THE PARSON'S HANDBOOK CONTAINING PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS BOTH FOR PARSONS AND OTHERS AS TO THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ENGLISH USE AS SET FORTH IN THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER With an Introductory Essay on conformity to PERCY DEARMER, M. A. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION THIS edition contains 471 pages as against the 223 pages of the former editions, and the number of chapters has increased from eight to eighteen: it may therefore claim to be, or at least to contain, a new book. The original Parson's Handbook aimed at providing notes and suggestions only; the new Parson's Handbook attempts to supply complete directions for the conduct of all the services in a parish church, and to give both the simpler and more elaborate forms of these services. References have been given throughout for every direction that is not a mere matter of taste or convenience. For it is most necessary to show that the English Use, set forth in these pages, is not a pretty variation of ceremonial drawn up at the caprice of the author for the benefit of those whose fancy it may take. It is the work of one who has striven to follow out logically and loyally the principles to which we are all alike committed. The references will enable every parson to consider each conclusion for himself, and to act according to his conscience, rejecting anything that he can show good reason to reject. He will then be able to give his people a sound reason for what he does, and to meet any objections by the one unfailing method of an appeal to principle. It is indeed essential to remember that, important though the artistic side of public worship must be, the ceremonial question is primarily a moral one. We have to be honest and straightforward in obeying the rules we are pledged to carry out, candid in acknowledging mistakes, courageous in rectifying them, and humble in comparing the value of authority with that of our own private judgment. We need not, indeed, think our offices incapable of improvement; but those very reforms which we desire will only be made possible by a consolidation of Church opinion, such as must follow on a common determination of all parties to be loyal to the Prayer Book, as it is, within the very generous limits which it allows us. And the experience of the past should make us careful. No one can study the rubrics of the Prayer Book without realising how enormously the Church has suffered in effectiveness through the neglect of such plain directions as those, for instance, concerning the catechising of children, the age for Confirmation, the position of the Holy Communion, and the daily services. Our attempts at setting up our own judgment against that of the Church have failed with melancholy persistency. To-day we are recovering what we have lost, because on the whole we have become more conscientious; but in an age when every point of Christian theology has to be justified to a critical world, we have more than ever to show that we are capable of dealing fairly with facts in the simpler and more obvious matter of ceremonial. It is a pleasure to express my indebtedness to the Rev. W. H. Frere and the Rev. F. E. Brightman, who have taken much trouble in helping me out of their |