Reluctant Anglicans (5) - Anglican Use of the Roman Rite

A posting at the Psallite Sapienter http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.ca/ suggests that the following elements from The Book of Common Prayer tradition will be considered for the AU/Ordinariate rites, some of which have been included in editions of THE ENGLISH (ANGLICAN) MISSAL:

• the Commandments or Summary of the Law, with response;
• the Anglican wording of the Kyrie and Gloria in excelsis;
• the [Roman Rite OF] Collects in traditional language;
• the traditional system of readings (for such as still use them);
• the Anglican wording of the Creed;
• the Prayer for the Church, amended;
• the Penitential Act, comprising a lightly edited Invitation, Confession and Absolution (non-sacramental, of course);
• the Anglican wording of the Sursum corda, Preface, Sanctus and Benedictus;
• the Catholic first half of the words of administration of the Sacrament (though this is all but identical to that found in the traditional Roman Mass);
• the long Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion;
• the final blessing, “The Peace”.

PS goes on to say:

Unsurprisingly, all this, barring the traditional one-year cycle of readings for such as want it, can already be found in the current Book of Divine Worship for the Anglican Use, albeit in the particular wording found in the U.S. Episcopalian tradition, drawing on the U.S. 1928 and 1979 B.C.P.’s.

The BDW incorporates all these elements into the general structure of the modern Roman Mass, with some more traditional features, such as "The Lord be with you" immediately before the Collect, not at the start of the Mass as in the Ordinary Form.

It is reported that the forthcoming new edition of the BDW will be updated to conform to the new translation of the Prayer over the Gifts (now called the Prayer over the Offerings) for each Mass, the Offertory prayers, the Memorial Acclamations, and above all the new phrasing of the words of consecration; this should take away that most unpleasant feature of the BDW, the clunky fashion in which the language used slips from sacral to banal and back again.

Over at Deborah Gyapong's excellent blog Foolishness to the World http://foolishnesstotheworld.wordpress.com/ we find the following points raised (bolding is my own).

 1.  Although the “English Missal” (Sarum Rite , etc.) [The Use of Sarum i.e.  the use of Salisbury is a "use" of the Roman Rite like the current Anglican Use and not a stand-alone Rite as are, for example, the Ambrosian or Mozarabic Rites which are distinct rites of the Western Latin Church] are of historical interest to liturgical scholars in the development of the Anglican patrimony, they apparently are not in current use to any degree among those who are coming into the Catholic Church to form the new ordinariates. Thus, it does not seem to make much sense to discuss approval of those forms for the ordinariates. Rather, it’s the current practice of worship that is at the core of the patrimony of the ordinariates. Nonetheless, the historical point of reference may be useful in discerning which version(s) to keep if several versions of a prayer remain in current use.

2. That said, the liturgical forms for the ordinariates do need to address legitimate differences in the current practices of those who are coming to the ordinariates in a manner that allows those coming into the Catholic Church to form the ordinariates to embrace them as their own. The open question is whether one best does this by providing multiple versions of the ordinariate liturgy or by providing options within a single form, but that question is in the hands of the committee charged with preparation of the ordinariate liturgy.

3. It’s pretty obvious that any deficiencies in the orders of worship previously employed by those who are coming into the ordinariates will need to be rectified in the orders of worship that will gain approval for use within the Catholic Church. This simply is not negotiable, especially if it may affect the validity of any of the sacraments. But overall, whatever emerges from the process probably will be a major improvement over the current Anglican form of the liturgy — that is, the 1983 Book of Divine Worship with certain modifications.

Some of these and many other topics are taken up in Msgr Burnham's Book Heaven and Earth in Little Space. He also deals with Anglican celebration of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite which is common in the UK.