I am afraid that this might turn into a bit of a rant as the Authorization of these 2 new Eucharistic Prayers by the Church of England seems to me to be a significant wasted opportunity - one of those moments when on reflection it would have been better not to offer anything rather than offer this half hearted effort.
The bigger part of this booklet (which is less than 25 pages in total) is "Guidance on Celebrating the Eucharist with Children prepared by The Liturgical Commission". The first interesting thing about this is the font, I am sure many of you are familiar with the soulless font of Common Worship - it is the only thing "Common" about the the whole project - yet this Guidance breaks away. Clearly this is a strong visual cue that while the Guidance is found within a Common Worship volume it is not to be viewed as an authoritative rubric to the new Prayers and carries only the good standing of The Liturgical Commission to commend it rather that the full statuary power of Synod.
The Guidance seem to fly in the face of most actual applications of Common Worship, for example "One important part of that preparation is the building up of a repertoire of remembered liturgical texts. This makes it important to include in a children's Eucharist a number of texts which will, over time, be learned by heart." (p4). Far too many of those charged with the preparation and leading of worshipin the Church of England now seem to believe that any text learned by heart is anathema and texts should be varied whenever and wherever possible (and often even where it is not legally possible). The disease is particular strong when preparing liturgies for the "unchurched", those for whom gaining a sense of familiarity with some of the texts of the service would surely have a dramatic impact in creating a growing sense of belonging within the worshipping community (but maybe I am foolish to think that would be a worthy objective).
The Guidance also very very firmly places the context for these Eucharistic prayer as primary school services and in contexts where the children firmly out number the adult participants (i.e. they are not even for the Parish Family Service), but the official "notes" on the use of the prayers is more vague - it says that "they are not intended for use on a weekly basis at the main celebration..." but any Vicar actually bothered enough about Canon Law to consider an excuse will retort that "not intended for use..." is a world away from "not permitted for use...".
Now this brings me on the Prayers themselves, and while there are certain stylistic touches about them that are far from my tastes my real complaint is that they bring nothing new to the table (or Altar depending on your Churchmanship!). If Common Worship had offered us only Prayers A, B, and C then these two new ones would have a place, but I struggle to see how they offer the opportunity for a distinctively different pastoral response than any of Prayers D to H.
If we really need more Eucharistic Prayers then they should stand apart from the current set. For those who were crying out for something different they have been given more of the same and so disappointingly with this publication the debate will have been closed down for the foreseeable future.
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