Traditional Ceremonial and Customs connected with the Scottish Liturgy (Appendix I)

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Alcuin Club Collections
XVII

Traditional Ceremonial and Customs connected with the Scottish Liturgy.

by
F. C. Eeles, F.R.Hist.S, F.S.A. Scot.
Diocesan Librarian of Aberdeen

[pp 139-144]

Appendix I.
Some former Canons relating to the Scottish Liturgy

Extracts from the Canons of 1811. [1]

[Not now in force].

CANON XVII.
Enjoining all due reverence and attention in time of Divine Service.

It is hereby ordered that all proper care be taken of the Chapels, or Places of Worship, in this Church, and every endeavour used to have them decent and commodious, and kept in good repair. In the time of Divine Service, the most devout attention shall be given by the people to what is read, preached, or ministered; and that they may glorify God in body, as well as in spirit, agreeably to what an Apostle enjoins, they shall humbly kneel upon their knees, when the General Confession, the Litany, and other Prayers are read, making the appointed Responses with an audible voice in a grave and serious manner, and shall reverently stand up at the repetition of the Creed—at the reading or singing of the Psalms, Hymns, or Anthems, bowing devoutly at the name of Jesus in the Creed; and when the Minister mentions the Gospel for the day, the people rising up shall devoutly say, (where the custom has so been) "Glory be to thee, O God;" and when the minister declares the Holy Gospel to be ended, they shall answer, "Thanks be to Thee, O Lord, for this thy glorious Gospel." During the time of Divine Service, no Person shall depart out of the place of worship without some urgent or reasonable cause.

CANON XVIII.
Requiring due instruction, and preparation, to be made for the Holy Communion.

In every Congregation of this Church, the Holy Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper shall be administered by the Bishop, or Minister, so often, and at such times, as that every Member of the Congregation come to a proper time of life for discharging of that duty, may communicate at least thrice in the year, whereof the feast of Easter, or of Pentecost, to be one solemn season set apart for that purpose. Of this due warning shall be publicly given to the Congregation, during Divine Service, on the Sunday before each Holy Communion, that the People may the better prepare themselves for the participation of that venerable [2] Sacrament. For this purpose, every Clergyman shall pay attention to the spirit and design of the Rubrics prefixed to the Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper, in the Book of Common Prayer . . . . And because strangers, or those who have but lately joined this Congregation, with the intention of remaining therein, cannot always be so well known to him, as to enable him to judge whether they be meet to be partakers of these Holy Mysteries: Such persons, if required by him, shall produce from the Clergyman, to whose Congregation they formerly belonged, or from some respectable Member of this Church, an Attestation, that they are regular Members of this Church, or of the United Church of England and Ireland.

In most of the Congregations of this Church, it is customary to have publick Prayers on some day immediately before, and after the Administration of the Lord’s Supper, and have a Collect suited to the purpose for which the people are assembled on each of these Days; in which case every Bishop shall prescribe what he judges proper to be used within his own Diocese.

CANON XIX.
Respecting the Administration of the Sacrament of Baptism.

In the present situation of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, various causes combine in rendering it hardly possible to persuade the Members of this Church to bring their Children to be baptized in a Chapel, or place of Public Worship: and it would be found equally improper to press upon them the necessity, or even the expediency, or procuring any other Sponsor, under the name of Godfather or Godmother, than the Father or Mother of the Child, if no impediment lies against their being received as such: Therefore, Baptism being thus almost constantly administered in private houses, without the possibility of obtaining any solemn recognition of it before a Congregation, or in a place of Public Worship, the officiating Clergyman may select from the Office of Public Baptism, in the Book of Common Prayer, such parts of that Office as are essentially necessary to the due Administration of that Sacrament; provided that such selection be approved of by his Bishop, and do not tend to excite any doubt as to the validity of the Baptism so administered.

CANON XXII.
Respecting the solemnization of Matrimony.

As the legal Provisions respecting Marriage differ very much in this country, from what the Law appoints to be done in the Church of England, therefore it is unnecessary for the Clergy of this Church to use any more of the Form of Matrimony contained in the Book of Common Prayer, than what tends to secure the formal consent of the parties; and that they solemnly promise before God and the Witnesses present, to live together as Husband and Wife, according to God's Holy Ordinance; and all this accompanied with suitable Prayers for the Blessing of God's Grace and Assistance, to enable them so to live together in this life, that in the world to come they may have life everlasting.

CANON XXIII.
Respecting the Visitation of the Sick, and the Burial of the Dead.

It is hereby enacted, that when any Presbyter or Clergyman, of this Church, is called to visit any sick Member of his Congregation, he shall not neglect to perform his duty; but, repairing to the sick person’s house, shall be there ready to administer all suitable comfort and instruction, either according to the Order for the Visitation of the Sick, as laid down in the Book of Common Prayer, or in any other way, "as he shall think most needful and convenient." For his assistance in discharging this pious and charitable office, he shall have recourse to such Books of Devotion, as have been approved, and recommended by some of the best and soundest Divines of the Church, and be willing to take the advice, or direction of his own Bishop, in any case, which may particularly call for it. When the Prayers of the Congregation are desired in behalf of any sick Member of it, the Clergyman is at liberty to use the Collect appointed for the Communion of the Sick, inserting after the words—"visited with thine hand,"—the words, "for whom our prayers are now desired," or any of the other prayers in the "Order of the Visitation of the Sick," as the case may require; and he shall also be ready to do the last duty, when called to read the "Order for the Burial of the Dead," which he shall use as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, as far as circumstances will permit that Order to be observed by the clergy of this Church.

Appendix

No. VII.
Recommendation of a proper Clerical Habit.

Whereas it was represented to the Synod of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, holden at Aberdeen, in the year of our Lord 1811 that different dresses have of late been worn by the Clergy officiating in this Church: and whereas more importance seems to have been attached to the colour of the clerical Vestments than can properly be ascribed to any colour, it is hereby declared, that it is not essential to the purity of Public Worship, whether the Clergyman, when reading prayers, be arrayed in a white, or in a black vestment: Yet as the white garment was the proper Sacerdotal Vestment of the Jewish Priesthood, and likewise of the Christian Priesthood through the Universal Church for at least 1400 years; [3] as it is the proper Sacerdotal Vestment in the United Church of England and Ireland, with which the Episcopal Church in Scotland is in full Communion; and as white seems to be a much more proper dress for the Ministers of the Prince of Peace and Purity, than black, if propriety can be attached to any colour, the Synod recommends to the several Clergy of this Church to wear the Surplice, when publicly reading Prayers, or administering the Sacraments; but to introduce it with prudence and discretion, by explaining, where they find it necessary, the principles on which they have adopted the use of this very decent dress.

CANONS OF 1838.

[Not now in force].

Respecting the Communion Service as the most Solemn Part of Christian Worship.

Whereas it is acknowledged by the Twentieth and Thirty-Fourth of the Thirty-Nine Articles, that "not only the Church in general, but every particular or National Church, hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man’s authority, so that all things be done to edifying"; the Episcopal Church in Scotland availing herself of this inherent right, hath long adopted, and very generally used, a form for the celebration of the Holy Communion, known by the name of the Scotch Communion Office, which form hath been justly considered, and is hereby considered, as the authorised service of the Episcopal Church in the administration of that Sacrament. And as, in order to promote a union among all those who profess to be of the Episcopal persuasion in Scotland, permission was formerly granted by the Bishops to retain the use of the English Office in all congregations where the said Office had been previously in use, the same permission is now ratified and confirmed: And it is also enacted that in the use of either the Scotch or English Office no amalgamation, alteration, or interpolation whatever shall take place, nor shall any substitution of the one for the other be admitted unless it be approved by the Bishop. From respect, however, for the authority which originally sanctioned the Scotch Liturgy, and for other sufficient reasons, it is hereby enacted, that the Scotch Communion Office continue to be held of primary authority in this Church, and that it shall be used not only in all consecrations of Bishops, but also at the opening of all General Synods.

CANON XXVIII.
On the Uniformity to be observed in Public Worship.

As in all the ordinary parts of Divine Service, it is necessary to fix, by authority, the precise form, from which no Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, shall be at liberty to depart, by his own alterations or insertions, lest such liberty should produce consequences destructive of "decency and order" it is hereby enacted that at the performance of Morning and Evening Service, the words and rubrical directions of the English Liturgy shall be strictly adhered to: And it is further decreed, that, if any clergyman shall officiate or preach in any place publicly without using the Liturgy at all, he shall, for the first offence, be admonished by his Bishop, and, if he persevere in this uncanonical practice, shall be suspended, until, after due contrition, he be restored to the exercise of his clerical functions. In publicly reading Prayers and administering the Sacraments, the Surplice shall be used as the proper Sacerdotal Vestment.

NOTES

[1] The Code of Canons of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. Drawn up, and enacted by, an Ecclesiastical Synod, holden for that purpose, at Aberdeen, in the xixth and xxth days of June in the year MDCCC.XI.

[2] It is perhaps coincidence rather than design that this is the same adjective that was commonly used of the Eucharist in mediaeval Scotland.

[3] sic.

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