In the beginning . . .

ETF Chairman Emeritus Reflects on
Early Move to Save the Prayer Book

"IF YOU LET THEM TAKE AWAY YOUR PRAYER BOOK IT WILL BE YOUR OWN FAULT!" warned a retired school teacher-turned evangelist, speaking to a group of Episcopal ladies at a retreat in New York City in the mid-seventies. I woke up with a start. I hadn't known that any revision at all was afoot, let alone a theologically revolutionary one.
The Episcopal Church was my spiritual home, just as much a reality as the physical house I lived in. Now, under the guise of liturgical revision, it was to be altered without regard to the substance of the faith, or its
traditional practices. Some time later I heard about the existence of the
Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer (SPBCP). One of its sponsors lived in Norwalk, Connecticut. I went to see him.
After talking for a while he asked, "Why don't you start a Long Island group of the Society?" So I did. A committee of six people grew to 50. Our first general meeting held in the Cathedral House, Garden City, drew
400. A second meeting followed at which the vice-president of the SPBCP formally instituted us as the Long Island Chapter. Later Episcopalians for Traditional Faith (ETF) became an independent
organization.

A Mistaken Assumption

We went to work to save our God-centered Book of Common Prayer (BCP), but we made the mistake of basing our efforts on an incorrect assumption. We thought that if we could produce enough evidence that a majority, or even a substantial percentage, of the laity did not want the proposed new prayer book that the Church leadership would willingly DROP THE IDEA. How very wrong we were! Thousands of letters were written by devout Episcopalians. Gallup polls showed that the majority of Episcopalians of all age categories preferred the 1928 BCP, with a whopping 81 percent favoring freedom of choice in prayer book usage. Even the Church's own poll, published in the official Episcopal newspaper (now Episcopal Life), showed that its readers favored retention of the 1928 book. In sharp contrast, the Gallup poll showed that the clergy favored the proposed new liturgy and opposed freedom of choice by almost the same percentages. What was the Church's response to this overwhelming evidence? The church leaderhip almost completely disregarded it. The drive to force traditionalist clergy to use the psoposed new liturgy was intensified. The laity was insulted into compliance for th most part by being told by their rector an bishops that they were "against change" . . . "worshipping a book" . . . being "too inflexible" . . . or just foolishly "trying to stop progress." Pro-1979 BCP people exhibited outright rage; for example, there was a respectable-looking Convention Deputy who politely took a SPBCP flyer I was distributing, but when she saw what it was, crumpled it up into a ball and tried to jam it down the neck of my dress!

Miracle in Denver

Then came the 1979 General Convention in Denver, which would take final action on the adoption of the radically revised proposed prayer book. It was easily adopted, as expected. That could have been the end of our efforts to preserve our God-centered means of worship. However, back in the committee room, SPBCP directors were working with the chair of the joint Liturgy and Music Committee, Bp. Otis Charles of Utah, to write a Resolution which would permit use of "Liturgical Texts," i.e. worship services, from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Miraculously, Bp. Charles persuaded the House of Bishops to pass our Resolution with almost no debate. Then it was brought before the House of Deputies, where it also passed, but only after an intense back-and-forth four-and-a-half hour floor fight. I'm glad to report that our Diocese of Long Island "voted right."

A Second Miracle

A follow-up miracle occurred when the 2000 General Convention voted to reaffirm the Denver Prayer Book Resolution. Thus we are in the position of seeking to exercise our official rights, rather than the extremely difficult position of trying to win rights which we do not have. Our right to use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is now twice officially affirmed. It is up to all of us to continue and " . . . to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them." - Shakespeare (Hamlet) - Nancy Von Klemperer, Chairman Emeritus, Episcopalians for Traditional Faith

Thus we are in the position of seeking to exercise our official rights, rather than the extremely difficult position of trying to win rights which we do not have.Our right to use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is now twice officially affirmed. It is up to all of us to continue and " . . . to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them." - Shakespeare (Hamlet)

- Nancy Von Klemperer, Chairman Emeritus, Episcopalians for Traditional Faith