember before God the faithful departed. V. The righteous live for evermore. R. Their reward also is with the Lord.

0 God of the spirits of all flesh, wo praise and magnify Thy holy name for ail Thy servants who have finished their course in Thy faith and fear, for the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and for all other Thy righteous servants, known to us (or unknown, ; and wc beseech Thee that, encouraged by> their examples, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be found meet to be partakers' of the inheritance of the saints in light, through the merits of Thy son. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Another new prayer, and one which will appeal to many as a thing of worth and beauty, is “For a Dying Child.*' 0 Lord Jesu Christ, the only begotteixSon of God, who for our sakes didst become a 'babe in Bethlehem, we .commit unto Thy loving care this child, whom Thou art calling to Thyself. Send Thy holy angel to lead him gently to these heavenly habitations where the souls of them that sleep in Thee have perpetual peace and joy, and fold him irrthe cvei'lasting arms of Thine unfailing love, who liv6st and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

A proposed new rubric will allow the shortening of Morning Prayer, when the Communion Service is to follow, by the omission of the Exhortation, the General Confession, and the Lord’s Prayer, ''flic: Morning Service may end with the “Nunc Dimittis." Several of the Commandments are reduced to a sentence. Thus thfe Tenth Commandment is a bare “Thou thalt not covet.” It will also be permissible to omit tlie Commandments altogether, provided they are rehearsed at least once on each Sunday in Advent and Lent. When tire Commandments are omitted, this takes their place:—-

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Hear, 0 Israel. The Lord our God is one* Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and witti all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely, this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets. RESERVATION OF THE SACRAMENT. The rubric for the Reservation of the Sacrament reads:—

When the Holy Communion cannot reverently or without grave difficulty be celebrated in private, and also when, there are several sick persons in the parish desirous to receive the Communion on the same day, it shall be lawful for the priest (with the consent of the sick person (or persons) on any day when there is a celebration of the Holy Communion in the church to set apart at the open Communion so much of the consecrated bread and wine as shall serve tlie sick person (or persons), and so many as shall communicate with him (if there be any). And, tlie open Communion ended, he shall, on the same day and with as little delay as may be, go and minister the same. !.f the consecrated bread and wine be not taken immediately to the sick person they shall be kept in such, place and after such manner as the ordinary shall direct, so that they be not used for any other purpose whatsoever. The consecrated bread and wine shall be taken to tlie sick person in such simple and reverent manner as the ordinary shall direct.

Among the nejy prayers, which include prayers for “one troubled in conscience,” for universities and other places of learning, for hospitals, and for use “at the time of an election,” is a special prayer for industrial peace. V. Owe no man anything, but to love one another.

R. For he that loveth his neighbour has fulfilled the law.

O God, the Father of all mankind, we beseech thee to inspire us with such love, truth, and equity, that m all our dealings one with another we may show forth our brotherhood in Theo, for the sake oi Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray that God may guide to a wise and righteous issue the present industrial trouble.

V. Keep ye judgment find do justice.

R. For my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

O God, who in Tliy providence lias appointed to every man bis work, remove, wc humbly beseech Thee, from those who are now at variance all spirit of strife and all occasion of bitterness, that, seeking only what is just ancl equal, they may live and work together in brotherly union and. concord, to their own well-being, ana the prosperity of the realm, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. The word “obey” is retained in the marriage service, and the fifty-eighth Psalm is omitted on account of its imprecatory character. So is the latter part of the second Commandment, “for I, the Lord thy God, am a Jealous God,” apparently under the impression that it suggests a tribal conception of the God-head which has become out of date.