I was thumbing through the canons of the Church of England and came across this one, which I thought was interesting:
B 42 Of the language of divine service
1. (1) Subject to the following provisions of this Canon, authorized
forms of services shall be said or sung in English.
(2) In the provinces of Canterbury and York outside England
authorized forms of service may be said or sung in the vernacular.
2. Authorized forms of service may be said or sung in Latin in the
following places –
Provincial Convocations
Chapels and other public places in university colleges and halls
University churches
The colleges of Westminster, Winchester and Eton
Such other places of religious and sound learning as custom allows or the bishop or other the Ordinary may permit
Except for musical arrangements of canticles and eucharistic propers and such, I wonder if this has ever been done. Has it been a common practice? Was it once upon a time, when Latin was more common at the university? I know it is still a technical requirement for ordination in England and Canada, according to the Prayer Book, that they be "learned in the Latin tongue." I know they used to recite the table blessing at Nashotah in Latin and I assume that was common in England around the same era.
Anyone know details about Latin liturgies from the Prayer Book in actual practice?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
There is a Latin Mass at St Silas, Kentish Town (London) every Saturday and St Lukes Southport has celebrations in Latin from time to time. Bourne Street has Latin Benediction as well. I had a conversation with friend some time ago about setting up an Anglican Latin Mass society, which will come to fruition in a few years, i think.
The original 1548 Holy Communion Office was largely in Latin. I tell the story here, in "The Very First Anglican Mass: in Latin." Enjoy!
God bless.
-------------
Western Orthodoxy Blog.
I understand that at least one of the universities has a long tradition of a 1662 Communion in Latin every year.
St Silas, Kentish Town is doing a Latin Novus Ordo Mass, different from the matter of doing the BCP in Latin.
I've served a private Tridentine Mass in Latin for an Anglican priest.
I've just got back from a Latin Service of the Holy Communion, which is said termly at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. It's basically the 1662 BCP service, but in Latin, with a few differences in what the priest and the people say.
I think the original rationale for allowing Latin services in places such as universities was that in those places there was no need for the vernacular, as everyone knew Latin. Like most of my fellow students now, I don't, but I muddled through thanks to a combination of liturgical knowledge and knowledge of some Romance languages.
Gonville and Caius Chapel, Cambridge has an annual Latin Mass which is taken from the Liber Precum Publicarum (Book of Common Prayer) of 1560. It is just a translation of the English communion service, and the congregation is (fortunately!) given a facing-page translation.
I've come across two anglican documents written in Latin 1677-1680, one declares a man to be made a deacon and another the ordination of the same man to the priesthood. Is that odd, that they would be written in Latin? One docuement is from Wigan and the other from Ulster.
Post a Comment