The original purpose of this web page was to keep parishioners advised of what we were doing to prepare for the introduction of the Church of England's new prayer book in the parishes of Layer de la Haye, Layer Breton with Birch, and Layer Marney. For most practical purposes we completed the transition to Common Worship by Advent Sunday 2001 but this page will remain posted for a time as some of the information may be of use to others outside our parishes who have yet to complete the task.
Background: We are three predominantly rural parishes. Our churches are not far apart as the crow flies, but they serve different and distinct communities each with its own history, traditions, needs, and experience. Until the introduction of Common Worship services in 2001 there were different patterns of worship in each of the churches for historical and practical reasons. We had not been a united benefice for very long and were conscious of the changes and adjustments we would each have to make as we learned to work and worship together more closely. Our plans for introducing Common Worship locally were designed to take us another step along this road of growing together.
The ASB's (Alternative Service Book's) authorisation expired on 31st December 2000. The new Common Worship book was not published until late 2000 so our Bishop granted a year's extension of the ASB's authorisation to allow time to plan and prepare for the introduction of the new services. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer remains permanently authorised.
A Litugical Committee comprising representatives of each church, together with the Vicar and Readers, started meeting in January 2001. The task of the Committee was to look at the many alternatives made available by Common Worship and decide what form and content for services would best meet our needs and how we should implement them. The recommendations of the Liturgical Committee were subject, of course, to the approval of the Incumbent and the Parochial Church Council who have the final authority in deciding the forms to be used in the three churches.
Date of Introduction: The absolute deadline would have been 1st January 2002, but coming immediately after the busy Christmas period would not have been practical. It was decided therefore we should aim to formally introduce Common Worship services on Sunday 30th September 2001. Three factors influenced this decision: (i) time was needed to prepare for the changes; (ii) the three parishes have a United Benefice Eucharist on those Sundays when there is a 5th Sunday in the month, and the September service seemed a very appropriate occasion to make the change; (iii) if we left the change until Advent Sunday, we would immediately have been into using the seasonal material before familiarising ourselves with the 'Ordinary Time' order. We started using a Common Worship order for Holy Communion on 22nd April, and one for Morning Prayer on Sunday (at Layer Marney) on June 17th on an experimental basis. This was to give our congregations the opportunity to experience the new services, to comment on them, and to discuss possible changes before we finalised orders for regular use. It was also the intention that a trial period of use should provide an opportunity to resolve any unforeseen issues or practical problems.
Books or Booklets: The Committee discussed the respective merits of either providing sufficient copies of the Common Worship book (at £15 a copy) for congregational use or producing booklets containing only the material required for our main services. Common Worship provides a wealth of new material and there are arguments for having all of it available to everyone. On the other hand, precisely because of the great quantity of material, and the fact it is located in different sections of the book, it was felt most worshippers would find the book difficult and confusing. We wanted people to be comfortable in worship, and avoid feelings of confusion, frustration, or embarrassment. In the light of these pastoral considerations there was an overwhelming view that we should produce booklets of the services for local use, but that some copies of the full Common Worship book should be made available for those who wished to use it.
Uniformity of Usage in the Three Churches: There was no wish to impose a rigid uniformity of usage across the United Benefice but it was considered beneficial to introduce greater consistency in our orders of service. It would be an expression of our identity as a united benefice, assist those who have to lead worship in two or three churches in quick succession on a Sunday morning, and avoid the logistical problems of having to prepare and print different versions of each service for use in each church. It was felt this could be achieved alongside a reasonable measure of flexibility to meet local preferences on some details such as posture, music, and seasonal variations.
Psalmody and Music: There are some issues here which we are still grappling with. The Common Worship psalter has no pointing. We still have to decide which psalter we will use, and how we will make it available. It is hoped the new psalter to be published this year (2002) by the Royal School of Church Music may offer a way forward.
Communication and Consultation: Change is difficult for most people and organisations, and the Church is no different. Throughout the process we were keen to encourage willing participation in the process of change. This meant keeping people informed about what we were doing. We made good use of our parish publications. Also, before starting our experimental use of an Order for Holy Communion we produced a Pew Leaflet which explained some of the background to Common Worship and outlined the main changes in the new service. A key objective was to provide for experimental usage of the new services and to encourage feedback, before deciding on the forms for introduction at the end of September 2001.
It was agreed all three parishes would use the Common Worship Holy Communion Order One in contemporary language. This did not involve major change for Layer de la Haye and Layer Marney which had been using ASB Rite A for some years. It was a major change, particularly the move from traditional to modern language, for Layer Breton which used ASB Rite B. The Liturgical Committee examined in detail the many options offered by Common Worship - including seasonal provisions, other permitted alternatives for most parts of the service, and no less than eight eucharistic prayers! An Order of Holy Communion for experimental usage was agreed and using this link you can view it. It is very close to what might be described as the default version of Order One. Those familiar with the ASB's Rite A will find it very recognisable. One of the most obvious changes is the position of the Prayer of Humble Access which no longer precedes but now follows the Eucharistic Prayer. The rubrics in our draft order purposely followed those of Common Worship to allow flexibility to use some of the other new material, such as seasonal provisions, on appropriate occasions.
A decision was made to use the Order for Holy Communion referred to above in all our churches for a trial period starting on Sunday 22nd April 2001. Layer Breton had a Communion Service that Sunday instead of Morning Prayer. This gave each congregation an opportunity to experience the new service once before it was used at the United Benefice service held at Layer de la Haye the following Sunday. The experimental period was initially planned to continue up to and including Pentecost, on June 3rd 2001. This was to enable congregations to develop some familiarity with the new service, and reasonable experience from which to comment on it if they so wished.
At its meeting on 9th May the Liturgical Committee discussed what should happen at the end of the experimental period. As the new service appeared to be working well there seemed little point in going back to the ASB forms until September. The Committee therefore recommended to PCCs that we continue to use the experimental form until formally introducing Common Worship in September 2001 and this recommendation was accepted.
At its meeting on 11th June the Liturgical Committee reviewed our experience of using the experimental Order for Holy Communion. It considered feedback from PCCs, members of the Committee, and comments they had received, with a view to deciding the Order to be used from 30th September 2001 and the amendments to be incorporated into a revised booklet. Apart from minor changes in rubrics and presentation, the main points discussed and changes agreed were as follows:
Use this link to see the revised Order for Holy Communion.
This is the main act of Sunday Worship on alternate Sundays at Layer Breton and Layer Marney and the use of Common Worship forms was discussed by the Committee at its meetings on 26th March and 9th May.
Layer Breton felt the move to Common Worship Holy Communion had been such a major change for them that time was needed for the congregation to adjust to that before trying a Common Worship form of Morning Prayer. This was agreed and in the meantime they are continuing to use the Book of Common Prayer form.
Layer Marney was keen to start experimenting with a Common Worship Order for Morning Prayer as soon as it could and the first of these services took place on Sunday 17th June 2001. It was agreed that instead of printing our own booklets we would use the official one entitled 'Morning and Evening Prayer on Sunday' (Church House Publishing. ISBN 0 7151 2029 8). The difference in cost was not great and the published booklet contains all the canticles and useful additional material as well as being a convenient size. Those taking the services expressed some concern about the place of the Collect which they felt did not really sum up the Intercessions.
A small but faithful congregation regularly attends Evensong at Layer de la Haye. For several years the ASB order had been used. An experimental Common Worship Order for Evening Prayer on Sunday was prepared and used on Sunday evenings from 14th October to 18th November 2001 inclusive. At the service on 18th November instead of the sermon there was an open discussion after the service to hear the congregation's views on the proposed new order. It was a very helpful and constructive discussion to which everyone present contributed. There was no call to return to the 1662 form (the only permitted alternative) but rather a clear consensus that we should go forward with a Common Worship order. There was a shared view that the saying of part of Psalm 141 or 104, as provided for in Common Worship, did not work for us. It was suggested that this be replaced by Phos hilaron, 'Hail, gladdening light', a proposal which received warm approval. There was also a view that the evening nature of the service needed additional emphasis. A suggestion that a modern version of the traditional evening collect ('Lighten our darkness . ') with two alternative evening prayers be included before the Blessing also received universal approval. A revised Order incorporating these amendments was subsequently approved by the Incumbent and PCC for regular use and was introduced on Sunday 25th November 2001. You can use this link to see our current Order for Evening Prayer on Sunday.
| Churches Index | Services | Events Diary | Churches | Who's Who | Magazines |
Page updated: 07 FEB 2006