A Corporate Act of Prayer

Members of the Society are encouraged to join together in saying the following Collect

at the same time in their own homes, at 10.00 p.m. each Sunday evening.

THE COLLECT OF THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITYO LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend

thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy

succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© The Prayer Book Society 2011.

Individual articles are © the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in

any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Editor, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the

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Issue No 27 · Michaelmas 2011 ISSN 1479-215X

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Editorial 3

The Importance of Evensong Alan Wilson 6

Evensong, the most used part of the Book of Common Prayer and largely untouched by the liturgical

reforms of the past 40 years is the subject of Bishop Alan Wilson’s contribution in this issue. His

article reflects how Evensong continues to inspire and support some of our culture’s most

sophisticated musical endeavours.

The Formative Role of the Book of Common Prayer (part 2) Jeff Astley and Bridget Nichols 8

In the second part of their article the authors raise some challenging questions, forcing us to come

out and say in what way does the Prayer Book engage a Christian community in their faith?

The Prayer Book I Own Jane Moth 13

PBS member Jane Moth shares her memories of the value of the BCP from childhood to the present

day. Like so many lovers of the Prayer Book she has found it of great comfort.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEConference Report 14

Letters 20

Book Review 23

News from the Branches 24

3

Contents

Corrigendum In the last issue, we stated that

the BCP ‘iPray’ iPhone app was

developed by the Prayer Book

Society of Canada. This was not

correct: the app was, in fact,

designed in the USA, and was

the brainchild, not of the Prayer

Book Society, but of Mr David

Hill from Oklahoma City. Mr

Hill and his wife, Shannon, say

Morning and Evening Prayer on

a daily basis with their six

children, and realised that such

an app would make this more

convenient.

Is your church preparing for the 350th

anniversary celebrations of the 1662 Book of

Common Prayer in 2012? This is a wonderful

opportunity to highlight the BCP (our national

book of prayer). Do make use of the Society’s

network of Branches in each of the dioceses. Ask

your clergy what plans they have to mark this very

special anniversary in your parish church, school

and within your community. It is hoped that every

parish in the country will stage a series of

additional BCP services some time in 2012 to

mark the occasion. Let your community know

what you are doing. Consult this site

www.bcp350.com it will give you more

information of this very special event in the life of

the Church.

I warmly welcome the comments by The Rt.

Revd Jonathan Gledhill Bishop of Lichfield, urging

a return to Morning Prayer and Matins, which he

believes will help stem the decline in church

attendance. There is a lot of truth in what he says.

I do hope members of the General Synod and

Liturgical Commission are listening.

What does the BCP do for you?

This is a question we should all be asking ourselves

and not leaving it to the clergy. Let it be known that

you want more Prayer Book services. Bring the

BCP alive in your community and it will bring the

community to life. Because of the spiritual nature

of its impact on listeners, the memorable words of

the BCP can help build up faith. Take godly action

and the Holy Ghost will do the rest. Be ready in a

spirit of love to use the Prayer Book and help avoid

any further fracture of Anglican brokenness. The

PBS is willing and able to provide support in your

efforts to promote the BCP in your community.

If the brokenness facing the church today is not

healed, more people will experience the bitter

taste of the fruits of apostasy and division. With

largesse God has provided a banquet of spiritual

food to revive the human spirit, but this generous

gift has not always been acknowledged or is often

refused. Indeed, a conspiracy of interruption has

caused men to give less time to seeking God and to

pray; many minds have become polluted by the

desire for secular gains. But it is not too late. If men

will change their hearts and turn to God, His

teachings reveal that He will deal mercifully with

all. Let the BCP guide you. It is still a light shining

in a dark place.

Numerous factors influence faith and going to

church, but none as searching as the growing

influence of postmodernity (a puzzling reality

indeed). A number of people seem to be held sway

by it. There is then the widespread use of

computers which has invaded our space, yet at the

same time enhanced the free diffusion of a wealth

of knowledge. We live in an intellectual and

spiritual marketplace, reasonably accessible, but

lacking teachers and collective wisdom,

interpretation becomes a private matter. There is

the danger that this leaves out a relationship with

the divine and so people focus on this life only.

Society may be embroiled in postmodernity, but

those who love God know that the word of the

Lord ‘endures forever’ and no amount of the

multilayered concepts of post-modernism is going

to change that.

If the BCP is not to be side-lined any further and

the Christian disciple is not to get side-tracked by

today’s market forces, there is only one answer:

focus on God’s redemptive design – the Cross -

which leads the aspirant to God and through this

revelation learn of the deeper meaning of God’s

love: the soul’s true joy.

William Doyle

Editorial

4

Buy a copy of the Book of Common

Prayer for only £5!

In order to increase the availability of Prayer Books to

individuals and to help ensure that no-one wishing to

purchase a copy is deterred by the cost, the Society has

agreed to make single copies of the standard pew

edition available through PBS Trading at a subsidised

cost of £5 (normal price £8.30). The books are available

with your choice of red, blue or black cover, and can be

obtained by contacting the PBS office (contact details

inside front cover).

Please note that this offer is available for a maximum

of one copy of the standard pew edition per person; if

you wish to purchase more than one copy, the standard

price of £8.30 applies. (If you are buying large numbers

of copies, e.g. for use in a parish church, a bulk discount

may be available; please contact the PBS office for

details.)

Article omitted because online copyright expired.

6

The Importance of EvensongAlan Wilson

7

Plans are well advanced for a raft of celebrations

to mark the 350th anniversary of the 1662

Book of Common Prayer; not only the

Church’s founding liturgy but also its official

doctrine.

Nationally, the Society is delighted to announce

that one of the highlights of next year’s celebration

will be a service of Evensong in St Paul’s Cathedral

with our Ecclesiastical Patron, the Bishop of London,

at 5.00 p.m. on Wednesday, 2nd May 2012, followed

by a reception in the crypt. It is hoped that our

Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales, will be present to

make it a really special occasion.

Details of how to attend the public service and

purchase tickets to the grand reception will be sent

to all members in due course. We look forward to

seeing as many of you as possible there to join with

us in celebrating such an important year for the Book

of Common Prayer and for our Society. Please save

the date in your 2012 diaries, and spread the word

to others who may be interested in coming.

The special anniversary website

(www.bcp350.org) continues to be popular, with

new pages being added as we approach the start of

2012 celebrations around the country. There are now

links to social media sites: Facebook, and Twitter

(where we are @bcp350). Please ‘like us’ and ‘follow

us’, as the terminology goes, if you are active on

these networks and encourage others to do the same

as it is the perfect way for the Society to reach out to

a new audience and spread its message further.

Recently added to the website, under the

growing Supporters Page, are contributions from

both archbishops. Dr Williams speaks of the BCP as ‘a

profoundly valuable inheritance which we neglect at

our peril’, while Dr Sentamu prays that the Prayer

Book will ‘challenge us afresh to express the love and

grace of God, His glory and holiness, in words and

in forms which are worthy of the Gospel.’

We are receiving news almost weekly of events

being arranged by Branches. Full details are on the

PBS website and our Facebook page along with

information about the many cathedrals and parishes

which are also arranging their own festivities for the

2012 anniversary.

A specially-commissioned booklet has been

produced, telling the story of the BCP and its role in

defining not only the English language around the

globe, but also culture. The 18-page, full-colour,

publication has a cover price of £3.50 and will be

available from Copyhold Farm by late October. This

will be sent to all clergy listed in Crockford’s and

given away, free, at various events throughout the

year including the Christian Resources Exhibition

and at St Paul’s.

To accompany the booklet the Society is creating

a travelling exhibition. The series of lively panels has

already been promised space in many prominent

places, and will be widely seen throughout 2012. We

are discussing various venues including Lambeth

Palace Library.

Our Press Officer, Trevor Butler, is co-ordinating

much of the 2012 activity and would be delighted to

hear of your plans so he can promote them via the

websites and through press releases. His email is

pr@pbs.org.uk and evening telephone number

01444 239407.

350th Anniversary Commemorations

In the first part of this article (published in the last issue) we

raised a question about the power of liturgy to form Christian

worshippers.

PART 2

But does it work?

In the first part of this article (published in the last

issue) we raised a question about the power of

liturgy to form Christian worshippers. There is

little empirical research to help us in this area,1

although many assertions abound. In particular,

most agree that the Prayer Book models a

spirituality of obedience, penitence and self-

examination. It also facilitates a deep awareness of

the cross as central to salvation. It recalls for those

already baptised that ‘baptism doth represent unto

us our profession, which is to follow the example

of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto him.’

But what else does it do in terms of creating,

deepening and engaging a Christian community in

their faith?

Readers of this journal are likely to have strong

views on this topic, reflecting their own

experience and that of fellow worshippers. We

don’t want to disparage such ‘anecdotal evidence’.

Perhaps the Prayer Book Society itself should

gather this evidence, or even institute a more

scientific survey of the formative power of this

text. Such an enquiry might begin by asking what

aspects of Christian formation the Prayer Book

particularly effects. Reflections on this question

may lead to others: What sort of God does it

portray and celebrate? What sort of society and

Church does it endorse or assume? In a word,

what and how do we learn through praying with

the Prayer Book?

There are criticisms that those who answer such

questions need to bear in mind. How ‘common’ is

‘common prayer’? Does it still serve as an all-

embracing liturgy; or is it now (as its critics claim)

a middle class, family-unfriendly form of worship,

expressing an individualistic and moralistic

spirituality—and one that is too heavy on

listening, and too light on congregational speaking

and movement? Does its language still provide the

deepest and richest expression of what the

worshipper believes, and is it the idiom best able

to evoke it?

In 1985, Faith in the City, a Church of England

Report on Urban Priority Areas, suggested that

inner city communities, living in poverty and

often having a low level of literacy, benefited more

from a style of worship that reflected local culture

and communicated ‘through feeling rather than

the mind, through non-verbal communication

rather than verbal’. Such worship would be ‘more

informal and flexible in its use of urban language,

vocabulary, style and content’.2

Leaving aside the deeply patronising

assumptions of these well-intentioned proposals,

they reveal a startlingly limited view of the human

capacity to grasp complicated ideas. Religious

language, by which we mean not only words but

also gestures and choreography, is doing its job

properly when it engages the whole person,

finding its way to the intellect via the body and the

imagination. Success is not related to the antiquity

or contemporariness of the words and movements

which frame our prayers. Thus worshippers might

enter deeply into the picture of themselves as a

feudal household serving a benevolent and

protective master painted by the Prayer Book

collect for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity:

‘Lord, we beseech thee to keep thy household the

Church in continual godliness . . . .’

When confronted in Common Worship on the

Second Sunday before Lent with a post-

communion prayer rich in the kind of imagery

that the compilers of the Prayer Book would not

The Formative Role of the Book

of Common PrayerJeff Astley and Bridget Nichols

1 cf. Robert Cotton and Kenneth Stevenson, On the Receiving End, London: Mowbray, 1996

2 General Synod of the Church of England, Faith in the City, London: Church House Publishing, 1985, p. 135

8

Thou also shalt light my candle: the Lord myGod shall make my darkness to be light.

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10

have used, they might find themselves just as

profoundly caught up, yet by a very different

linguistic and literary appeal:

God our creator,

by your gift

the tree of life was set at the heart of the

earthly paradise,

and the bread of life at the heart of your

Church . . . .

The domestic and the mystical both exert their

claim on us, as do the familiar and the new. A

generation of worshippers who regularly

experience not only a variety of Eucharistic

prayers, but also a variety of seasonal proper

prefaces, will have their imaginations seized by a

series of beautiful retellings of the story of

salvation impossible in the Prayer Book Order for

Holy Communion. Yet a Prayer Book congregation

will find itself lingering time and again over the

mysterious nature of what they hear week by

week. Do we really find that ‘the burden of [our

sins] is intolerable’? What is that special and

precise characteristic of a God ‘whose property is

always to have mercy’, even when we know and

admit that we are unworthy creatures? What does

it mean to go away from the celebration assured

‘that we are very members incorporate in the

mystical body of [God’s] Son, which is the blessed

company of all faithful people’?

These examples do not even begin to take

account of the effect of worship songs and

projected images on those whose practice of

worship is not primarily governed by a text. What

they hope to indicate, however, is that to think of

the Prayer Book mainly as a repository of dignified

and beautiful language is to reduce it to a single

dimension, and almost wilfully to fossilise it.

Worship comes to life and reveals its potential to

form its participants, when it is performed.

On occasion, it can be extremely valuable to

reconstruct a historic rite in a building which

would have seen it enacted at an earlier period of

history. The Sarum Mass celebrated in an eleventh-

century parish church with proper reverence,

chants of the late Middle Ages, and good

preliminary explanation may carry a modern

congregation back to its earlier roots without

losing its devotional integrity. At the other end of

the spectrum, the 1552 Order of Communion in a

church with a surviving wooden communion

table set lengthwise in the nave or chancel,

whitewashed walls, and the priest in a surplice at

the north end can induct a congregation

powerfully into an austere yet intently focused

Eucharistic spirituality, with all the trappings of

image and colour stripped away from the central

gathering in obedience to Christ’s command.

But performance is not neutral. We noted earlier

the claims that have at various times been made for

the authentic intention of the Prayer Book and

indeed its rite has been inflated to resemble the

Roman Missal and deflated to look like the plainest

of Protestant documents. The use of gesture,

music, vestments, processions, images, incense

and candles can turn a Prayer Book service into

something that rivals Rome at its best. But where

the dress is surplice and stole, the church is

whitewashed, and the celebrant ‘north ends’, it

might seem and indeed would be an entirely

different creature. Both ways of performing the

rite express and therefore ‘teach’ something, but

there is little common ground between what is

taught in the two cases. Knowledge of our

traditions, of where we have come from, can make

sense of what we do and connect us in prayerful

continuity with those from whom we have

inherited our faith.

Something has gone badly wrong, however,

when the interpretation of the rite is being used to

enforce a set of interests that has little to do with

worship as the best offering of our best selves to

God, and a great deal to do with establishing our

rightness against the errors of others. Equally,

something has gone wrong when a practice is

adopted in order to teach a principle, and then

proves to be working against itself by sending

contradictory messages. Thus the practice of

‘gathering round the altar’ may be adopted

because it is hoped that this will ‘show that God is

in the centre of human concerns and that we are

all joined one to another’: the circle being seen as

‘communitarian and democratic’ whereas ranks of

eastward-facing worshippers imply ‘authority and

externality’. However:

the line facing east may just as well signify

open-endedness. A priest with his back to

the congregation may signify that both he

and they are subject to the divine

transcendence and judgement. Equally the

circle has symbolic disadvantages: the

people of God are all turned inward with

their backs to the world. If they are a circle,

how can they be en marche, en route? They have

lost their orientation and the external point

of reference to which they may move and to

which all things tend.1

Or so David Martin claims—plausibly, perhaps,

but without the benefit of rigorous, evidence-

based research.

Promoters of the Book of Common Prayer need

to be able to answer this final question: What

would really be lost from the Church’s Christian

formation if we lost the learning power released in

and through the prayer and worship that this book

provides? Is anything comparable to be found in

its successors, whose formational intention has

been very clearly articulated? Readers of this

journal may feel that they are in the best position

to provide a convincing answer.

The Revd Professor Jeff Astley is Director of the North of

England Institute for Christian Education, and an honorary

professor at Durham University. Dr Bridget Nichols is Lay

Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely, and Chairman of the Society for

Liturgical Study. She has recently been appointed to the

Liturgical Commission.

1 David Martin, The Breaking of the Image, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980, p. 98

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11

Continuum - winner of the 2011 IPG Independent Publishing Awards: Independent Publisher of the Year and Academic & Professional Publisher of the Year

The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and FutureA 350th Anniversary Celebration

Edited by Prudence Dailey - Chairman of the Prayer Book Society

Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales

The words of The Book of Common Prayer have worked their way deeply into the hearts and minds of English-speaking people, second only to the English Bible and the works of Shakespeare. This collection of essays seeks not only to explore and commemorate the Book of Common Prayer’s influence in the past but also to commend it for present use, and as an indispensable part of the Church’s future — both as a working liturgy and as the definitive source of Anglican doctrine.

Publishing Septe £12.99 (plus p&p)

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13

The Prayer Book I OwnJane Moth

Recently, at an antiques fair, I was intrigued by

two copies of the Book of Common Prayer,

both in immaculate ivory covers, each

bearing an inscription dated during the First World

War. One wonders about their owners and what the

Prayer Books meant to them. I acquired my copy of

the Book of Common Prayer at the age of sixteen. The

purpose of this article is to describe how the copy

came into my possession and the importance it has

had in my life in the forty plus years since then.

Like many of my contemporaries in the late 1950s,

I attended a Church of England Primary and Junior

School where the Rector made weekly Friday

morning visits and the Ten Commandments and the

Catechism were learned by heart. My parents were

believers, but not regular church goers. I recall that

we had a Bible in the house but certainly there was

no copy of the Prayer Book. As a child, I was happily

packed off to the local Methodist Sunday School each

Sunday afternoon but in adolescence I liked to go to

the Evensong in the parish church, whose graveyard

backed on to our garden. The beauty of the language,

the solemnity, the calm, all drew me in and made me

feel that I had found a ‘home’, though I was never

confirmed.

My mother, who was born in 1913, had me at the

age of 40, so even as a small child I accepted that my

mother’s friends were several generations removed

from me. One of these friends, Doris, ran the corner

sweet shop so I knew her all my life. When she

retired, I liked to go and visit her and hear her tales

of seeing Pavlova dance and Ferrier sing. Best of all to

listen to her word perfect recitals of the Abdication

Speech and Portia’s ‘The quality of mercy is not

strained’. Doris knew that I liked books and she must

have sensed that I had a respect for history and the

beauty of language. One day she disappeared into the

morning room and came back with a small book.

‘Have this,’ she said, ‘I know you will look after it.’ So

into my hands came the small black bound book

entitled ‘Common Prayer’, its pages brightly gilt

edged. Opposite the title page was an inscription in

brown ink:

This Prayer Book was used on the occasion of

the marriage of Francis Herbert Gordon Poole

and Martha Elizabeth Fenton on 22nd August

1906 and was presented to the bride and

groom by G. T. Birch (Rector) after the service

in St Mary’s Church, Bucknall.

So this was the Prayer Book that had been used at

the marriage of her parents-in-law. The same Rector

would later preside at my parents’ marriage in 1934.

Lengthy incumbencies seem to have been the norm

then.

I won’t pretend that the Prayer Book was my

regular study during the 1970s and 1980s, so it

remained in its pristine condition. Then in the

1990s, I found myself drawn to my then local parish

church, St James in Daisy Hill, near Bolton; a fine arts

and crafts church where the welcome was as warm

as the red brick. I’m sure that many readers will

recognise the importance of a good priest. How can

we fail to respond to well-ordered Prayer Book

services, crisp and intelligent preaching. So in time I

became a candidate for Confirmation and was

confirmed in 2000 and my Prayer Book came with

me to the service.

Since then, it has gone to church with me Sunday

by Sunday. I have read the commendatory Prayer for

a sick person at the point of departure at the bedside

of my dying mother. It has been my stay and comfort

when dear friends have died; I have taken it joyfully

to family weddings, including one at St Mary’s

Church where the story started. Anxious times, for

me and for others, have been greatly relieved by

reading and re-reading a Prayer for persons troubled

in mind or in conscience, and who cannot find joy

and consolation, in reading the Collects. The one for

the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity ‘Almighty and

everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear

than we pray,’ is a particular favourite because I think

it is all-encompassing and says what I suspect many

of us feel.

Does it seem wrong to say that a service conducted

from the Book of Common Prayer is a pleasure? I

hope not. Most recently, I attended a memorable

Evensong at Plumstead Church in Norfolk at the end

of an enchanting afternoon of church visiting

organised by the Round Tower Churches Society. It

was Palm Sunday and I felt transported back to the

Evensongs I had known and valued in my youth.

Shaking hands with the Vicar, he was heard to say,

‘We’re old fashioned here, but we don’t intend to

change.’ Well, my copy of the Prayer Book is old,

rather battered now, but I don’t intend to change it

either.

14

Prayer Book Society Annual Conference 2011

Prudence Dailey

This year’s Annual Conference took place in

mid-September at Chester College, founded

in 1839 as a Church of England Teacher

Training College but now part of the University of

Chester. The College chapel was built by some of

the early students with their own hands, and

proved to be an attractive venue for the many

Prayer Book services permeating the long weekend

of the Conference.

Following Evening Prayer, the Friday evening

speaker was the Rural Dean of Chester, the Revd Dr

Mark Hart, who is also the Chairman of the

Society’s Chester Branch. In an address

provocatively entitled ‘Here endeth the order of

Morning Prayer?’, he emphasised that the purpose

of a daily office is to hold us and keep us present

to God in prayer rather than to provide continual

interest and stimulation. The lack of variety in the

Prayer Book offices meant that they had the

capacity to be internalised, and it was then up to

God—rather than to the office itself—to provide a

sense of experience.

After dinner, the evening closed with Compline.

Saturday began with Morning Prayer and then,

after breakfast, the Revd Dr David Pym, a retired

priest with a number of published works on

literature and theology, covered the development

of the Litany from pre-Reformation times to 1662

(and beyond). He noted that Cranmer had drawn

on a number of sources from John Chrysostom to

Luther, but his main source had been the Sarum

Rite, with the many references to the saints

removed.

The conference then heard from the Revd John

Masding, canon lawyer, Chairman of the English

Clergy Association and Trustee of the Prayer Book

Society, who outlined some of the legal rights of

PCCs in relation to the use of the Book of Common

Prayer. In a talk full of amusing anecdotes, he also

said that the Book of Common Prayer was part of

an entire package with a legal background, and

that the credibility of supporters of the Prayer

Book depended on observing the law.

Saturday afternoon was taken up with the

necessary business of the Annual General Meeting,

John Scrivener (left) prepares to introduce Mark Hart

David Pym delivering his address

John Masding expands his point

after which Evensong no doubt provided light

relief. The service was sung by a visiting choir,

Accidental Baroque, and the Senior winner of the

2011 Cranmer Awards Finals, Phoebe Griffith,

beautifully read the second lesson. The Archdeacon

of Chester, the Ven Dr Michael Gilbertson,

preached a sermon concluding with the General

Thanksgiving which was, he said, his favourite

prayer.

The after-dinner speaker was the Revd Canon

Eric Woods, Vicar of Sherborne Abbey in Dorset

and a former Trustee of the PBS. He spoke on the

theme ‘A Parson’s lot’ which, for him, was

evidently a happy (if eventful) one. Compline

again rounded off the day.

On Sunday, following an early Holy Communion

service followed by breakfast, Professor David

Wulstan was the final speaker of the Conference. As

well as being professor of music at Cork and then

Aberystwyth, he was also visiting professor in

Near Eastern Studies at the University of

California, Berkeley, and his address on the Psalms

and Anglican chanting owed as much to his

interest in Semitic philology as to his musical

knowledge. Professor Wulstan’s address was

probably the first ever at a Prayer Book Society

conference to incorporate singing by the speaker!

Matins and Litany provided a fitting end to the

Conference, which was noted by a number of

participants to have had an especially friendly

atmosphere. Thanks are owed to all those who

made it possible, especially to Rosemary Hall for

organising the Conference; Peter Bolton for

arranging the programme and dealing with last-

minute hitches; and Nikki Sales for managing the

ever-popular PBS Trading Bookstall.

Prudence Dailey is Chairman of the Prayer Book Society

15

THE COLLEGEOF READERS

An organisation to provide members withsupport and fellowship, especially those whosubscribe to the authority of Scripture, thegrace of the sacraments and the traditionalunderstanding of the ordained ministry.

There is a quarterly magazine, “Blue Scarf”,occasional publications on aspects of Readerministry, a national AGM and meetings in theregions. Membership costs £10 annually.

Contact Mary Snape for further information. Tel 01782 332606;

mesnape@yahoo.co.uk

www.college-of-readers.org.uk

Conference-goers prepare for worship in the College chapel

16

At the Annual General Meeting in September, the

Revd Dr Roger Beckwith and Mr Ian Robinson

retired from the Board of Trustees (although Dr

Beckwith continues as a Vice-President of the

Society). We are most grateful to both of them for

their valuable contribution.

The following were elected to the Board of

Trustees to fill the resulting vacancies:

Mr Paul Meitner, 51, is the new Regional Trustee

for the South East Region (replacing the Revd Paul

Thomas who remains on the Board as Deputy

Chairman, but has relinquished his Regional

responsibilities). A qualified Chartered Accountant

and member of the PBS for five years, Paul Meitner

has been actively involved as Vice Chairman and

Treasurer of the London & Southwark Branch for

the last two years. At Edinburgh University he read

Economics and Economic History and on

graduation joined Deloitte Haskins & Sells, later

incorporated into PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP

(PwC), where he qualified as a Chartered

Accountant in 1986. He currently works in the

Business Recovery Services division of PwC,

specialising in solvent liquidations and group

reorganisations, as well as advising charities and

companies in the not for profit sector. Outside

work he has been a Churchwarden at Holy Trinity,

Prince Consort Road, South Kensington (near the

Albert Hall) for the last six years, which included

two interregna with no resident Priest in Charge.

He is also Treasurer and a Trustee of Music in

Prisons, a registered charity that provides music

training and workshops to inmates at UK prisons.

Mr David Richardson, 67, has been a member of

the PBS since 2006 and has served as Vice

Chairman of the Carlisle Branch since 2009. He is

Churchwarden of Kendal Parish Church.

His career was in higher education, first in

administration and later in fundraising. He was a

member of staff of the University of Manchester

for over thirty years. Posts which he held included

those of Deputy Registrar, Academic Secretary and

Secretary to the University Foundation. He was

one of the initial Directors of the University’s

support foundation in the USA, and has a track

record of success in securing major gifts. He

continued in a post-retirement role with the

University, as Senior Development Fellow in the

Division of Development and Alumni Relations,

until earlier this year.

He has extensive experience in charity

governance at both national and local level. He has

been a member of the Board of Trustees of the

Alzheimer’s Society since 2006 and chairs the

Board’s advisory group on fundraising. He is

much in demand as a speaker on behalf of the

Society. He is currently Chairman of the Cumbria

Council for Voluntary Service, and is also a

Director of South Lakes Housing.

New Trustees David Richardson (left) and Paul Meitner (right)

Hail and Farewell

PBS Chairman Prudence Dailey with retiring Trustees Ian

Robinson (left) and Roger Beckwith (right).

Welcome back, John!

Following an open recruitment process, we are

pleased to announce the appointment of Mr John

Service to the part-time post of Prayer Book

Churches and Clergy Co-ordinator, to help develop

the Society’s work with churches and clergy

having a particular commitment to the Book of

Common Prayer.

John will be well-known to many in the

Society, having previously held various offices,

including as Honorary Treasurer for a number of

years, and subsequently as a Trustee and the

Society’s voluntary Chief Executive. He was

responsible for establishing an administrative

office in his home in Goring Heath (which, when

it was subsequently deemed necessary to have

separate premises, moved to the nearby Copyhold

Farm in order to enable our experienced part-time

office staff to be retained). John subsequently lost

contact with the Society, and we are delighted to

have him back on board, bringing with him a

wealth of experience and enthusiasm.

Anyone wishing to get in touch with John can

find his contact details in the inside front cover of

the magazine.

17

18

The Marketing and Communications Committee

agreed that the Society should attend the Christian

Resources Exhibition (CRE)— the country’s major

Christian exhibition—taking place at Sandown

Park from 10th–13th May 2011, with a view to

promoting the 1662 BCP’s forthcoming 350th

anniversary.

An evangelical clergyman sympathetic to the

Prayer Book’s values, and who has considerable

marketing expertise, was enlisted to advise on

display materials, special literature, promotional

give-aways and the key messages to be promoted.

He recommended emphasis be put on the BCP’s

solid Biblical connection and to focus on key facts,

including that the BCP is used for thousands of

services each week, that it contains services for

every occasion, that it the foundational doctrinal

document of Anglicanism, and that it is all

available online on the Church of England website.

He also suggested featuring some immediately

recognisable phrases which come from the BCP.

Fabric panels were created to ‘dress’ the exhibition

stand where we handed out promotional

bookmarks with key bullet-points about the BCP

on the reverse (rather than leaflets, which people

often just throw away), and gave

away small packets of mints

suitably emblazoned with the

message ‘The 1662 Book of Common

Prayer: Still in mint condition after 350

years’. All were well received.

Snapshots from two of the days at CRE:

Tuesday: The exhibition’s opening day...

our modest stand, located in ‘publishing

corner’ alongside SPCK and CUP, was

quickly full of literature stands, tables

and chairs and the first day provided some

serious supporters who wanted to linger

and discuss the finer points of the BCP.

The Society Press Officer, Trevor Butler,

noticed that there was a considerably

larger and unoccupied stand on a main

thoroughfare through the Surrey Hall. Swift negotiation with

the exhibition organisers allowed the PBS to move, lock stock

and barrel, ready for the start of day two. The recent launch of

the App for the Prayer Book on the move was warmly received

and our Chairman used her own iPhone to demonstrate it to

several interested parties.

Thursday: Our much busier position meant that many moregracefully accepted information about the Society along withtheir pack of 350th anniversary mints and commemorativeCranmer bookmark. Several new members were recruited,including one from South Africa, and the stand staff met manyold friends. The free wallcharts proved immensely popular andCopyhold Farm had to send fresh supplies. Back numbers of boththe Journal and Faith and Worship were taken by interestedparties, while sales of merchandise were steady, with the 1549and 1552 Prayer Books of Edward VI among the most popularitems, along with the Matins CD. Several clergy stopped by andwere persuaded to mark the anniversary in their churches.

Over the four days of the exhibition we engagedwith hundreds of potential supports whom weotherwise would not have reached. This was downto the diligent work of the volunteers whomanned the stand, including a clergy PBS membereach day. We look forward to repeating the exercisein 2012.

The PBS at the ChristianResources Exhibition

PBS Chairman Prudence Dailey encourages a visitor to celebrate the BCP 350th

anniversary in 2012

Working for a Biblical

Church of England

Church Society exists to promote and encourage biblical faithfulness in the Church

of England. We aim to do this through:

Publishing, Patronage, Campaigning

Church Society publishes the magazine Cross†Way and the journal Churchman, as well as

publishing literature on current issues. Church Society Trust is patron of 118 churches.

We seek to be a voice for biblical Anglicanism

as issues in the church and nation arise.

For more details please contact: Church Society, Dean Wace House,

16 Rosslyn Road, Watford, WD18 ONY Tel. 01923 235111 Fax. 01923 800362

admin@churchsociety.org

www.churchsociety.org

LettersMay I heartily commend the Chairman’s excellent

article ‘Prayer Book Weddings: not just for Royalty’

in the Trinity edition of the PBS Journal. It so

succinctly describes the battle I am having with my

Diocesan management who seem to think the very

mention of the possibility of offering any

‘traditional’ wedding service to prospective couples

immediately involves the ‘fornication, brute beasts

and carnal lusts’ theme. I am struggling with my

Benefice administration to even have ‘there are

alternatives to Common Worship’ included on our

website.

As a churchwarden / verger I was attending a

wedding rehearsal in our village parish church on

the eve of the Royal wedding; and all seemed well.

After the actual wedding itself, the bride and groom

asked why the ‘words’ had been different at

Westminster Abbey the day before. I answered it was

because they had chosen their service to be

Common Worship. ‘What choice?’ was the reply. Last

month, at the Archdeacon’s Visitations, I noticed a

‘collared’ minion handing out what appeared to be

a new pack of Wedding Services. When asked if I

could have one I was told, ‘We’ve given them out to

your Benefice already; if we gave one to you

everyone would want one.’ When I enquired if

alternative forms of service were included, I was

confronted by the usual ‘Oh we don’t want today’s

couples referred to as brute beasts &c.’ Of what are

they frightened ? Today’s clergy seem absolutely

terrified of any reference to the BCP or even its

successors, that the counter-revolution will return

us to pre-Reformation Dark Ages. Would that it

might, perhaps, in some circumstances !!

John R. Wesley Lt Cdr RD RNR

Committee Member & Branch Representative,

Winchester & Portsmouth Branch

Memorable Phrases

It is easy to overlook the fact that Cranmer, like

Tyndale and Coverdale, was writing for the illiterate.

They knew that what they were writing would be

heard by many more than would be able to read it.

Cranmer writing texts, many of which were to be

repeated after the reader or to be responses to a

verbal prompt, could have had no doubt that his

phrases had to be memorable, had to capture

cadences of the English language that ‘sang’ in the

mind.

Since long passages from the Scriptures were an

integral part of the Reformation liturgies the

translators must have been no less aware of the need

for this property. We can accept that their motive to

write was spiritual given that the works they were

translating are exhortatory; but they would be less

than human as creative writers if they had not also

wanted a text that they knew would be heard and

attended to, even if only occasionally, to be

remembered by the hearers for its own sake.

We can safely assume that they were aware, as

many contemporary liturgists seem not to be, of

how dependent on the memorability of key phrases

and passages is the longevity of orally transmitted

tales, and aphorisms. If having a remembered access

to crucial concepts is religiously valuable, then this

holds as true of the literate reader or hearer as of the

illiterate.

In our literate society the most easily accessible

evidence of the value to understanding of

internalising passages, occurs when reading stories

to children. Little children as listeners do not want

variations or interpolations, they want to hear the

story you read to them yesterday in exactly the same

words that you used yesterday. They have worked to

understand what they have heard and want that

understanding confirmed.

For millennia, folk tales and ritual passed orally

from one generation to the next. Humans are hard

wired to react to remembered verbal prompting.

One can understand the attraction to today’s clergy

of using their computers to create new orders of

service. Their writing leads one to believe, however,

that they do not place importance on the rôle of

repetition and poetic memorability in shaping recall

and thus behaviour.

Writing memorably is not a common skill,

especially when you know that the hearer cannot

refer to the written word. We cannot overestimate

the remarkable poetic ability of Cranmer and those

he worked from and with to create phrases and

whole passages that when heard regularly live in the

mind, and can be summoned to service when

apposite to some event in the hearer’s life.

Maurice Vassie, York Branch Committee Member

A Benedictus sermon

A visit to a Book of Common Prayer church in

London on my summer holiday made me realise

20

what a superb sermon Archbishop Thomas

Cranmer’s liturgical masterpiece is.

The Revd Michael Neville, the Anglican

evangelical vicar of St Simon Zelotes in Chelsea, was

doing a sermon series on the biblical canticles in the

Prayer Book.

That morning he preached magnificently on the

Benedictus and showed clearly that its central

message is the glory of God’s salvation through the

remission of sins achieved by the Lord for whom

John the Baptist was going to prepare the way—

Jesus Christ.

Mr Neville pointed out that the placing of the the

Benedictus at the end of the set readings from both

the Old and New Testament in the BCP service of

Morning Prayer is highly significant. Cranmer was

thus intentionally proclaiming the fact that the

crowning message of Holy Scripture is God’s gift of

eternal salvation by his forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

With alternative gospels on offer in the modern

Church—salvation through socio-

political action or therapeutic

spirituality or emotionally-charged

worship—that is a sermon I was very

thankful to hear.

Julian Mann

The Revd J.F.E. Mann is vicar of the Parish

Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South

Yorkshire. He is an occasional columnist for the

Church of England Newspaper and blogs as

Cranmer’s Curate.

Thank you

Sir, may I, through these columns, thank

all those who sent cards, letters and

memorial donations following Kate’s

death and those who attended her

funeral. These categories exceed three

hundred in total and it is too big a task

to write to everyone individually. Please

be assured that the generality of this

acknowledgement in no way

diminishes its sincerity.

Such support at a sad time is greatly

appreciated and goes to show that the

PBS is not just a pressure group but truly

a Society, even a ‘Big Society’ to use the

current phrase.

Neil Inkley

21

The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662

1Purchase at www.oup.com

om.cpu.ot wwwe asahurcP

1

1

CHRISTMAS ISCOMING ...

.. . and you still have time to order your PBSChristmas cards, if you haven’t alreadydone so. But please don’t delay, as somedesigns are selling out fast.

If you have mislaid your Christmas cardleaflet, please contact the PBS Office(details inside front cover) for another copy.Alternatively, the leaflet can bedownloaded from the PBS website,www.pbs.org.uk. (Please note, however,that it is not possible to order the cardsonline, because orders are handled by athird party distributor which does notprovide an online ordering facility.)

Mrs Kate Inkley

We are sad to report the

death of Mrs Kate

Inkley, wife of Neil

Inkley, on Thursday,

26th May. In addition to

his role as the long-

standing Secretary of

the Blackburn Branch,

Neil has also previously

served as a Vice-

Chairman of the Society and as Chairman of the

Branches’ Representative Council, in all of which

Kate was a stalwart support.

Miss Nada Pobjoy

The death is announced of Miss Nada Pobjoy who

was for a brief period in 1997 the Hon Secretary

(nationally) of the PBS Society before ill-health

caused her to resign. Her funeral took place at the

Church of All Saints, Pavement, York on Thursday

28th July.

Miss Pobjoy was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire.

She had a colourful career as a singer at Covent

Garden though also spending some years in South

Africa where her father—formerly of the

Community of the Resurrection—had been a

Canon of Grahamstown and Rural Dean of East

London. On first retiring from the Opera House

she became an active assistant to Mrs Margot

Thompson in dealing centrally with voluminous

PBS correspondence. For a very brief period in

1997 Nada, who was then living in West London,

became the Society’s Hon Secretary but family

affairs intervened and this national role was taken

over by Mrs Elaine Bishop. In later life Nada Pobjoy

returned to Yorkshire and was for a time a member

of the PBS Branch in York. At her funeral service the

Society was officially represented by Mr Alan

Harding.

Basil Mitchell

A notable supporter of the PBS campaign to retain

the Prayer Book, Professor Basil Mitchell died in

June 2011 aged 94. A former Nolloth Professor of

the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford

University he made clear where he stood in the

Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties in the

differences between the trendy ‘modernizers’ in

the Synod and the upholders in university circles of

traditional liturgical expression. Recruited to our

side by Professor the Rev David Martin he was an

absolute gem when we sought to devise and

present a major, formal case for the traditional

liturgy to the Liturgical Commission.

On 1st November 1991 an all-day meeting was

held in a House of Lords Committee Room

comprising a high-powered group of academics

and others that I had invited (thanks to a booking

of the accommodation in the names of Lord

Sudeley and the Earl of Lauderdale). Over a break

for lunch in the Peers Dining Room Professor

Mitchell (at the suggestion of Professor Martin)

agreed to draft our Submission. Its text was

thereafter endorsed by the PBS Finance & General

Purposes Committee during a residential weekend

spent at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park

and in a subsequent meeting at Northwood. The

Submission also received the blessing of the

Society’s Executive Council being delivered to the

Commission in February 1992. It is worth noting

that the Submission was considered at all four

meetings of the Commission in 1992 and was not

only published as GS 407 but also as a glossy

version published on the Synod’s behalf.

Basil Mitchell who was born during the First

World War in April 1917 served on the Doctrine

Commission from 1978 to 1984 At his local

parish church he always insisted on reading the

lesson from the King James Bible (AV) pointing out

that had St Paul written in English he would never

have begun 2 Corinthians 5 :19 with “What I

mean is…” (as the NEB has it) rather than with

“To wit …”

Anthony Kilmister

Obituaries

22

William Aldis Wright, The Bible Word-Book,

Cambridge University Press

IBSN 978 1 108 02464 8

William Aldis Wright (1831–1914) held various

posts at Cambridge, worked on the Revised Version

of the Bible, and wrote on literary and philological

subjects. The present volume, first published in

1884, is a facsimile of the second edition of a book

begun by Jonathan Eastwood, which Wright

completed and revised. The word ‘facsimile’ may

arouse fears of imperfect reproduction and print

which is difficult to the eye, but in fact modern

methods have transformed the process and the text

is highly readable.

The full title deserves quotation for those who

love the Prayer Book as well as the Authorised

Version: A Glossary of Archaic Words and Phrases in the

Authorised Version of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer.

The books of the Apocrypha are included, usefully

since they offer some alternative readings in the

Lectionary and are now more generally valued

than they have been in the past.

This is not simply a glossary giving modern

equivalents. Its great strength is the supply of

quotations from writers of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries. We may think that we know

our way through the language of the traditional

versions of the Bible and the liturgy. We have no

difficulty with words like ‘prevent’ in the sense of

‘go before’, or ‘indifferently’ as ‘impartially’. But

do we always respond to the significance of

‘comfort’, ‘confound’, ‘magnify’ which have a

deeper meaning beneath their apparent

familiarity? If we refer to this extended glossary, it

will prevent us (in the modern sense) from

reading carelessly or indifferently (also in the

modern sense).

We may also find it useful in explaining the

older texts to those who are genuinely, or

sometimes maliciously, confused by

them—today including many clergy. For

example. there is plenty of evidence that

‘which’ was frequently used for people,

that Shakespeare and others used ‘let’

meaning to hinder, and ‘castaway’ for an

outcast. No one has suggested that

Shakespeare’s plays should be rewritten without a

single word in them that is not current

conversational usage—although anything might

yet happen. Critics who say that the traditional

religious register of English is inaccessible today

might pause to reflect on the ability of people to

pick up a new vocabulary of words for using the

computer and other new means of

communication. The language of worship is a

barrier only for those who make it so: as Hamlet

says in another connection, ‘The readiness is all.’

With 678 pages of text this is a worthy

memorial to the knowledge and painstaking work

of a Victorian scholar. Admittedly a Cambridge don

was free from the demands of domestic life, but

consider that this and all books of the time were

written by hand without any mechanical aid, and

then printed from the manuscript. Use this book,

and banish excuses for our own laziness and the

objections of hostile critics of the traditional Bible

and Prayer Book.

Raymond Chapman

Review

23

Bristol

400th Anniversary of the

Authorised Version

Although not entirely under the

auspices of the Prayer Book Society,

Christ Church with St Ewen, in

central Bristol, a church where the

1662 Prayer Book is exclusively

used, was the scene of a mammoth

Bible reading session from the

4th–8th July, 2011, to mark the

400th anniversary of the King James

Bible. The Authorised Version was

read aloud in totality by relays of

readers, non-stop, day and night,

over this 4-day period. 200

volunteers shared the reading, many

of them doing so through the small

hours.

The priest-in-charge, the Revd

Richard Hoyal, initiated the venture,

thought to be the only such event in

the diocese, assisted by Mrs

Margaret Dymond, who sent out

300 emails in the course of her

organization. The congregation of

Christ Church, many of them Prayer

Book Society members, played a

large part in the process, not only as

readers but also as stewards and

providers of refreshments.

Amongst the readers were the

Lord Mayor of Bristol, the Dean and

the Archdeacon of Bristol, the

Bishop of Swindon, and the

Archdeacon of Malmesbury.

David Sansum

Chelmsford

Over 80 supporters of the Prayer

Book gathered at the Church of St

Francis of Assisi in Barkingside, to

enjoy a rousing service of Choral

Evensong and to hear the Bishop of

Chelmsford speak enthusiastically

about the liturgy of the Book of

Common Prayer. The Rt Revd

Stephen Cottrell reminded us of the

glorious story of the first Easter

morn, and how magically it was

recorded for us in both the

wonderful cadences of the King

James Bible, 400 years old this year,

and in the insurmountable liturgy

of Cranmer’s prayer book. The Vicar

of St Francis, Father Andrew Fenby,

led the worship and the PBS is

grateful to him for the use of the

church.

The Prayer Book Society’s

Chelmsford Branch annual service

was highly musical, in the capable

hands of the church’s organist,

Helen Kerr-Wallace, and the day’s

choirmaster, John F.G. Pettifer, who

is a PBS member. The service began

with a processional voluntary, Byrd’s

‘The Earl of Salisbury’, and Vaughan

Williams’s introit ‘O taste and see

how gracious the Lord is’, a setting

of verse eight of Psalm 34. The

anthem was Bruckner’s popular

‘Locus iste’.

After the service Bishop Stephen

Cottrell took time to speak to

regular members of the church

congregation and to PBS members

who had travelled for the Branch

event. He met PBS Trustee Nicholas

Hurst, who is a Churchwarden at St

Francis, and Mrs Connie Hardcastle

who, at 95, is the oldest regular

worshipper there. He also enjoyed

the wonderful tea which had been

provided by the events team at St

Francis.

Next year, for the 350th

anniversary of the BCP, the bishop

has kindly agreed to host a special

service in Chelmsford cathedral and

has sent us his support for the vital

role the Prayer Book has within the

Church. ‘The Church of England has

always believed that we learn and

express our doctrine through our

worship,’ he says. ‘The Book of

Common Prayer, therefore, does not

just contain beautiful liturgy, it is

the finest expression of what we

believe. Through its language our

faith is shaped . . . because of it I

know that I can come to the Lord,

not trusting in my own

righteousness, but in God’s

manifold goodness. As we pray it,

the words become our own and

faith is grown within us.’

Chichester

Copies of the 1662 Book of

Common Prayer were presented to

each of the twenty-one Ordinands

made Deacon in Chichester

Cathedral in the special St Petertide

Service on 25th June. They were

joined by the Secretary of the

Guildford Branch, John Fox-

News from the Branches

24

Bishop Stephen Cottrell with the choir and music director, PBS member John Pettifer

25

Reynolds, ahead of the scheme

being expanded to cover Surrey.

The Branch Chairman, the Revd

George Butterworth (Vicar of

Saltdean) reminded those

assembled, who also included 20

Deacons soon to be ordained Priest,

of the Prayer Book’s strong Biblical

roots and how it is as relevant to the

Church today as it was 350 years

ago.

He drew a parallel with Moses:

just as Moses was given the tools for

his ministry (the Ten

Commandments, together with

God’s authority to speak), so the

copies of the Prayer Books that

candidates were given were for their

tool box as deacons.

The Reverend George

Butterworth, vicar of Saltdean, has

been elected chairman of the PBS

Chichester Branch, taking over from

Canon Donald Johnson who had

been Chairman for nearly 20 years.

Before the Branch AGM, a service of

BCP Holy Communion was held in

the parish church of St Nicholas in

Saltdean on the feast day for the

Apostle St Barnabas.

In his sermon, Father George

suggested that the many Prayer

Book Society members present

would do well to follow the

example of Barnabas in their calling

to promoting the 1662 Book of

Common Prayer, and to remind the

modern church of its deep Biblical

roots.

Coventry

Our AGM and Annual Supper

Meeting took place in the historic

village hall, Aston Cantlow, on 6th

July. Good food and friendly

company made the evening a

resounding success.

The speaker for this occasion was

the Revd Dr Clifford Owen, who

gave us fascinating insights into his

ministry as an Anglican Chaplain in

Corfu, Ostend and Bruges and his

use of the BCP.

Alan Lyne

Ely

A Prayer Book for the Bishop of Ely

On Monday July 4th, Prayer Book

Society Members gathered together

with the local congregation at St

Andrew’s Church, Old Chesterton,

Cambridge, for a special service of

Choral Evensong, in celebration of

the Book of Common Prayer, and of

the King James Bible in its

anniversary year.

The service was led by the vicar,

Nick Moir, in the presence of a

special guest, the Right Revd

Stephen Conway, newly installed

Bishop of Ely. The choir greatly

assisted the devotions with

Stanford’s Canticles and the anthem

‘O Thou the Central Orb’ by Woods,

and the lessons were read by PBS

Branch Treasurer Philip White and

Chairman Adam Dunning.

Towards the end of the service, Dr

Dunning presented the Bishop with

a most beautiful Prayer Book—a

desk-size edition in red binding and

bright gold page edges. This

wonderful and generous gift, signed

by national chairman Prudence

Dailey had been donated by an Ely

branch member. Bishop Stephen

was clearly delighted by the gesture

and spoke strongly about his

feelings for the liturgy, suggesting

that this book is likely to look ‘well-

used’ over the next few years!

Gloucester

The Autumn event of the Gloucester

branch took place on September 3rd

when members and friends,

including some from South Wales,

attended a celebration of Holy

Communion at St Mary’s, Deerhurst.

St Mary’s, which dates form the

700s, is one of the few churches in

England where the layout of the

chancel allows the original Prayer

Book rite to be used, the Celebrant

standing on the north side. Before

the service, the Revd Tom Clammer,

Vicar of Deerhurst, gave us a short

and fascinating explanation of the

history and practice of this form of

service.

After the service, Sheila Ryan, the

benefice Visitors’ Officer, talked

about the history of the church and

the neighbouring Odda’s Chapel.

We then had an opportunity to look

round both these churches before

adjourning to the Hop Pole Hotel in

Tewkesbury for refreshments.

London and Southwark

The Branch is again on its feet. We

still think with sorrow of the

previous Committee and the break-

down in health that caused the lapse

in its work. There is also the

memory of Frank McFarlane, who

sometimes wrote this column for us

until he fell ill and died at a great

age in February 2011.

The national Board said they

Pictured L-R: Chichester Branch Chairman, the Revd George Butterworth; Branch

Secretary Valerie Dane; retiring Branch Chairman Canon Donald Johnson, and Mr

John Fox-Reynolds

would help revive the London and

Southwark Branch, and they

certainly did. All our speakers at

Branch events in 2010 and 2011

were Trustees. Subjects were

adventurous: defending the Prayer

Book in argument; the future of

Liturgy; the rights of PCCs and

parishioners; and the future of the

Anglican Communion. During the

talk on rights, astute members of

the audience took notes. Essex and

Guildford members were invited,

and they attended. Meg Pointer, a

former organizer, has returned to

her work of organizing the London

heats of the Cranmer Awards. Some

schools are keen, others not.

Two Committee members

resigned amicably, because of other

commitments, but we have learned

the value of consultants and non-

Committee volunteers. One of our

Committee members is ill, and is

recuperating.

We received help and advice from

the Society’s largest Branch,

Salisbury. We are not far behind

them in membership numbers.

As the Branch in London, we wish

to aim higher. We aim to collaborate

with other Branches, and raise our

profile.

Norwich

Once again we have had an active

few months commencing at

Petertide with the very pleasant task

of presenting Books of Common

Prayer to the deacons and in August

when further books were presented

to our newly trained Readers. These

books were happily and well

received.

In July members enjoyed a most

pleasant visit to the parish church of

St Helens, Ranworth, near Norwich,

where a member of their

congregation, Patricia Mockridge,

gave us a most instructive and

interesting tour of this notable

church with its beautiful and

famous screen. Tea and homemade

refreshments were very welcome.

The day concluded with Evensong

taken by the Rector, the Revd

Nicholas Garrard.

In August, members were able to

enjoy Choral Evensong with music

by William Byrd and Orlando

Gibbons at Forcett St Peter Church

near Norwich.

At the beginning of September,

members met at Bressingham, near

Diss, where they toured the famous

gardens, after which the Rector, the

Revd Robert Mellowship and

members of the congregation of St

John the Baptist Church attended

sung Evensong.

Richard Harrison

Peterborough

The Peterborough Branch AGM was

held on Sunday May 29th in Little

Houghton. Prior to the AGM 20

members gathered in Little

Houghton for a tour of the

delightful Little Houghton House

conducted by the owner Mr

Christopher Davidge. We are

extremely grateful for being given

the chance to see this lovely house

which is not normally open to the

public and in which we held our

AGM. We were later joined in the

parish church by members of the

local congregation to attend a

service of Choral Evensong taken by

one of our members Miss Esme

Godden.

Mary Stewart

Rochester

On Sunday 3rd July this year we

visited St Mary the Virgin,

Westerham, for a Choral Evensong

to celebrate John Fryth, a protestant

martyr, who was born in

Westerham. He assisted William

Tyndale in translating the New

Testament into English, was tried on

a charge of heresy and sentenced to

be burnt at the stake as an ‘obstinate

heretic’; he died at Smithfield on

4th July 1533.

The life of John Fryth formed part

an exhibition over the week-end of

9th and 10th July at St Botolph’s

church Lullingstone, one of our

corporate member churches,

celebrating the 400th Anniversary

of the King James Bible. Some of

our members attended the

reception and concert ‘The Bible in

Voice and Verse’ on the Saturday

evening and the Choral Matins on

Sunday. The church attracted many

visitors over the weekend to its

exhibition of Bibles, ancient and

modern.

Canon Derek Carpenter, Canon

Emeritus of Rochester Cathedral and

Chaplain to the Bishop of

Tonbridge, gave an address

following the Branch AGM in

September. His talk entitled ‘No

Small Change’ proved both thought

provoking and entertaining, ranging

over many changes and innovations

26

The photograph shows PBS members and Mrs Davidge at the PBS bookstall in the

parish church.

within the Church of England. After

tea we joined the congregation of St

Paul’s Church, Rusthall, for

Evensong at which our vice-

chairman, Michael Ball read the

Second Lesson.

The Branch presented 12

beautiful large-print, leather-bound

Prayer Books to those being

ordained Deacon in the diocese this

year. A bequest of £500 from the

late Mrs Nora Minty has, for the

first time, made it also possible for

the Branch to present Prayer Books

to those being admitted as Readers

in the Diocese. The seven new

Readers are receiving the large-

print edition.

Salisbury

The Salisbury Branch met at All

Saints Church, Swanage on 11th

June—its first time in Swanage. The

Revd John Staples gave the opening

prayers and the speaker was Mr

Michael Holyoake, head teacher of

Pitton Church of England (VA)

Primary School and a Branch

member.

His talk entitled ‘Maintaining

Christian Vision in School

Leadership’ explained four

particular areas—Christian values;

Collective Worship; Religious

Education and Going to Church.

For some children their only

experience of going to Church was

through the school.

After a vigorous question time

the speaker was warmly thanked by

Miss Sheila Houliston, herself a

teacher for many years. The

traditional famous Salisbury tea was

served in the hall and members

attended Evensong at All Saints

Church conducted by the Revd.

John Staples. The Organist was Mr

Bill Brown.

The Branch marked the 400th

Anniversary of the King James Bible

with a choral Evensong on Saturday,

9th July, at the church of St Mary

and St Nicholas, Wilton. This was

built between 1841 and 1844 in

West Street, on the site of the

medieval Church of St Nicholas, at

the instigation of the Dowager

Countess of Pembroke and her son,

Lord Herbert of Lea. The architects

were T.H. Wyatt and D. Brandon and

it is in the Romanesque style, being

an imitation of a basilica in

Lombardy.

The service, which was

conducted by the priest in charge,

the Revd Mark Wood, was

according to the Book of Common

Prayer. The choir sang the

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis to

arrangements by Herbert Murrill

and the anthem was ‘Expectans

Expectavi’ by Charles Wood. Revd

Mark Wood’s sermon on the King

James Bible was witty and

informed, giving food for thought.

The Organ Voluntary played by

the organist Dr Nigel Alison was the

Allegro Risoluto from the Plymouth

Suite by Percy Whitlock.

After the service the Branch

committee hosted a reception

which was held in the spacious

church grounds adjacent to the

105-feet Campanile.

On Saturday, 13th August, 2011

at Netheravon Village Hall, the

Branch held its summer meeting.

The meeting was well attended and

was addressed by the Revd John

Richardson, associate vicar of Ugley

with Elsenham, in the Colchester

diocese. Readers may remember he

addressed the 2010 Society

conference at Cirencester. He is

known as the ‘Ugley Vicar’ in the

computer world.

He gave as the theme for his talk,

‘Prayer Book Tacticians and Prayer

Book Tourists’. It was a thoroughly

interesting address and gave those

present much food for thought. It is

hoped that it will be published in

Faith & Worship in the not too distant

future.

A lively question-and-answer

session preceded tea. The day ended

with the church bells being rung

calling members to Evensong

which was conducted by the priest

in charge of All Saints, Netheravon,

the Revd Mark Zammit.

Ian Woodhead, Chairman

27

L-R: Mr George Comer, Mrs Doreen Spence (Churchwardens) and the Revd Gary Owen,

29

Blackburn

29th January 2012 at 11 a.m.:

The annual Assheton Sermon

service (Morning Prayer), at

Downham

19th May 2012 at 11 a.m.:

Branch Annual Festival in

Blackburn Cathedral, on the exact

anniversary of the passing of the

Act of Uniformity in 1662.

Celebrant: the Bishop of

Blackburn. Preacher: Lord Hope

(the immediate past Archbishop of

York). Afternoon speaker: the Revd

Norman Taylor, author of For Services

Rendered (of which there will be a

reprint in 2012). Cranmer statue

placed in the Cathedral.

14th September—7p.m.,

Whalley Abbey, celebration dinner,

after-dinner speaker: Revd Canon

David Galilee. More detail later.

Guildford

Saturday, 10th December 2011:

Holy Communion at 2.30 p.m. in

the Founder’s Chapel at

Charterhouse School, Godalming,

Surrey.

Saturday, 17th March 2012: Holy

Communion at 4.00 p.m. in the

Founder’s Chapel at Charterhouse

School, Godalming, Surrey.

Saturday, 16th June 2012: Branch

AGM in the Saunders Room at 2.30

p.m. followed by Evening Prayer in

the Founder’s Chapel,

Charterhouse School, Godalming,

Surrey.

Norwich

To celebrate the 350th anniversary

of the Book of Common Prayer

next year we have arranged a

special service of Evensong on

20th May 2012 at 3.30pm where

our bishop, the Rt Revd Graham

James will preach the sermon. Also

the cathedral is arranging a

month-long exhibition of antique

and interesting Books of Common

Prayer during August and

September 2012 and we are

arranging to be present at the

exhibition to hold a meeting with

a relevant speaker on a day during

the exhibition—details in a later

edition of the journal.

Our next event is our annual

Cranmer Awards heat held in St

Lawrence’s Church, Castle Rising

near Kings Lynn in

November/December, very kindly

organised by our president, Lord

Howard of Rising.

Truro

As part of the national celebrations

of 350 years of the 1662 Prayer

Book, the Truro Branch of the PBS

is hosting a service to celebrate this

significant event. It will take place

2nd May 2012. The Service is to be

held at Truro Cathedral, taking the

form of Choral Evensong preceded

by the AGM and followed by a

reception. The preacher will be the

Bishop of Truro.

John St Brioc Hooper

Forthcoming Events

Cranmer Awards Finals 2012The Cranmer Awards Finals will be held on Thursday, 1 March 2012

at Sutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse, Charterhouse Square, London

EC1M 6AN. We are delighted that the Revd Prebendary Bill Scott,

Domestic Chaplain to HM The Queen, has agreed to present the prizes.

All members and friends of the Society are warmly invited to attend.

The timetable for the day is as follows:

10.30 a.m. Coffee

11.15 a.m. Finals begin

1.00 p.m. Lunch: PRE-BOOKING ESSENTIAL (please see below)

2.15 p.m. Presentation of Prizes

A buffet lunch will be available at a cost of £16.00 per head for those

who have purchased tickets in advance. Cheques (made payable to

‘Prayer Book Society’) should be sent to the Society’s office at

Copyhold Farm. Please enclose your name and address to which

tickets should be sent, with a note indicating that the payment is for

the Cranmer Awards lunch.

The last date on which lunch bookings can be accepted is Friday, 10

February 2012.

Branch Contacts• BATH & WELLS:

Mr Ian Girvan, 59 Kempthorne Lane,

Bath, BA2 5DX

Tel: 01225 830663

iangirvan@me.com

• BIRMINGHAM:

The Revd Dr John Breadon, 101

Causeway Green Road, Langley,

Oldbury, Birmingham B68 8LE

• BLACKBURN:

Mr Neil Inkley, 6 Knot Lane, Walton-

le-Dale, Preston, Lancashire, PR5

4BQ

Tel: 01772 821676

Fax: 01772 259340

• BRADFORD:

Mrs Armorel Nelson, Old Gledstone,

West Marton, Skipton, North

Yorkshire, BD23 3JR

Tel: 01282 843476

• BRISTOL:

Mr David Selwyn, 8 Barrow Court,

Barrow Gurney, Bristol BS48 3RW

Tel: 01275 463421

(Membership) Mrs Joyce Morris, 29 St

John’s Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8

2HD

• CANTERBURY:

Mr Christopher Cooper, Goose and

Gridiron, 6 Churchyard Passage,

Ashford, Kent TN23 1QL

Tel: 07525 095717

saveashfordchurch@yahoo.co.uk

• CARLISLE:

Secretary: Mrs Joy Budden, Arthuret

House, Longtown, CA6 5SJ

Tel: 01228 792263

jobudsignofthefish@yahoo.co.uk

Membership Secretary: Mrs Kate

East, 10 Fernwood Drive, Kendal,

LA9 5BU

Tel: 01539 725055

• CHELMSFORD:

Mr David Martin, The Oak House,

Chelmsford Road, Felsted CM6 3EP

Tel: 01371 820591

• CHESTER:

Mr J. Baldwin, Rosalie Farm, Church

Minshull, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5

6EF

Tel: 01270 528487

mdsc187@aol.com

• CHICHESTER:

Mrs Valerie Dane, 225 Chichester

Road, Bognor Regis, PO21 5AQ

Tel: 01243 827330

valerie.225@btinternet.com

(Chichester East) The Revd G.

Butterworth, The Vicarage, 51

Saltdean Vale, Saltdean, East Sussex

BN2 8HE

Tel: 01273 302345

• COVENTRY:

Mr Peter Bolton, 19 Kineton Road,

Wellesbourne, Warwickshire CV35

9NE

Tel: 01789 840814

peterandrosalindbolton@hotmail.com

• DERBY:

Mrs Jennifer Radford, Poplar Farm,

Hognaston, Ashbourne, Derbyshire

DE6 1PR

Tel: 01335 370143

• DURHAM:

Mrs Rosemary Hall, 23 Beatty

Avenue, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2

3QN

Tel: 0191 285 7534

hallrosyhall@aol.com

• ELY:

Mr P. K. C. White, The Orchard

House, 12 Thrift’s Walk, Old

Chesterton, Cambridge CB4 1NR

Tel: 01223 324176

pkcwhite@waitrose.com

• EXETER:

Mrs Esme Heath, Brookfi eld,

Stokenham, Kingsbridge, Devon

TQ7 2SL

Tel: 01548 580615

esme.heath@sky.com

• GLOUCESTER:

Mrs S.M. Emson, 38 Gloucester

Road, Stratton, Cirencester, GL7 2JY

Tel: 01285 654591

email: susanemson@hotmail.co.uk

• GUILDFORD:

Mr John Fox-Reynolds, 3 Orchard

Cottages, Bron-y-de, Churt, Farnham

GU10 2LL

Tel: 01428 605156

john_reynolds2002@hotmail.com

• HEREFORD:

Mr Stephen Evans, 14 Raven Lane,

Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1BW

Tel: 01584 873436

Mobile: 07812 424007

onny@hotmail.co.uk

• LEICESTER:

Mrs S. Packe-Drury-Lowe, 35 Green

Lane, Seagrave, Loughborough LE12

7LU

Tel: 01509 815262

ritaphillips@gmail.com

• LICHFIELD:

Mr D. Doggett, Grassendale, 5 Park

Drive, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11

1BN

Tel: 01691 652902

• LINCOLN:

The Hon. Christopher Brightman,

The Grange, Hall Street, Wellingore,

LH5 0HU

Tel: 01522 811432

cbrightman@hotmail.co.uk

• LIVERPOOL:

Mr I. K. Lang, 5 Bayfi eld Road,

Garston, Liverpool L19 3QL

Tel: 0151 427 0381

• LONDON:

Mrs Kay Wolf, 1 Hereford Court, 77

Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2

6QN

Tel: 0208 6428446

Email: kpwolf@hotmail.co.uk

• MANCHESTER:

Mr Nicholas Johnson, 94 Rocky

Lane, Monton, Eccles, Manchester,

M30 9LY

nicholasj2104@yahoo.co.uk

• NEWCASTLE:

Mrs Rosemary Hall, 23 Beatty

Avenue, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2

3QN

Tel: 0191 285 7534

hallrosyhall@aol.com

• NORWICH:

Mrs A. Wilson, The Old Rectory,

Burston Road, Dickleburgh, Diss,

Norfolk IP21 4NN

Tel: 01379 740561

• OXFORD:

Mr J. B. Dearing, 27 Sherman Road,

Reading, Berkshire RG1 2PJ

Tel: 0118 958 0377

gpwild@btconnect.com

• PETERBOROUGH:

Mrs M. Stewart, The Sycamores, 3

Oakham Road, Whissendine, Rutland

LE15 7HA

Tel: 01664 474353

mary.stewart@decomplexity.com

• PORTSMOUTH: Please see

Winchester & Portsmouth

• RIPON & LEEDS:

Mr J. R. Wimpress, Bishopton Grove

House, Bishopton, Ripon HG4 2QL

Tel: 01765 600888 bgh@ripon.org

• ROCHESTER:

Mr G. Comer, 102 Marlborough

Crescent, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 2HR

Tel: 01732 461462

joannacomer@btinternet.com

• ST ALBANS:

Miss C. P. Cawood, 2 Churchill Court,

Green Lane, Northwood, Middlesex

HA6 2RY

Tel: 01923 824217

• ST EDMUNDSBURY & IPSWICH:

Mr Anthony C. Desch, South End

House, 2 Sicklesmere Road, Bury St

Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 2BW

Tel: 01284 755355

Anthony@adesch.wanadoo.co.uk

• SALISBURY:

Mrs Lucy Pearson, 10 Briar Close,

Wyke, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 4SS

Tel: 01747 825392

lucypearson@waitrose.com

• SHEFFIELD:

Miss Rosemary Littlewood, Railway

House, Hazlehead, Sheffi eld S36

4HJ

Tel: 01226 764092

rowood@waitrose.com

• SODOR & MAN:

Mrs C. Salisbury Jones, 7 The Parade,

Castletown, Isle of Man IM9 1LG

Tel: 01624 824467

• SOUTHWARK: (See London for

details.)

• SOUTHWELL AND NOTTINGHAM:

Mr A.F. Sunman, 1 Lunn Lane, South

Collingham, Newark, NG23 7LP

Tel: 01636 893975

Email: adriansunman@lineone.net

• TRURO:

Mr J. St Brioc Hooper, 1 Tregarne

Terrace, St Austell PL25 4BE

Tel: 01726 76382

j.stbrioc@virgin.net

• WAKEFIELD:

The Revd Philip Reynolds, St Aidan’s

Vicarage, Radcliffe Street,

Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield HD8

9AF

Tel: 01484 863232

life.draw@virgin.net

• WINCHESTER & PORTSMOUTH:

Mrs Nikki Sales, 19 Heath Road

South, Locks Heath, Southampton,

SO31 6SJ

email: grass.green@virgin.net

Tel: 01489 570899

• WORCESTER:

Mr John Comins, The Old Rectory,

Birlingham, Nr Pershore WR10 3AB

Tel: 01386 750292

john_comins@yahoo.co.uk

• YORK:

Mr R. A. Harding, 5 Lime Avenue,

Stockton Lane, York YO31 1BT

Tel: 01904 423347

eboraco@talktalk.net

• NORTH WALES:

The Revd Neil Fairlamb, 5 Tros-yr-

afon, Beaumaris, Anglesey LL58 8BN

Tel: 01248 811402

rheithor@yahoo.co.uk

• SOUTH WALES:

Dr J. H. E. Baker, 56 Bridge Street,

Llandaff CF5 2YN

Tel: 0292 057 8091

• CHANNEL ISLANDS: Please see

Winchester & Portsmouth

• OVERSEAS MEMBERS:

Mrs Sally Tipping, Woodland Cross

Cottage, Woodland Head, Yeoford,

Crediton, Devon EX17 5HE

sally631@btinternet.com

AFFILIATED BRANCHES

• IRELAND:

Please contact Head Office.

• SOUTH AFRICA:

Please contact Head Office.

SISTER SOCIETIES

• AUSTRALIA:

Miss Margaret Steel, 9/63 O'Sullivan

Road, Rose Bay, NSW 2029

mste8801@bigpond.net.au

Mr F. Ford, PO Box 2, Heidelberg,

Victoria, 3084, Australia

Mrs Joan Blanchard, 96 Devereux

Road, Beaumont, South Australia,

5066, Australia

• CANADA:

The Prayer Book Society of Canada,

P.O. Box 38060, 1430 Prince of

Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C

3Y7, Canada

• SCOTLAND:

Mr J C Lord, 11 Melrose Gardens,

Glasgow, G20 6RB

Tel: 0141 946 5045

jcl30@btinternet.com

• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

The Prayer Book Society, PO Box

35220, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

19128, USA

30

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