Good Friday Communion.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 9, 1 June 1917, Page 95

Good Friday Communion.

[To the Editor.] The Vicarage, Gisborne, May 14th, 1917. Dear Sir, . In spite of the authorities you quote I feel more than ever unconvinced. You say the point at issue is : " What is the custom or rule of the Church of England," and your whole argument savours of the type which makes the Church of England a Church of The Reformation only. Should not the point at issue be : " What is the rule or custom of the Catholic Church," of which Church we are a true branch. Evan Daniel and the Rector of St. James, Picadilly, may possibly consider that the' provision of a Liturgical Epistle and Gospel contemplate a celebration, but so far, m my limited libraiy, I have failed to discover a liturgiologist of note m favour of it. The quotation from the Church Times is, I take it, the opinion of. "many priests," and not that of the editor. The compiler of "The Congregation m Church," states emphatically that no communion is celebrated on Good Friday and quotes from the Church Times to that effect. My remark anent the Missa Prcosanctificatorum is perhaps beside the mark, but m the Latin Church it was limited to Good Friday. However the Missa Sicca and the Missa Navalis (see Maskell, Ancient Liturgy) were allowed and prove the custom of the Epistle and Gospel being said without a celebration. Yernon fStaley, a master m Liturgical knowledge, says " on Good Friday, commemorating the Passion and Death of our Lord, there was no Liturgical celebration of the Eucharist, and the eminent writer Duchesne is equally emphatic. Vide Christian Worship, P. 248, Canon 'T. T. Carter, with the joint authors of "Ritual Notes" and the "Altar Hymnal" may be added to the list of authorities. Of Bingham, Palmer m his Origines.(p. 164) says: "He seems to have suffered his judgment to be prejudiced against the Missa Sicca by the representations of Bona! " Palmer concludes with Durandus that it may sometimes be inexpedient to celebrate. For reasons already stated I am convinced that Good Friday is such an occasion, and I believe the full weight of Catholic teaching and custom is agreeable; Your reference,

Mr Editor, to the celebration on Fast Days at 3 p.m. was obviously m order that the faithful might make their fast as long and real as possible. I am, etc., Hqraoe Packe,

[We publish Mr Packe's letter m full-, but cannot m our limited sjjace accept any more on the subject. We are quite familiar with his references, and would greatly value the restoration of the Missa Sanotifioatorum and some other Catholic usages discarded by the Church of England during the storm and upheaval of the 16th century, m the endeavour to save the ship, even by jettisoning valuable cargo. The fact remains we cannot now have the Missa Prcesanctijicatorum. What does the Church of England give us m place of it? Perhaps Mr Packe would say the Missa Sicca ; "a mere mask and counterfeit of the true feast, properly dry and jejune, as wanting not only the consecration but the participation of the Body of Christ like that supper of wood aud stones exhibited by Heliogabalus to his guests" (Bona Eer. Liturg, i 15). A corruption condemned by bishops and prominent liturgiologists when it arose about the 12fch century, "without the graqe and moisture of the consecrated Eucharist, profiting the faithful nothing "— (Petrus Cantor ; Verb. Abbrev c 29). In the face of the Prayer Book and of the continuous custom of three centuries since the Reformation, we refuse to believe that our Spiritual Mother offers us on Good Friday only a "supper of wood and stones" when we ask for the Bread of Life. Possibly we are wrong m ascribing such an answer to Mr Packe, for he said m his former letter, " the celebration is without doubt an innovation of the Reformation when reservation was forbidden." Cadit quaestio. We will not quarrel with him for calling it an "innovation " so long as he grants that it was introduced by the Ecclesia Anglicana at the Reformation, not since abolished, and therefore still the rule. That is all we maintain. As to the "expediency" or " inexpediency "' of celebrating on Good Friday opinions may differ, but the Church prescibes the Missa Sicca only for those occasions when the number of communicants requisite for a oommunion oannot possibly be ob» tamed.—- Ed.]