I found this a helpful guide to that organisation I am currently part off. I don't entirely agree with some comments made, but they are the views of the author, rather than the publisher!
Robert Fenton
An Innocent’s Guide to the Church in Wales
Note that in what follows, this is only my understanding of the situation, I do not claim that it is a definitive statement of absolute truth!
First, the Big One. The Church in Wales is a part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, that is to say, we are part of the Anglican Church throughout the world. As such, we owe a certain, nodding allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but we are not bound to accept any decisions made by him or the General Synod of England. This is quite convenient, since the General Synod has made some rather strange decisions in recent years. Our relationship with Canterbury is the same as that of, for example, the Episcopalian Church of America, also part of the Anglican Communion. We acknowledge the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Senior Archbishop, but otherwise pursue our own affairs.
The legal status of the Anglican church differs in England and Wales. In England, it is the Established Church, which, translated, means that it is part of “The Establishment” (quite literally, in this case), being an arm of the State. To put this another way, historically it is The State Church, the Official Religion, to which all must belong or face the consequences. And, if you go back far enough into history, you will find those who chose not to belong and suffered the consequences. Its status as the State Church is reflected in its name, The Church of England.
This has certain legal implications, many of them now forgotten or ignored. Because the Church is an arm of the state, it is unavoidably bound up in politics. In England, Bishops and Archbishops are political appointments. Fortunately, this is not quite as bad as it sounds, they are not quite like members of the cabinet any longer. Under the current system, when there is a vacancy, the Government of the day, via a committee, produces a list of two recommended names which is submitted to the Prime Minister, who makes a “recommendation” to the Sovereign Head of the Church (ie the reigning Monarch), who will essentially do as he (or she) is told and put a cross next to the name the Prime Minister likes most, and that person gets the job. This is the result of the way in which the Church of England was first set up, with Henry VIII placing himself in the position of local Pope, if you like. For what were largely political reasons, Henry decided that his only viable option was to break with Rome, and set the church in England up as an independent entity, with himself at its head. Suffice it to say that the apparent reason for this was that Henry wanted to divorce his wife of 22 years, and the Pope wouldn’t let him. With the arrival of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, the system came under review.
Other interesting historical curiosities are that the Church, because of its status, held seats in the House of Lords. You may have heard of The Lords Temporal and The Lords Spiritual. The Lords Spiritual were those bishops who were entitled to a seat in the House of Lords by reason of their office. Not all English bishops had this entitlement. In years gone by, this meant that the church had serious secular power. These days, with the diminished status of the House of Lords, the power has largely evaporated. However, one could argue that, in effect, Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is Minister of State for the Church.
In the past, Taxes, known as Tithes were paid to the Church. The tithes amounted to a 10% tax on every man’s income, in whatever form it might come. The tithes were stored in Tithebarns. Yes, it was unfair, but it was the State Church, to which everybody had to belong. Bear in mind that, in the medieval period, the Bishops of this country were, to all intents and purposes, its Civil Service. Now there is a thought to toy with!
Following Disestablishment in 1920, none of the above applies to the Church in Wales!
For the record, the Welsh Church Act, which disestablished the Church in Wales, was passed in the House of Commons in 1912. It was opposed in the House of Lords, but was eventually forced through in 1914. Of course, the First World War intervened and the Welsh Church Act and the Irish Home Rule Act were both suspended. Curiously enough, whilst the Irish Act was suspended completely, the Welsh Church Act was only suspended for the duration of hostilities. There have been claims of government bad faith as a result of this.
The result of the delay was that the Church in Wales had longer to prepare for the inevitable than it might have done. This was probably as well, as the Act required the transfer of quite considerable assets from the Church to the various county councils. In the event, for various reasons, the transfer of capital did not take place until 1942 and 1947. In total, the capital paid by the Church in Wales amounted to £3 455 813 10s 8d ~ a lot of money to have to hand over. Such was the price of disestablishment.
In advance of disestablishment taking place, a Governing Bodywas set up. This assumed its functions and responsibilities with effect from 18th January 1918. Separation from the Province of Canterbury was finally effected on 31st March 1920 ~ Wales was on its own.
The Church in general sorts its affairs by grouping churches together into manageable groups, called a Diocese, each with a Diocesan Bishop. The Dioceses in their turn are grouped together into Provinces, headed by an Archbishop. So in England, we have the Province of Canterbury and the Province of York. And in Wales we have the Province of Wales. And it is no accident that the Province of Wales is not named after a town or city, to the time of writing the Archbishop of Wales has not been associated with any one Diocese. In the future this will change, as it has been decided that the Archbishop of Wales will be based in Cardiff, mainly because of the physical location of the Welsh Assembly. Precisely how this will work in practice is not entirely clear, since the Archbishop of Wales is, conventionally though not inevitably, the senior of the six Diocesan Bishops. Presumably, when Dr Barry Morgan (the current Archbishop) retires, the Senior Diocesan Bishop will be translated from his existing See to Llandaff to assume the office of Archbishop of Wales.
There are 6 Anglican Dioceses in Wales (by contrast, the Roman Catholic Church has only 3). These are the four Ancient Dioceses, St Asaph (approximately the old counties of Denbigh, Flint and Montgomery), Bangor (roughly Caernarvon and Merioneth), St. Davids (Carmarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan) and Llandaff (Glamorgan). Since disestablishment two further dioceses have been created, Monmouth, created in 1921 and Swansea & Brecon (Gower, Brecknock and Radnor), created in 1923. These were “created” by splitting Monmouthshire from Llandaff to create Monmouth Diocese and some of Carmarthen, all of Brecknock and Radnor from St Davids, previously the largest diocese (in terms of geographical extent) in England and Wales, and the Gower from Llandaf, thus creating Swansea and Brecon Diocese.
Top of the tree is the Archbishop of Wales. Under the old system, the Archbishop of Wales was generally the Senior of the Welsh Bishops, regardless of which diocese he was in. By this I mean that when a man was appointed Archbishop of Wales, he stayed where he was. This contrasted with the English system, in that Robert Runcie was Bishop of St. Albans, George Carey was Bishop of Bath & Wells and Rowan Williams was Archbishop of Wales prior to their appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. One consequence of this was that the Archbishop of Wales’ throne had to be moved each time there was a new Archbishop, prompting one Dean of St. Asaph’s to refer to it as the “Pickfords Chair”!
Currently the Archbishop of Wales is The Most Reverend Barry Morgan, Bishop of Llandaf. He is in the theoretical position of having two jobs ~ Bishop of Llandaf and Archbishop of Wales. This holding of two jobs is now recognised to be a man-killer and there were proposals during the time of a predecessor, The Most Reverend Alwyn Rice Jones, that there should be a permanent Archiepiscopal See, ie, that the Archbishop should be permanently associated with one diocese, as is the case in England. In the event, the proposals were discarded, so Alwyn was not the last man to have to do both jobs. His predecessor as Archbishop, George Noakes, Bishop of St. Davids, resigned citing overwork as the reason.
There is one Assistant Bishop. David Wilbourne, who is the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff. He assists Dr Barry Morgan, in that he deals with much of the Diocesan work in this Diocese, thereby taking some of the load off the Archbishop.
Each Diocese has a Cathedral. The full title of a Cathedral is actually “Cathedral Church” ~ it is the church in which the Bishop has set up his seat, also known as a Cathedra. Hence a Cathedral Church is a church with a cathedra in it. Cathedrals need not be enormous buildings ~ that at St. Asaph is not much larger than St John’s Church in Cardiff. At this point, one might note the existence of creatures called Suffragan Bishops; there are none of these in Wales. Essentially, a Suffragan Bishop is a bishop with a particular local, rather than diocesan, responsibility. Thus, on account of the large population, there is a Suffragan Bishop of Dudley (approximately where I came from). One definition of a Suffragan Bishop is “a bishop without a cathedral.” A rather more cynical commentator remarked that a Suffragan is “a bishop without a Dean.”
Each Cathedral has a Dean, who is, in effect, the Vicar of the Cathedral. The situation is not quite that simple, but the Dean is in charge of the Cathedral Staff, and bears approximately the same relationship to the Cathedral as does the parish priest to the parish church. The other way of looking at it is that, in the same way as we have Bishops and an Archbishop, in each Diocese we have Priests and an Archpriest, also known as the Dean.
Forget the Cathedrals and their Deans for the moment, they are a separate branch on their own and are not much concerned with the running of a Diocese as a whole.
For Administrative purposes, each Diocese is divided into a number of Archdeaconries, each headed by an Archdeacon, who is generally a parish priest as well.
Taking the Dioceses in order, we have:
Diocese of St. Asaph.
Archdeaconry of Wrexham:
Archdeaconry of St Asaph:
Archdeaconry of Montgomery:
Diocese of Bangor
Archdeaconry of Bangor:
Archdeaconry of Merioneth:
Diocese of St. Davids
Archdeaconry of St. Davids:
Archdeaconry of Carmarthen:
Archdeaconry of Cardigan:
Diocese of Llandaff
Archdeaconry of Llandaff:
Archdeaconry of Margam:
Archdeaconry of Morganwg
Diocese of Monmouth
Archdeaconry of Newport:
Archdeaconry of Monmouth:
Diocese of Swansea and Brecon
Archdeaconry of Brecon:
Archdeaconry of Gower:
One rather wicked commentator remarked that “The Archdeacon is the crook at the head of the Bishop’s staff”! In spite of this, Archdeacons are known as “The Venerable” Joe Bloggs.
Each Archdeaconry is then divided into a number of Area Deaneries, each with a Area Dean in charge. Taking our Diocese (Llandaff) as an example, the Archdeaconries are divided into Area Deaneries, as follows:
Archdeaconry of Llandaff
Cardiff
Llandaff
Penarth & Barry
Archdeaconry of Margam
Bridgend
Margam
Neath
Vale of Glamorgan
Archdeaconry of Morganwg
Caerffili
Cynon Valley
Merthyr Tydfil
Pontypridd
Rhondda
Each Area Deanery is then comprised of a number of parishes. Taking our Area Deanery (Caerphilly) as the example, we currently have Rev Canon Robert Donkin as the Area Dean, with the following Parishes under him:
Bargoed & Deri with Brithdir ~ Vicar
Caerphilly ~ Rector
Eglwysilan ~ Rector
Gelligaer ~ Rector
Llanfabon ~ Rector
Pontlottyn with Fochriw ~ Vicar
Ystrad Mynach with Llanbradach ~ Vicar
Some of these parishes also have curates; Bargoed, for example, has generally had a curate. Caerphilly has one. Eglwysilan historically had a curate. Pontlottyn ought to have a curate, but does not.
And, of course, at the bottom of the heap come the Laity, ie, You and Me! Even then, we have a couple of grades of Laity, because amongst them come that horrible phenomenon, the Churchwarden. In this parish (Bargoed and Deri with Brithdir) we have no less than 6 of them, though technically 3 of them are Sub-Wardens. Our fearsome six are:
Sue Hankins Bargoed People’s Warden
Harry Derrick Bargoed Vicar’s Warden
Irene Williams Deri Vicar’s Warden
Gill Iles Deri People’s Sub-Warden
Richard Morgan Brithdir People’s Sub-Warden
Beryl White Brithdir Vicar’s Sub-Warden
The Wardens are responsible for the administration of the parish in a number of respects and work closely with the Incumbent (flash title for the Vicar) to ensure smooth running. Good Wardens are the oil in the joints of the parish!
You will note that in the list of parishes in this Deanery, some of the Incumbents are marked as Rector, others as Vicar. Essentially this is an Accident of History. The Rector of a parish was the man who had the rights to the income and other benefits of that parish. He received the Tithes, for example. All too often in the past, the Rector would not bother to take up his work in the parish, having other pastimes which he found more interesting to attend to, but instead appoint another man to act vicariously for him (so look it up in a dictionary!), and pay him a stipend for doing the job. You may take it as read that the stipend was only a small part of the parish income! The vicarious appointee thus became the vicar of that parish. Essentially, today, we have Rectors in the ancient parishes and Vicars in the more recent ones. Gelligaer parish (Rector) used to take in the area now covered by Gelligaer, Bargoed, Deri, Brithdir, Ystrad Mynach, Fochriw and Pontlottyn. The current parishes were created as the population grew and the demands upon the clergy became greater. It says a good deal that, when our parish was created, around the turn of the century, it had a Vicar and three Curates, one for each of Bargoed, Deri and Brithdir. It should be remembered that Brithdir then had a church building which looked like what we usually understand as ‘a church’ (St Pauls) and Capel Brithdir was still open.
The matter of Rectors and Vicars has become rather more complicated in recent years. Until fairly recently, the situation was much as I have described it, with an Incumbent in each parish, assisted by as many Curates as were thought necessary. Unfortunately, with time this became an Incumbent with as many Curates as were available, and then ~ well possibly not even an Incumbent; shortage of men. The response to this was to amalgamate parishes. In a number of cases, the approach has been to create a Rectorial Benefice, essentially several parishes lumped together with rather too few Priests for each church to have one, and to invoke a sort of Team Ministry. The consequence has been Team Vicars, usually with a Priest in Charge. The curiosity of this is that none of these individuals will have the Freehold of the Parish. In the past, a Priest was generally Inducted to his new parish (female priests will not be Induced!), which meant that he was given the freehold. The significance of this was that, once inducted, he could not be deprived of the living of the parish except by decision of a Consistory Court, which is where matters of Ecclesiastical Law are dealt with, or by Act of Parliament. To put that another way, once a man was in a parish and had the freehold, you could not get rid of him unless he broke some ecclesiastical law, or an Act of Parliament was passed removing him from his post. In consequence, once he has the freehold of the parish, a vicar can only be invited to consider moving to another parish. He cannot be forcibly moved, in theory.
These days, there has been a move towards appointing vicars on short-term contracts, calling them Priests in Charge, Priest-Vicars, or the like, and not giving them the freehold of the parish. Whether or not this is a good thing is anybody’s guess.
Going back to Church Government, the Church in Wales does not have a Sovereign Head in the same way as does the Church of England (ie. the Queen). Likewise, there is no General Synod. Instead there are the Representative Body of the Church in Wales and the Governing Body of the Church in Wales. The Representative Body is, in effect, the board of Trustees for the Church in Wales, being responsible for the administration of its properties and revenues. The Governing Body parallels the General Synod, to a degree, being responsible for settling Church policy and so on. It is composed of members of the three Houses (Bishops, Clergy and Laity). Unlike in England, Bishops and Archbishops are not appointed by politicians, instead electoral colleges are appointed to have the responsibility for electing Bishops and Archbishops as the occasion demands. Such are the benefits of being disestablished.
Coming down the tree a little, each Diocese has a Diocesan Conference. This has a Standing Committee, individuals who see to the overall administration of the Diocese during each twelve months, and who meet a number of times a year. The full Diocesan Conference consists of the Standing Committee plus representatives of the Clergy and Laity from each parish in the Diocese and is presided over by the Bishop. It meets at least once during any ecclesiastical year.
Coming down another level, each Area Deanery has a Area Deanery Conference. Essentially the Diocesan Conference writ a bit smaller. Presided over by the Area Dean, it has both Clerical and Lay members, representing each parish in the Area Deanery.
Finally, at the bottom of the heap, each parish has its Parochial Church Council (PCC). Presided over by the Incumbent (unless he appoints a Lay President), it has Lay Members. Certain people are ex-officio members, for their sins, specifically the Churchwardens (who are, technically, the Bishop’s representatives). Other people may be ex-officio members of the PCC, but such appointments are by local agreement, they are not written into Ecclesiastical Law.
Other titles appear in the Structure. Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Area Deans, Priests, Rectors, Vicars and Incumbents we have dealt with. There are also Deacons. These days, a Deacon is essentially an apprentice Priest. On completing one’s training in Theological College, unless one does something really hideous, one is Ordained as a Deacon, and sent as a hapless Assistant Curate to some unsuspecting parish. After twelve months, again unless one has done something totally outrageous, our hapless Deacon will be Ordained Priest, and sent back to his or her, by now not quite so unsuspecting, parish.
We also have two other, rather rarer, animals at large in the Anglican church. N.S.M.’s and Readers. N.S.M. stands for Non-Stipendiary Minister. In other words, he (or she) is a priest, but we don’t pay him for it. He is an ordained man, with the full powers of a Priest. However, it is unlikely that he will have a parish of his own, although it is not completely unheard of. Usually though, the Incumbent of a parish is a full-time man, paid by the church for the job he does.
Readers are different again. In one respect they are like NSM’s ~ they are not paid. However, the important distinction is that Readers are Lay People, not Ordained. In consequence, they operate under certain restrictions. A Reader is licensed to conduct certain, non-sacramental, services and to preach his or her own sermons at any service as requested by his or her Incumbent, the Area Dean or the Incumbent or Area Dean of another Parish. Readers are not permitted to handle the Sacraments or to consecrate. In other words, they cannot conduct the communion service beyond the Intercessions, cannot perform marriages, should not baptise (though there are exceptions to this) and cannot discharge certain “Priestly” functions, such as Absolution and Benediction. Translated, this means that a Reader cannot say the prayer that runs “Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy on you and set you free from sin, strengthen you in goodness and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Ironically, he can say “May Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy on us and set us free from sin, strengthen us in goodness and keep us in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” If you could spot the difference, well done you!
Likewise, the Reader may not conclude a service with the blessing “The blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.” Instead, he may say “May the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always.” Essentially, because the Reader is not Ordained, he is one of Us ~ the Laity may not be referred to as “you”. And if you think that sounds daft, you may well be right. The actual point is that the Reader is not allowed to speak on the behalf of God, where the Priest is. One curiosity about the status of Readers is that they operate under almost exactly the same limitations as do Deacons ~ essentially a Deacon is an Ordained Reader ...
Readers tend to come into their own during an Interregnum. This is the flash title for the period of uncertainty between the departure of one Incumbent (be it through promotion, retirement, death or unfrocking!) and the arrival of the next. During an Interregnum, the Area Dean (assuming it is not he that has moved) assumes responsibility for the parish though, in practice, it is the Churchwardens who have to see to the work, being the people on the spot. Essentially the Area Dean has the job of ensuring the continuation of ministry during the interregnum, ie, he has to see to it that the services continue as nearly normally as can be contrived. It is therefore his job to ensure that people are found to conduct the services Sunday by Sunday. The people will frequently be retired priests, though if they are available, priests without a parish will be used. Thus it was that, during our interregnum in 1997, Rev. Tony Crockett covered most of our Sunday morning services. Tony worked at the time for the Board of Mission in Cardiff and did not have a parish of his own. Since then, he moved on to become (successively) the Ven. Anthony Crockett, Archdeacon of Carmarthen and then The Right Reverend Anthony Crockett, Bishop of Bangor. Midweek services ceased at the daughter churches during this period, though Rev David Carpenter (then from Bedwellty) took the Wednesday morning service in St Gwladys’s.
If you do your sums, you will realise that something does not add up ~ there are three churches in our parish. This was where the Reader came in. It was John Fenton’s job to cover one of the daughter churches each Sunday morning and to conduct Evensong at St Gwladys’ each Sunday Evening.
Interregna (plural of Interregnum) come in all sizes; ours in Bargoed was reasonably short at four months and, to be pedantic about it, strictly only three months, as David Mortimore, our then Assistant Curate, did not leave the parish until the end of June. Interregna have been known to extend into years ...
At the time of writing, it has been suggested that there may be changes to the Readers’s Licence. Currently, a Reader is licensed to a Parish, which means that he or she is free to work within that Parish, but in no other unless specifically invited. The Bishop of Llandaf has suggested that it might be beneficial to licence Readers to their Area Deanery, thus widening the scope of their usefulness. At present, this is no more than a suggestion, but further developments are likely.
Liturgical Colours and Seasons.
The Church commonly uses four liturgical colours, though others may also be used. The four main colours are Green, Purple, White and Red. In addition, some churches also use Black, Blue and, I am told, Pink. These colours are used for the Altar Frontal, the cloth hanging on the front of the Communion Table, the Pulpit and Lectern Falls (cloths hanging from the two reading desks) the Veil (placed over the Chalice when it is not in use), the Burse, in which the Purificators are kept when not in use and the Chasuble and Stole (cape and scarf) worn by the President of the Eucharist. The colours are associated with the various seasons and feasts of the church year.
The Seasons of the Church year are as follows:
Advent Purple
The Nativity (Christmas) White
The Epiphany and before Lent White
Lent & Passiontide Purple
Easter White
After Pentecost (Trinity) Green
Kingdom Red
The church year begins with the First Sunday in Advent, which is four Sundays before Christmas. In consequence, the First Sunday of Advent can be either the last Sunday in November or the first Sunday in December.
Christmas begins on Christmas Eve, whilst the season itself may be one or two Sundays. Epiphany is 6th January and the Sundays following. The precise length of this season varies according to the date of Easter.
Lent officially begins on a Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. For most people, the only noteworthy point about Lent is Shrove Tuesday, known to us as Pancake Day, but originally the day of preparation for the fast, on which any of the foods not permitted during Lent were consumed. In this respect, it paralleled the days of preparation for the Jewish Passover, in which any yeast was eradicated from the house.
Passiontide overlaps Lent. Officially, Lent runs from Ash Wednesday up until Palm Sunday. There are always 6 Sundays in Lent, which determines the date of Ash Wednesday (by working backwards!) and therefore the length of Epiphany. Passiontide begins with Passion Sunday, being the fifth Sunday in Lent. Certain changes are made in the decoration of the Church at this point. Generally during Lent, no flowers are used in Church, but otherwise, things are much as usual, in purple. However, from Passion Sunday until Easter the crosses are commonly veiled. On Palm Sunday, (the sixth in Lent), Red may be used in place of the Purple of Lent.
On Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) the hangings are changed to white before the service. At the conclusion of the service, the Sanctuary is stripped, with all decoration being removed and all lights extinguished, the service ending in darkness. In its own way, a very impressive service. On Good Friday, no ‘lights’ (ie, candles) are used. On Easter Saturday, at the vigil service, the Paschal Candle is lit, and from it, other candles are lit in turn until the church is filled with lights. Again a very impressive service.
The Church is then dressed in White for the Easter celebrations. The Season of Easter lasts for 7 Sundays, including Easter Day. In consequence, the last Sunday of Easter is actually after Ascension Day, which always falls on a Thursday.
Purple is generally associated with low seasons, penitence, fasting etc., traditionally seasons of preparation, so it is the colour for Advent, the preparation for Christmas, and Lent, the preparation for Easter. Being associated also with Majesty, it was also the colour for Kingdom. See the remarks below regarding the use of ‘was’ in the previous sentence. Green is associated with growth etc. and is the colour for the season of Trinity. White is the Festal colour and is therefore used for the great festivals of the church, Christmas and Easter. It is also used on the Saints days. Red, the colour of fire, is used on Pentecost Sunday and, as the revised Lectionary of the Church in Wales now recommends, for the Sundays of Kingdom. Otherwise, Red crops up only when Martyr’s days happen to fall on a Sunday, as Red is also used on the days commemorating Martyrs, or where the parish chooses to use the alternative colour. As an aside, the shape of the Bishop’s Mitre is supposed to represent a flame, reflecting the early church belief that this was the man who had the power to confer the gift of the Holy Spirit upon his people. Of the additional colours, Black is used by some churches on Good Friday, whilst Blue is used by some churches on Lady Day, where those with no taste use Pink. Other churches make no special provision for either Good Friday or Lady Day.
A certain amount of confusion exists over the naming of the longest season of the Church year, Trinity. As a consequence of the change in the Lectionary (the list of Bible readings appointed for each day of the year, now extending over a three year cycle) we no longer count the Sundays after Trinity, preferring to count the Sundays after Pentecost, this being the ancient festival of the church. However, red would not be an appropriate colour for the season, so it retains its old colour and name.
Vestments
What then of the various extraordinary garments worn by those who lead our services? The vestments have a number of roles, some of them historic. The most obvious is to keep the wearer warm (and decent!). In draughty, medieval, churches, you may take it from me that this is an important function! However, they also serve to divorce the man from his office, by which I mean that they serve to separate the wearer of the robes from the function he discharges in the eyes and minds of the congregation. To put that another way, once he is wearing his robes, that man at the front is “The Priest”. In his normal clothes, he is Andrew. The distinction is important.
Different vestments are worn at different services and not all churches use all the vestments. Since it is the situation we know, I will just describe conventional practice in this parish. So, for a Eucharist Service, (Communion) which is a celebration, the Celebrant and all those whose role takes them into the Sanctuary(the area behind the Altar Rail) wear the Alb ~ essentially a white, upturned sack with (or without) a hood. To make the thing more manageable, they usually wear a cincture or girdle (a piece of rope with tassels on the end to you and me) around the waist. That the Alb is frequently a shapeless sack is no accident ~ it is supposed to resemble the servant’s garb in days gone by.
On top of this, the Celebrant will wear a Chasuble, (though Andrew is reluctant to do so) which is essentially an oval of cloth with a hole for his head in the middle, and will also wear a Stole (essentially a scarf) under the chasuble. These two will be in the colour of the season. They may be richly decorated. At the Eucharist, if a Deacon is involved, he or she will wear a Stole, arranged as a sash, rather than as a scarf.
For the services of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Cassock is worn. Essentially a black bell tent, it may be worn with or without a girdle. Some of the more traditional Anglican clergy wear a cassock with 39 buttons (a reference to the 39 Articles of Religion). Others with more sense, and an aversion to buttons, use cassocks with 4 buttons, and only two of those are visible! Bishops wear a purple cassock. On top of this is worn a Surplice; another bell tent, this time in white, with wide sleeves. Over this is worn a Stole, black if the wearer is Ordained, blue if he or she is a Reader. If the wearer is a lettered individual (ie, has a degree from a recognised University) he or she may wear the hood of his or her degree between surplice and stole. If the wearer prefers, he or she may choose to wear Preaching Bands in place of surplice and stole ~ if you have seen pictures of John Wesley, you have seen preaching bands. Readers are told that they may, if entitled, wear academic dress to conduct services, or may elect to wear a lounge suit. Whilst this last is done for occasional services, (for example, Valleys Praise), it is unusual for Morning or Evening Prayer. Generally speaking, Anglican congregations expect to have their services conducted by individuals masquerading as penguins!
The Service Book
Rightly or wrongly, one of the things that distinguishes “Church” from “Chapel” is the presence, or absence, of a service book. Being the Church in Wales, we use a service book. In fact, we use two, plus a number of leaflets, depending upon which service you are attending.
In the wake of the split from Rome, Archbishop Cranmer and others laboured to produce the original Book of Common Prayer. Whatever one may think of this today, for its time it was a most extraordinary work. The writers were at pains to ensure that they found a middle way (or as they put it, a via media) between what they saw as being the extremes of Roman Catholicism on the one hand, and early Protestantism on the other. And yes, the implication of that is what it seems, the original Book of Common Prayer was not a Protestant book, any more than it is today. It pays to remember that Henry VIII lived and died a Catholic, albeit not in fellowship with Rome. You could say that Henry was born a Roman Catholic and died an Anglo-Catholic, and you would not be far wrong if you did. To put that another way, whilst Martin Luther’s activities on the continent were useful to Henry, Henry did not agree with Luther’s doctrine or his reforms. So whilst Henry broke with Rome, he made no serious attempt to reform the church. His closure of the monasteries was essentially pursued as a source of revenue and as a means of removing the most obvious centres of resistance to his assuming the position of Pope for this country. Henry VIII was no Protestant.
A legacy of this is still to be seen on our coinage. Examine the obverse of any contemporary British coin, and you will see the following:
“ELIZABETH II D.G. REG. F.D.” and the date.
The bit of interest is the letters “FD”. They stand for fidei defensor (I think that’s right!), Latin for “Defender of the Faith”. This title was awarded to Henry VIII by the then Pope in recognition of his having published a book attacking Martin Luther’s activities. It should be said that the Pope had only had it in mind that the title should be Henry’s ~ there was no intention that the title should be hereditary, a point that the Pope made very stridently when Edward VI (Henry’s successor) included it amongst his titles. However, it was politically expedient that the British Monarch should be seen as the Defender of the Faith, so the title stuck. It is ironic, since the title stands neither for the Catholic faith for which it was awarded in the first place nor for the Protestant creed to which most assume it now refers.
Anyway, Henry VIII was no Protestant. Neither, if it comes to that, was his successor, Edward VI. Mind you, Edward was only 9 when he came to the throne ~ it is a little difficult to be sure what his politics or religion were. Given that his reign only lasted about 6 years, we may take it that the serious work of running the country was done by others.
Mary Tudor, as I am sure we all know, was a hard line Papist, and sought to undo all that had been done during her brother’s reign. Unfortunately, her ideas regarding the best way in which this might be achieved involved much burning at the stake and other forms of bloodshed. It was perhaps fortunate that her reign was shorter than her brother’s.
Realistically, it was during the reign of Elizabeth I that the Church was reformed. And even then, it was not along truly Protestant lines. Even today, the Anglican Church is that curious phenomenon, a Church that is neither truly Roman Catholic nor truly Protestant. It is something in between. The Church’s doctrinal position is still summarised in the 39 Articles of Religion, a document which few have read and probably fewer understand. If you feel the need to read it, I have a copy. In general, the Church’s doctrine is what is to be found between the covers of the Book of Common Prayer.
The Book, and the services it contains, has been revised on a number of occasions in the intervening years. The most significant revision, in terms of its endurance, was that of 1662, early in the reign of Charles II. This version of the book has been used ever since, and many Anglican churches today use it as the basis of many, or even all, of their services. In this parish, Peter Cox used the 1662 Eucharist service once a month at 8:00 am. Its continued use is now increasingly discouraged.
In the early 1980’s, it was decided that a revision of the Book of Common Prayer was required. By this time, the temporary Series 1, 2 and 3 revised services had been, and frequently gone, and it was thought that now a more thorough revision could be performed, producing a sort of Universal Prayer Book. The result, in England, was the Alternative Service Book or ASB whilst, in Wales, the result was a revolt ~ the revised service book was rejected. Out of the rejection came a typically British compromise ~ the Green Book of 1984.
This was the Book used at all services in this parish until the release of the “Gold Book” in 1994. Actually, that is not strictly true, an “Alternative Order for Morning and Evening Prayer” was released in 1993 and was used experimentally for 3 months in this parish, but then abandoned ~ so much for that. Then, in 2004, the Church in Wales published, “The Book of Common Prayer for use in the Church in Wales”. This was presented as a hard-cover book, with gold-blocked red bindings. Surprise, surprise, it is referred to as “The Red Book”. Being, as ever, a cautious parish, we adopted the use of the Red Book in 2009.
The current situation in this parish is that we use the Red Book for Eucharist Services, and the Green Book for Evensong, and leaflets for just about everything else.
OK, so that is a very brief (and incomplete) history of the service book, what does it contain?
The service book contains a part of the Liturgy of the Church in Wales.
It’s an odd word, Liturgy. What does it mean?
Essentially, it means the way in which we “do” our worship of God. And it takes in both words and actions. So it covers the rituals as well as the things we say. All churches have a liturgy of some sort. The way in which they differ is that some churches write theirs down where others do not. The Anglican Church is one of those which does. Ironically, some of the most rigid, inflexible, liturgies have never appeared in print anywhere. But they are real, none the less. If you go into a traditional English Baptist Chapel and attend their services week by week for a few months, you will discover that they have a set liturgy. It does not appear in print ~ the Baptists have no service book ~ but it is very real and very rigid. Woe betide the man who attempts to step outside the established liturgy; he is very unlikely ever to be invited back.
So the fact that the Anglican church has a printed liturgy where others do not, does not, of itself, say anything about the church’s ability to worship God in the freedom of the Spirit, or otherwise. That issue will always be down to the congregation, not the liturgy. It is our responsibility to use the framework provided by the liturgy to enable us to build something which is pleasing to God and, if we approach the service book in that frame of mind, then we will be able to worship God in Spirit and in Truth regardless of the apparent strictures of the printed word.
Sermon over, let us have a brief look at the Service Book which most people will see ~ “An Alternative Order for the Holy Eucharist”.
First of all, what is The Eucharist?
The Eucharist is, first and foremost, a celebration, which is the meaning of the Greek word from which we derive Eucharist. It is down to us to accept the responsibility to make it such, whatever we may think about printed service books. In point of fact, though I suspect many Anglicans do not realise this, a printed liturgy puts a great deal of responsibility on its users, as I hope will become clear. We are not supposed to be just passive readers of the printed service, we are supposed actively to use the liturgy and make it our own. I hope that this will become clearer.
First of all, open the service book to page 13. By the way, the Red Book is bilingual (in case you hadn’t noticed) but the page numbers no longer correspond in the two languages as they did in the Gold Book. Anyway, page 13 (assuming that you are an English reader ~ as you are reading this, I imagine that this is a reasonable assumption!). On this page you will see that the service is divided into a number of sections, all of which are thought to be necessary to the proper conduct of a service. As you will see, at the foot of the page, there is an Outline, which gives an number of alternative headings, which perhaps give a better idea of the reasons for each of the sections. But, going back to the main index, even the sequence of the sections is significant. It must be fairly obvious that the Gathering has to come first. If there are no people gathered, it would be a little difficult to have a service! But have a look at what comes within this heading ~ first we get things off on the right footing, a greeting which both welcomes people in and announces the purpose of our meeting: “In the name of God: Father Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Grace and Peace be with you and keep you in the love of Christ.” Celebrant and people greet each other and state that what follows is done in the Name of God. That is a fairly Good Start!
Next, we ask God to come upon us and help us to worship Him, confessing our own inability to do so, at least partly on account of our sinfulness. From which we move into an opportunity to reflect on our sinfulness, asking that God will be merciful.
This is the first point at which we encounter the need to use the liturgy responsibly. Ideally, there should be a short silence at this point, during which we should ask God to show us the sins that He wants to deal with. Only when we have done this are we really ready to use the general confession.
At first reading the general confession is a waste of time; “we have sinned ...” Without the time to call our sins to mind and own them as being ours, the general confession is no use to us. Equally, if we do not bother to seek to know our sins and own them as being ours, the general confession is useless. But if we have asked God to show us our sins, the general confession is valid, because, in effect, we are saying, “Yes Lord, these are my sins, which you know about, and I confess them as my sins and ask for your forgiveness.”
The words of absolution are spoken, and we sing the Gloria. This should be a hymn of delight in celebration of the greatness of God and in thankfulness for the forgiveness of our sins, hence its coming at this point in the service. This is where we say “God, you are wonderful. I love You and I praise you for forgiving my sins.” Among other things!
Immediately following the Gloria, we have the Collect of the day. At the time of writing, this is printed on a separate sheet. The point of the Collect is to quite literally collect the themes of the day together and to focus our attention on them. In other words, it is a way of pointing the congregation in the direction that the readings for the day will be going, or at least, that is the idea. In general, this is achieved, although there can be moments when one wonders!
We now have a series of readings from the Bible and a sermon. Collectively, these are headed as “The Proclamation of the Word”. In case you had wondered, the readings are not chosen at random, either by Andrew or by anybody else in the parish. The readings for every day of the year are laid down in what is called the Lectionary; essentially a glorified reading list. Currently, in this parish, we are using “The Alternative Calendar, Lectionary and Collects”. This lays down the appointed Collect, Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel readings, along with a Psalm or portion of a Psalm, for each day of the year, over a three year cycle. The big idea is that, if the Lectionary is used as intended, no significant portion of the Bible will be overlooked, taken over the three years. In addition to the Sunday readings and Collects, the Lectionary also specifies the readings for Festivals and Saint’s Days and, indeed, every day of the year.
The Psalm is usually sung in Saint Gwladys’s. As you are probably aware, this is not always easy! However, it is not a difficult as it looks ~ those curious / marks, the • and * do all have a significance, in that they indicate how the words are to be fitted to the chant. There is not the time or the space to try and explain it all here, so I will confine myself to saying that, if you ask me nicely, I will try to explain it.
Next we come to a slightly curious ritual, the reading of the Gospel. You may have wondered why the ritual, with the Processional Cross being carried (at great risk to the chancel screen!) down amongst the pews, with the preacher of the day joining it there to read the Gospel. You may also have noticed that the ritual has suffered a serious case of anorexia ~ there used to be the Cross, two Acolytes carrying candles, a Server carrying the book and the Reader ~ these days we sometimes have to make do with the Cross and the Reader! Well, the ritual is something for which we have to thank the Oxford Movement, a group of individuals who, in the middle of the 19th century, sought to return the Anglican Church to what they saw as being its medieval roots. Why they chose that particular period, only God knows. Suffice it to say that they were largely responsible for the internal layout of the majority of our Anglican Church buildings today, and that much of our current ritual is also their responsibility. But, in fairness, there is a valuable symbolism in the Gospel Procession ~ The Gospel of our Lord is proclaimed in the midst of His people. Think about that.
A brief word about the Sermon. Anglicans tend not to realise just how fortunate they are. It is a common cod circulating amongst those who have the cheek to preach in Anglican churches ~ “If, after ten minutes, you have not struck oil, stop boring!” Nonconformists generally have to put up with half an hour! So if you think I am bad news, just count your blessings.
Just in case you had not realised, the purpose of the sermon is to explain, and apply, some aspect of the Word of God. In general, the preacher will base his sermon upon one of the day’s readings. But he is not obliged to do so. He may preach on anything he so desires. Whether a sermon on the Test scores at Trent Bridge yesterday is or is not a good idea I will leave to your judgement. Suffice it to say that sermons of that sort have been preached, but it is probably not a good idea to try it too often!
After the sermon, we have the Creed. The word “Creed” comes directly from the Latin, “Credo” ~ I believe, which is precisely what it is about. The one used in the Eucharist service is headed The Nicene Creed; its official name. There is a good deal of history tied up in the Nicene Creed, some of it decidedly political, but what is important is that it is a fundamental statement of the basic Christian Faith ~ Christianity reduced to its barest essentials, if you like. Another point about it is its age. In its earliest form, it dates from the fourth century ~ it is seriously ancient and goes back to the very early days of the Christian Church. In point of fact, it is not the earliest of the Creeds. That is generally thought to be the Apostles Creed, used at Mattins and Evensong.
There is also a third Historical Creed, known as the Creed of St Athanasius or Quicunque Vult. If you are sufficiently determined, you can find this on pages 419 to 421 of the Green Service Book. Supposedly for use as an alternative to the Apostles’ Creed at Morning or Evening Prayer, I have ever only heard it used on Trinity Sunday. Once you have read it, you will probably understand why!
As you will have guessed, the purpose of the Creed is to remind us of the basics of our faith. It is perhaps important to remember that this is not just what we believe; it should also be what I believe. I will leave it to you to decide what is the significance, if any, of the Creed immediately following the sermon.
Following the Creed, we have the high spot of the service ~ The Notices! We’re Anglicans, and you can’t have an Anglican Service without notices. Please note, the tongue is planted firmly in the cheek at this point.
The Prayers follow. I hope that it should not be necessary for me to explain why we have the prayers. The only question that might exist is, why at this point? Essentially because the Eucharist is really two services in one. Up to this point, we have had a Service of the Word, where the emphasis has been very much upon the Bible, the Written Word of God. This should always include prayer, which is, in many ways, a practical response to the proclamation of the Word of God. Perhaps I should make the point that this is not the time of the service when you can let your brain go to sleep. It is during the prayers that your brain needs to be more active, perhaps, than at any time in the service, because the biddings, as they are called, are supposed to be ideas, themes if you like, to suggest things that you might pray, yourself. The prayers are that part of the service that all too often do not have sufficient time given to them. In an ideal situation, the person leading the prayers would read the bidding, then wait in silence to allow people time to pray before saying “Lord, in your mercy ...” or whatever the versicle happens to be. One might argue that, without the silence, it is a bit of a nonsense asking God to hear our prayer if there hasn’t been any ...
With the ending of the Prayers, we come to the end of the first part of the service.
At this point, the mood changes. I always feel that what follows ~ the Prayer of Humble Access ~ is most important and should not be omitted. It emphasises the point that we have no right to enter the presence of God and eat at His table, except by virtue of what Christ has done for us and because of the mercy of God. It is good to be reminded of this. At this point, we have firmly entered the second part of the service, where we gather around the Lord’s Table. The emphasis of the service is now upon Jesus, the Living Word of God. Historically, this was the point at which those who were not known to be committed disciples of Jesus were expected to leave. They had praised God, they had received instruction in the Word of God and they had prayed. What came next was for the disciples only. I leave it to your judgement whether they had a good point or not.
These days, we share the peace. This is generally a fluffed opportunity. Remember what Christ had to say about reconciliation in Matthew 5: 23 & 24. Please read it and think about its implications in the context of the communion ~ the sharing of the peace is supposed to be that point in the service where, if necessary, we seek to be reconciled to anybody with whom we are at odds. We should not approach the Lord’s Table if we are not truly in fellowship with all in the Church.
Before we go any further, you will note that I have not made any reference to “The Altar”. This is because I emphatically disagree with a comment made by a past Dean of Llandaff that, “A church is a covering for an Altar.” Quite aside from the fact that the church is the people, not the building, an altar, which is a place of sacrifice, has no place in a church building. The Sacrifice has been made once and for all at Calvary by Jesus Himself ~ have a look at the Letter to the Hebrews on this point ~ there is no need for, and no point in, making any further sacrifices of this sort. That thing at the east end of the church building is not an altar, or at least, not as far as I am concerned, it isn’t, but then, my background is in nonconformity.
The gifts are brought to the Table, and we acknowledge that none of it was really ours anyway! We then go into one of the Eucharistic Prayers.
These essentially all have the same purpose. To rehearse the story of the establishment of Communion, and to give thanks to God for the gift of the life of Jesus, given to us. They also give us an opportunity to reflect upon the incredible Love of God for us and to respond to it.
We say the Lord’s Prayer. I am always a little wary of our use of this, since I feel that, all too often, it becomes something of a magical formula. I also suspect that one can over-use it. The service of Compline, for example, uses the prayer twice in less than 20 minutes. To my mind, there is a certain element of “vain repetition” (Matthew 6:7, if you are interested) about this. But, on the other hand, given that it is the only prayer which Jesus specifically taught to the Apostles, I suppose it would be careless not to use it in our principal celebration service.
The bread is broken and the basis of our unity is proclaimed ~ “We break this bread to share in the body of Christ. Though we are many, we are one body, for we all share in one bread.” And we go forward to receive from the Lord’s Table; the climax of the service.
The service draws to its close with a Collect, this time collecting the various thoughts about the Communion and expressing our thanks for it. It is our opportunity, once again, to reflect on the awesome-ness of what Christ has done for us. Finally, the blessing is pronounced, and with it, the dismissal ~ “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the Name of Christ. Amen!” As far as I am concerned, that should be a shout of acclamation, particularly at Easter.
A couple of small thoughts in closing. It is worth reflecting on the meaning of the word “Amen.” It is an Aramaic word, meaning “Truly”, or perhaps more closely, “Let it be so”. Just think about the implications of that in the context of “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord ...”
Think about the way that we stand for the entrance of those who lead the service. This is not some sort of servile gesture, it is supposed to be a mark of respect and honour for those who accept the responsibility of leading service to God ~ as Paul said in his letter to the Philippians (2:29) “Honour men such [as these]” ~ it is no small responsibility to be a Christian Leader, let us offer respect where it is due.
And lastly, the responsibility to praise and worship God is ours. The purpose of the Liturgy is to give us a framework through which to do this. Merely reciting it will not make worshippers of us ~ we have to use it, to make it ours, to reflect upon it and offer it to God as a heartfelt expression of worship to Him ~ and we cannot do this merely by parroting the words. The words have to come from our hearts. It is our responsibility to ensure that they do.
2nd edition, © John Fenton, 3rd January 2000
Minor revisions, 20th May 2001, 8th March 2003, 8th April 2004, 9th September 2007, 25th April 2010
