Heritage: A Tale of Two Books

A.J. Pell is the rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Diocese of New
Westminster, British Columbia.

Prayers are familiar parts of Christians’ lives. For Anglicans, prayer
often means the personal or public use of one or more prayers from an
authorized book of worship. For four centuries that book was evolving
editions of The Book of Common Prayer. In the past decade, the BCP has
been joined, and sometimes supplanted, by The Book of Alternative
Services in Canada. The existence of two parallel service books has
created tensions, for there are differences in language (Elizabethan vs.
contemporary), service structures, and views of the secular world.

Herbert O’Driscoll, currently a visiting professor at St. George’s
College, Jerusalem, has chosen to use Heritage as a way both to
strengthen the prayer life of Canadian Anglicans and to offer his own
insights into a possible and constructive future for Anglican worship
books in this country. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1
focuses on 21 prayers, or parts of prayers, from the BCP. Part 2 does
the same for an equal number from the BAS. In each section, O’Driscoll
quotes a particular prayer and then provides commentary and exposition.
The tone is part devotional, part instructional.

“A Tale of Two Books,” a 15-page essay, is the final section. Here
O’Driscoll outlines the “common prayer” heritage, notes the
differences in the context in which each book was composed, and talks of
the current use of BAS and BCP in Canadian Anglicanism. The essay closes
with a quiet, realistic plea for a new BCP that will include rites
evolved from both existing books, so that the Anglican Church of Canada
may once more have a single book of worship that will allow for
diversity and unite at the same time.