A Prayer Book for Australia

and Reformed, Biblical Christianity

An Evangelical Response to A Prayer Book for Australia


by John Woodhouse

Dr. John Woodhouse is the Rector of Christ Church St. Ives in Sydney.

This paper began as a letter to the congregation at Christ Church after requests for an explanation of the background to APBA adopted by General Synod in July 1995. It was published by the ACL in August 1995.

 


What is the Anglican Church?

The Anglican denomination is a grand and historic institution. But its greatness does not lie in its size or its age! Its roots lie in the rediscovery of the gospel of God's wonderful grace that took place in Europe in the 16th century (commonly called the Reformation). To cut a long and complex story short: the outcome of the Reformation in England was the Book of Common Prayer [BCP], published in 1662, along with the Thirty-Nine Articles, which are thirty nine statements of Christian truth, as it was understood by the reformed Church of England.

While both the BCP and the Articles would not themselves claim to be perfect or beyond improvement, they remain great affirmations of Biblical truth.

The message of the Reformation, which the BCP and the Articles expressed so ably, can be summed up in four phrases that answer the vital question: How can a person be saved?

1. Grace alone. Only by God's undeserved favour can anyone be right with him - not by anything that we do.

2. Christ alone. This grace is found only in Jesus Christ and his "death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world." (BCP) - and nowhere else.

3. Scripture alone. Jesus Christ is found only through the Scriptures - not through the non-Scriptural teachings and practices of the Church.

As Article 6 put it:

"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."

4. Faith alone. We receive all the benefits of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ simply by trusting him (faith) - not by earning any merit with God by our own actions.

As Article 11 put it:

"We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort."

The greatness of the Anglican denomination lies in its roots which so firmly grasped and emphatically expressed this Biblical teaching, over against the medieval doctrines and practices that had developed in the Roman Catholic Church. It was clearly recognised that the institutional Church had no right to depart from the Bible:

"... it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation." (Article 20)

Important among the ideas that were rejected were the unbiblical "catholic" views of the power of the sacraments.

 

Changes since the sixteenth century

Of course much has changed in the world and in the Anglican Church in the 333 years since the publication of the BCP. In particular two broad movements have had deep and lasting effects on the Anglican denomination.

The first has been the rise of "liberalism". Liberalism may be described as a movement which does not accept the absolute authority of the Bible as God's written word, but evaluates the teaching of Scripture by the standards of "modern thought". Liberalism tends towards the rejection of such basic Biblical truths as the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the significance of his death in our place, his second coming, heaven, hell, the virgin birth, the uniqueness of Christ as the only way to God, and so on.

The second movement was partly a reaction to liberalism. In the 1830s and '40s the Oxford Movement (as it is known) worked to restore teachings and practices of "catholicism" which the Reformation had rejected.

It would be fair to say that, world-wide, very much of the Anglican Church has moved decisively in a liberal or a catholic direction, or, more often, in a "liberal catholic" direction: that is, liberal "modern thought" in teaching combined with "catholic" practices in church ritual.

However there has always been a strong presence in the Anglican Church worldwide of those who are firmly committed to the Biblical gospel of "Grace alone - Christ alone - Scripture alone - Faith alone", clear in their conviction that this saving truth has been entrusted to us by God, and we dare not drift from it (see Hebrews 2:1-3). These persons are often called "evangelicals", and see "liberal catholicism" as a real threat to the authentic gospel, which the Anglican formularies understood so well.

 

The Anglican Church in Australia

In Australia the Anglican Church exists as The Anglican Church of Australia [ACA]. In 1961 the ACA agreed on a formal constitution.

This Constitution commits the ACA to the ultimate rule of the Bible, and to retain the doctrine and principles of the BCP and the Thirty-Nine Articles.

While liberal catholicism is strong in the ACA, evangelicals have believed that the essentially Biblical character of this denomination - at least in principle - was laid down by the Constitution.

 

The Diocese of Sydney

The Anglican diocese of Sydney is widely known for the strength of evangelical commitment to be found here. In the kindness of God this diocese has been less affected than many others by "liberal catholicism".

It is almost certain that the Diocese of Sydney would never have agreed to the 1961 Constitution unless its representatives were convinced that it committed the ACA to Reformed Biblical Christianity.

 

An Australian Prayer Book [AAPB]

In 1978 the ACA approved a new Prayer Book, called An Australian Prayer Book - the now familiar green book. This was the first time that the ACA had an authorised Prayer Book other than the BCP.

AAPB was an attempt to revise the BCP, especially by updating and clarifying the language. However it was not the intention to change the teaching of the BCP. The principle that operated in the revision process was that where agreement could not be reached on any proposed revision, the wording of the BCP was retained. This book was approved by the General Synod in 1978 with only one dissenting vote!

 

A Prayer Book for Australia [APBA]

By contrast the book that was approved by the General Synod in 1995 was a very different production. It has been described as, not a Book of Common Prayer, but a Book of Comprehensive Prayer.

Where agreement could not be reached - say, in the wording of a prayer - the idea of retaining the wording of BCP was not seriously contemplated. Rather one of two solutions was taken. Either each position would be represented by alternative versions of the prayer, or the wording would be worked over until it could mean one thing to one group and something else to the other group. Often both procedures were followed together!

To illustrate the outcome: there are now three services of the Lord's Supper, and no less than six versions of the "prayer of consecration". There are two versions of the marriage service, each of them expressing an understanding of marriage acceptable to some, but not acceptable to others.

The 898 page draft version of APBA, circulated to General Synod representatives before the Synod, was a definite shift from AAPB in a liberal catholic direction.

The seriousness of this lies simply in the fact that the gospel of "Grace alone - Christ alone - Scripture alone - Faith alone" is obscured and compromised in this book. This observation is widely shared by evangelical lay persons and clergy who have studied the book. In a day when we must do all in our power to make this gospel clear and unambiguous to an unbelieving world we have produced a book that does the opposite.

Sydney representatives on the General Synod and other evangelicals went to Melbourne with many amendments to try to bring the book back at least closer to the standards of the BCP. Some of us felt that even if all of these amendments were adopted, the problems with the book were too fundamental and pervasive to be dealt with by amendments.

As it happened, at the Synod the concern of many to get the book passed produced a great desire for compromise. Deals were done between those holding a more "catholic" position and those holding other positions (including evangelicals).

Some of the proposed amendments were adopted, sometimes in a modified form. But the amendments accepted were not such as to change the overall shift that the book represents.

Indeed - in my view - it got worse.

At the Synod an Anglo-catholic bishop produced a new "prayer of consecration" for the Lord's Supper. After a long day of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a version of this prayer appeared on delegates' tables one morning, and it had to be debated and voted on immediately. In my opinion it represents the most offensive single item in the new book. With the bread and the wine before him, the minister prays: "Here we offer you a spiritual sacrifice". I believe that in the 16th century there were those who died at the stake because they believed that words like that, in that context, were a denial of the gospel that has been entrusted to us by God. And they were right.

Another two specific examples of the "liberal catholic" shift in the new book include:

The new book contains two marriage services, the second of which has no concept of the Bible's teaching about the different roles of husband and wife, and the first of which does express this truth, but not as clearly as I believe it should (certainly not as clearly as the BCP).

There is authorisation for the use of various "Christian symbols": in a funeral the placing of a candle, or a Bible, or a cross, on the coffin, or sprinkling the coffin with water. In baptism, anointing with oil. Practices like this were part of medieval catholicism, but were done away with in the Reformation because of the superstitions they arouse. Their authorisation is a reversal of the Reformation.

The bishop who got his new "prayer of consecration" accepted announced to the Synod "In the words of Adolf Hitler in 1938: 'I have no further territorial ambitions'". What did happen after 1938?!

 

What exactly happened at the General Synod?

After four days and nights of debate and amendment, two questions were put to the Synod.

The first was procedural. It asked, in effect, whether the Synod wanted to consider authorising APBA immediately, or alternatively to consider approving it provisionally, and allowing time for the various dioceses to look at the book, and report back to the next General Synod (possibly in three years' time), which could then make further changes if required and fully authorise the book.

My view is that the former procedure should not have been adopted with such a controversial and divisive book. The Synod however decided overwhelmingly to consider authorising the book immediately.

This, then, was the second question. The Synod voted strongly in favour of the immediate authorisation of APBA (although the vote was certainly not like the almost unanimous vote of 1978).

I suppose my greatest disappointment in all this has been that some evangelicals who acknowledge that the book is a shift towards "liberal catholicism", nevertheless voted for its immediate authorisation - in order to help those who wanted it. Some did this because they considered that the book would only get worse if left for another three years and/or because it was clear to them that the book would be authorised anyway.

While I respect the motives of those who took that course, my view is that no one should have voted for the book on the basis of unprincipled pragmatism. If we were going to authorise another Prayer Book the only question that should have ultimately determined an evangelical's vote on the matter is whether the new book is a better expression of the Biblical gospel of "Grace alone - Christ alone - Scripture alone - Faith alone" than what we already have. If it is worse, then whatever others do, we must not support it.

 

Where to from here?

The book has been authorised by the General Synod in such a way that it can be introduced into any diocese once the Synod of that diocese adopts it.

The Synod of Sydney Diocese will probably consider this matter in October 1996. My own view is that it is unlikely to be adopted in Sydney.

 

What is the importance of this matter?

It seems that the day of a common Prayer Book throughout Australian Anglican churches is over.

This in itself may not be a bad thing. It is probably time that we worked at producing a greater variety of services that express Biblical truth in language that is clear and unambiguous to Australians in the 1990s. It is certain that if evangelicals do this without the need to compromise what is said with liberalism and catholicism the results will be much better.

However, the authorised standard by which such services and other teaching in Anglican churches can be measured has now changed. BCP, and even AAPB, were good standards, and unbiblical deviations from the doctrine of those books could properly be called "unAnglican". However with the new book, those of us who - for example - insist that the bread and the wine must not in any sense be thought of as sacrifices offered to God will be judged to be unAnglican.

There will be those dioceses which accept the new book, and those that will not. It will be increasingly difficult to see what holds the two groups together. We no longer agree on our standard of doctrine, even formally.

The important thing to remember is that the gospel of "Grace alone - Christ alone - Scripture alone - Faith alone" is God's gospel. It is God's power to save. It does not depend on denominational structures, and will achieve God's purposes even when the denominations fail.

Praise God for his immeasurable and unstoppable grace!

 

John Woodhouse- John Woodhouse


(Copyright J.W. Woodhouse 1995)

 

Anglican Church League, www.acl.asn.au