Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 8 July 2006
New Guide to the BCP Published
For most Church of Ireland people the bed rock of worship is the Book of Common Prayer and the Church Hymnal. Alas, not everyone can sing, but most have been brought up to learn and to love the words of the prayer book. For those who need to or simply wish to know more about the BCP in its many forms a new book , The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer, should be a boon.
This magnificent contribution to liturgical study has just been published by Oxford University Press in New York. You will find in it the answer to almost any question you can think of concerning the Book of Common Prayer from Cranmer?s first book in 1549 to the very latest variation in the province of Myanmar (Burma)! The editors have assembled contributions from almost every Anglican liturgist and many from outside the Anglican Communion. People who are ?household names? in the world of liturgical study have given of their best and, not least, the editors Charles Hefling and Cynthia L Shadduck have combed university libraries for illustrations from early books and significant quotations from books of different eras. A page from the first prayer book in Irish which made a significant contribution to the way the Irish language was reproduced on paper for several centuries is just one of these.
Canon Brian Mayne, editor of the Church of Ireland?s Book of Common Prayer, which was published by Columba Press in 2004, and Bishop Harold Miller, Chairman of the Liturgical Advisory Committee, wrote the articles on the Book of Common Prayer in the Church of Ireland, the latter giving an account of the 2004 edition and the forty year lead in to that. Very useful articles survey the main areas of Anglican worship concerns following the twentieth century liturgical movement world-wide. Significant articles on the future of ?fixed? liturgies in the world of desk-top and internet publishing. ensure that readers are made aware of issues just beginning to be faced. 400 tightly packed pages will give hours and hours of informative reading.
The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer. A World-wide Survey, has been published by Oxford University Press, New York, at $45
Today (Saturday) the Bishop of Cork, the Rt Revd Paul Colton, will be in Cardiff where, following his studies in canon law, he will be conferred with the LLM degree of the University of Wales. Afterwards, in Cardiff Law School, he will deliver the John Lewis Memorial Lecture. In Belfast the Rt Revd Edward Darling, will mark the 50th anniversary of his ordination by presiding at a celebration of the Eucharist in St John?s Church, Malone, at 10,30 am. The address will be given by Bishop Samuel Poyntz and the gospel will be read by Canon James Moore who was ordained on the same day as Bishop Darling.In Co. Carlow there will be an Open Air Youth Service in the grounds of the ancient church of Aghowle, near Tullow, where the preacher will be the Cashel & Ossory Youth Officer, the Revd Philip Heak.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, will take part in the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. In the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Cashel, at 7.30pm, the Rt Revd Michael Burrows will be enthroned as Bishop of Cashel at Evensong which will be sung by the Clerks Choral of St Mary?s Collegiate Church, Youghal, directed by Ian Sexton.