Charles Sherlock has a long and distinguished history of involvement in the life of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA), both as an Anglican priest, but also as theological educator, a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia and a representative on international bodies such as the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). He is very well placed to write an extensive book on the ACA’s current liturgical products in A Prayer Book for Australia (APBA) (Broughton Publishing, 1995) and other liturgical products produced by the Liturgical Commission.
Sherlock’s book is distinguished not only by a wealth of knowledge about liturgy in general but also Australia’s liturgical history, theology and practice. Sherlock’s knowledge is both scholarly and based on his own wide experience in the development of APBA. This book takes its place alongside a small number of other books that have attempted to examine Australia’s Anglican prayer book. These include Gilbert Sinden’s When We Meet for Worship (Lutheran Publishing, 1978) and Gillian Varcoe’s A Prayer Book for Australia: A Practical Commentary (Dwyer, 1997). Sherlock’s book comes at just the right time. APBA is now 25 years old, and while its contents and use are not fully embraced by everyone in the ACA, it has served the church well, but the time is coming when change in the production of liturgical materials in the ACA may well occur. The Liturgical Commission in its report to General Synod in 2017 has suggested another prayer book may not be possible in Australia due to the divergence of traditions and theologies. Sherlock agrees with this assessment and so his book provides the church with the resources to review the whole of APBA with knowledge and expertise at a time of possible change and development.
Sherlock nonetheless sees a place for APBA and argues that APBA ‘used flexibly and creatively, is a sound platform for performing the gospel “in church”. Doing this well equips and shapes us to take our part in God’s mission “in the world”’ (p. 1). In Sherlock’s assessment, APBA is ‘canonically approved’, ‘scripturally grounded, doctrinally sound, historically aware and culturally sensitive’, ‘flexible’, ‘affective communion’ and ‘ecumenically open’ (p. 1). Not all Anglicans in Australia would agree with everything Sherlock says, but this in no way lessens the importance of this book in attempting ‘to show the rationale for the Liturgical Commission’s work – why we did what we did’ (p. 5).
Sherlock begins with a brief overview of prayer book development in Australia, from the Book of Common Prayer, through to An Australian Prayer Book (Australia’s first modern prayer book published in 1978) and on to APBA. This is a useful overview but it is surprising to see that Sherlock spells the name of the first chaplain to the penal colony of New South Wales, wrongly. He calls him ‘Revd Richard Johnston’, when his name was ‘Revd Richard Johnson’. There are a few other slips with dates and names of bodies, but these hardly detract from the worth of this project.
There are some excellent theological observations in the book, like the one called ‘Gendered language in liturgy’ (pp. 30-34). There are also some excellent organizers in the book, like the concept of ‘coherent diversity’, by which Sherlock means a structured process of producing a variety of liturgical resources to serve the church. Liturgical matters are not forgotten and so there are chapters on the scriptural basis of liturgy, the church’s year, seasons and saints, music and the ministry of prayer.
The book then gets on with its central purpose of examining the contents of APBA, proceeding logically and carefully through the entire contents of the prayer book, with theological comment, liturgical advice and very practical assistance from a seasoned performer. Chapters dealing with initiation and the Eucharist are very full and provide theological comment as well as analysis and advice. There is an even hand in all these chapters which attempts to survey the diversity of theological opinion and practice within the ACA, and so the book does not express one theological position or explicate a particular tradition. All the different orders within APBA are considered. This is to be commended.
Sensitive issues are treated well. These include issues like the words of administration, reserving the sacrament and taking it to the sick, the use of Benedictus and Agnus Dei and aspects of eucharistic theology such as epiclesis and anamnesis. Eucharistic liturgies in combination with pastoral office such as wedding, ministry with the sick and dying and funerals are also thoughtfully examined. There is an excellent treatment of the question of taking reserved sacrament to the sick, noting that this was provided in the 1549 BCP, but not in subsequent revisions. After careful analysis, based on the Offertory in the 1662 BCP, arguing that the priest places on the altar ‘so much Bread and Wine, as he shall think sufficient’, Sherlock concludes that this placing could include bread and wine to be taken to the sick and therefore the rubrics ‘would thus seem not to exclude reservation for those who had notified their names but could not be present [at the service in the church], and for whom the priest “placed” elements’ (p. 307). For some Australian Anglicans this would be unacceptable, but for Sherlock it is constitutional and a natural outworking of the role of the deacon. In the same way Sherlock sees the celebration of the Eucharist as natural in the wedding or funeral of a practising Christian. It seems clear from Sherlock’s comments that he sees the wedding or funeral as taking place in the context of a Eucharist and not as an added extra. This is commendable as it gives priority to the Eucharist.
The book goes on to treat additional materials developed by the Liturgical Commission for Lent, Holy Week and Easter. There is good advice on the use of these materials but it was surprising that he did not discuss the issue of reserving the sacrament from Maundy Thursday for use on Good Friday, especially in light of his earlier comments on reservation. Perhaps reservation is seen for that specific purpose only, even though materials issued in the Diocese of Melbourne, to which Sherlock refers, allowed reservation from Maundy Thursday for use on Good Friday when some see the celebration of the Eucharist on Good Friday as inappropriate.
I also found Sherlock’s treatment of the Great Thanksgiving based on the ancient liturgical material called the Apostolic Tradition (issued by the Liturgical Commission in 2009), disappointing. He does not grapple with the claim by the Liturgical Commission that this Thanksgiving precedes the eucharistic controversies of the ninth, sixteenth and recent centuries, and so fails to deal adequately with the concept of ‘offering’ in the Eucharist. The original text of the Thanksgiving attributed to Hippolytus had said ‘we offer you the bread and cup’, but Sherlock declares that though this was ‘doctrinally innocent in ancient times’ it ‘is not available to Australian Anglicans given later controversies’. This judgement is a clear denial of the earlier claim that the Thanksgiving precedes the eucharistic controversies. It may have been better to discuss some of the alternatives to the ‘offer’ words, suggested but rejected at the General Synod of 1995 that approved APBA. These included words like: ‘we set before this bread and cup’ or ‘we take this bread and cup’, which provided a modern way of saying what the Apostolic Tradition may have intended. I also found it annoying that there is no discussion of the sudden use of the future tense in the institution narrative where Jesus is credited with saying: ‘This is my body which will be given for you’.
Despite these quibbles it must be recognised that this large book is an excellent resource for the ACA. It provides detailed theological reflection and very practical liturgical advice, distilled from the mind and practice of an experienced performer. Its scope and the depth of material is outstanding and provides a wealth of material not only for scholars but also for parish clergy and lay people who want to understand how Anglicans worship as they perform APBA. Charles Sherlock has produced a useful and scholarly book which will become the pre-eminent source of information on APBA and he and the book are warmly commended.
