Worship Times

BCP revision

There is talk of revising the American Book of Common Prayer (BCP). The BCP is ten years younger than the Roman Missal but just after the BCP was published in 1979, some critics noted that it did not address issues such as ethnicity, class and gender inclusiveness. The Episcopal Church has been studying a series of þSupplementary Liturgical Materialsþ that can be incorporated into the BCP. The Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church in the United States recommended that the BCP be replaced. The commission gave no formal plan but suggested a detailed revision plan might be submitted in three years. The commission also recommended including several new commemorations in the American BCP Calendar. These include Julia Chester Emery, Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Macrina, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ignatius of Loyola, Paul Jones, Alexander Crummell, Hildegard and Thomas Becket. The commissionþs full report can be viewed on the internet at www.dfms.org/governance/general-convention/SLC-1.html.

Point, counterpoint

Cardinal Joseph Ratzingerþs belief that the reform of the liturgy has caused þextremely serious damageþ (Worship Times, ML 24:6) puts him at odds with Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee.In the June 7 issue of America, Weakland claims that it was the decision of Pope John Paul II to allow the useof the Tridentine Mass that þtotally derailed the liturgical renewal.þ Weakland said many people are now under the impression that the Tridentine rite carries equal status with the current Roman rite. þNot only was the liturgical renewal of the council called into question,þ said Weakland, þThe impression was created that, with sufficient protest, the whole of Vatican Council II could be reversed.þ Weaklandþs comments did not directly address Ratzingerþs contentions, but the America editors gave a summary of the cardinalþs thoughts as an introduction to Weaklandþs article.

Greeley gripes

Archbishop Weakland is not the only one objecting to the Tridentine Mass. Andrew Greeley recently wrote to the editors of The Wall Street Journal saying the old rite was þboring.þ Greeley was responding to an editorial in which the Journal favorably reviewed a New York exhibit of religious artifacts from the Middle Ages. The editors commented on þthe mystical Latin Mass whose transcendent glow lifted one up out of everyday life.þ Greeley found this to be þarrogant nonsenseþ and cited the statistic that 87 percent of American Catholics like the current Roman rite liturgy better than the old Latin Mass.