[Magdalen] VTS Chapel,

[Jim Guthrie]

From: James Handsfield

>and everyone prays the Collect for Purity

Some parishes have simply dispensed with the collect for purity as it became 
options in the 1979 BCP. Many parishes, like StMtV dispense with it altogether.

I'm surprised that a parish getting to think about such things to the level of 
discarding old habits (Sanctus Bells, Tridentine Approach)  didn’t go a bit 
further on other appurtenances like the Collect for Purity (originally a vesting 
prayer in the sacristy, I believe).

There there was some discussion leading up to 1979 about what is (humorously, 
IMNSHO) the "Opening Rite."  It does have the feeling of "We're all tired, let's 
leave that discussion for another time).

In out extensive discussions of the Zebra and Green books at the time, I seem to 
remember the thinking that the personal confession aspects of the Penitential 
Order would have much more use than once a year on Lent I <g> as the "new" flow 
in the liturgy of the Word is geared toward the General Confession as a 
collective response to what has gone before rather than an individual 
confession.

I remember the 10+2 commandments of the Penitential order as having long pauses 
between each for time for individual prayerful consideration as to how one might 
not have observed them as well as one could as the "Opening Rite" as often used 
in the old 1928 model. Of course, other parishes missed the point altogether and 
made the 10 Commandments another choir extravaganza <g>.

But I commend St Bede's for at least having thought about it. That's far more 
spiritually mature, as a congregation, than most parishes I think.

Cheers,
Jim



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