The Daily Office West

Beloved,

Today I am announcing a change which, if I didn’t make a point of it, you probably wouldn’t notice.

It’s a development many of your clergy and parishes have already gone through without much fanfare. I’m excited about it.

I have consulted with our Subdeacons and Advisers, and starting Easter Day we will begin to use the inclusive language of the Psalter for the Christian People (Gordon Lathrop and Gail Ramshaw, Order of St. Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1993), a direct, slight and reverent revision of the Psalms of our 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

The PCP differs in only one way: it sets aside unnecessary, exclusive male pronouns in how we refer to God – and the surprising result is a much greater intimacy.

Instead of reading psalms to God as “he,” we’ll address God as “you,” the same way we talk to God in spontaneous private prayer.

Adopting this practice increases our sense of closeness with God – and is therefore a tremendous improvement. God is not distant, “up there.” God is here, and welcomes our prayer!

This intimacy is so valuable that I’m sure men will benefit from the change just as much as women, who often feel alienated by constant references to a male God. (Those references make a lot of men uncomfortable too.)

Nothing else on our sites will change – same calendar, lectionary, collects and saints approved by the General Convention. We will still be as Anglican the day after we change as we were the day before.

As I compare the Prayer Book and the PCP side by side, I mostly see pure Prayer Book – which itself eliminated several unnecessary male constructions that we’ve never noticed and never missed.

This volume simply takes that 1979 effort further, with substitutions that are both ingenious and common-sense.

The original Hebrew psalms often shift from second-person “you” to third-person “he” and back again, which confuses people in English. But ever since Cranmer, the Anglican way is to translate the Scriptures into language we readily understand.

The PCP does not eliminate “LORD” for that Holy Name of God (YHWH) we traditionally do not pronounce in church, nor “Lord” as a translation of “Adonai.”

Some will argue, therefore, that it does not go far enough. They may be right, but it is an active argument among scholars, and one I do not feel a need to resolve today. Let us take a significant step forward, not a flying leap.

This is important: the PCP keeps the same forms, rhythm and language we are familiar with. I have studied it carefully. It is singable with today’s chant tones. It avoids those awkward constructions (“God says to God’s people”) that grate on your ears. It does no violence whatever to our understanding of these ancient Hebrew hymns. It is conservative in the best sense of the word. It preserves our ecumenical Anglican heritage (the Episcopal Church translation is printed in the Lutheran Book of Worship and the Anglican Church of Canada’s Book of Alternative Services) while laying aside unnecessary masculine wording in our approach to the Holy One. It doesn’t exclude men, it includes everyone.

A Closer Look

Here is an example, Ps. 2:4. The Prayer Book says:

He whose throne is in heaven is laughing; *
the Lord has them in derision.

Isn’t that lovely? The Psalter for Christian People says:

The One enthroned in heaven is laughing; *
the Lord has them in derision.

Same number of syllables, no change in meaning. Several psalms (17, 26, 51, 54, 56, 65, 73, 88, 90, 92, 101, 126, 131, 134, 139, 140) aren’t changed by even a syllable.

Here is one of the less poetic changes, Ps. 19:1. The Prayer Book says:

The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.

The PCP says:

The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows forth the work of God’s hands.

It doesn’t change the meaning, but it sacrifices “handiwork,” which I’d rather keep. So I don’t claim the PCP is perfect. It’s just very, very similar, faithful and good.

In several cases it’s more accurate; God didn’t just plant our “forefathers” in Israel, but our “ancestors.” If there hadn’t been any women around, the men wouldn’t have survived.

Our book should reflect Reality – another of God’s holy names.

In a few PCP passages, archaic female forms are neutered and clarified, as in Ps. 46:6. Speaking of Jerusalem, the Prayer Book says:

God is in the midst of her;
she shall not be overthrown; *
God shall help her at the break of day.

The PCP says:

God is in the midst of the city;
it shall not be overthrown; *
God shall help it at the break of day.

Thus, with inclusive language the PCP is careful not to exclude men. Modern English no longer feminizes cities, ships or nations.

Why Change?

“Well,” you ask, “if this new book is so similar, why switch?” Because sexism, derived from patriarchy, is a sin. Referring to God as having human gender diminishes God, which we must never do. We – men AND women  – are “made in the image of God.”

If a woman looks like God, does God look like a woman? Yes.

The point is this: We must not make God in the image of ourselves – especially only half of ourselves.

Consider the world in which the Episcopal Church finds itself today. Our current elected Presiding Bishop is a woman. Our leading legislative officer, the elected President of the House of Deputies, is a woman. Half the clergy are women, and a little more than half the laity. Our Bible translation, the New Revised Standard Version, enjoys near-universal use in this Church; the NRSV is a product of high scholarship – and it employs more inclusive language.

We can’t do evangelism if we can’t speak to audiences today.

Outside our walls, the sinful ideology of male superiority is crystal clear. In 2012 a teenage girl named Malala was shot in the head for promoting the education of girls in Pakistan. A young woman in India was gang-raped on a bus, and finally died of her injuries, prompting mass demonstrations in the streets and new legislation. In the United States, elections turned on whether male politicians control women’s bodies, or women do.

Proponents of male superiority invariably cite religion as their justification. God is blasphemed in every utterance of their mouths.

Jesus Christ was born of a woman, and so were all of us. That woman was acceptable to God, and we need to take our cues from that.

As a Church we’re doing so; but it’s a slow and painful process. Discrimination still exists here; my diocese has a woman bishop, but many parishes have never had a woman rector.

If we say our site welcomes everyone, why are we still using patriarchal language?

Ps. 118:20 offers the ultimate example of why we must change. The PCP says:

“This is the gate of the LORD; *
those who are righteous may enter.”

But the Prayer Book says:

“This is the gate of the LORD; *
he who is righteous may enter.”

That cannot be justified.

The Need for Ongoing Revision

My mentor Howard E. Galley, Jr., General Editor of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, always taught that Prayer Book revision must be an ongoing process, as scholarship continues to produce results and other Communions report their experiences with new versions of the old texts. As General Editor he oversaw the reworking of a Prayer Book that was 51 years old. We waited too long, he said; our Book doesn’t keep up with our scholarship or our faith.

I knew Howard better than anyone living today, and I firmly believe he would support this revision. I have also prayed about this for months, taking my responsibility (Ps. 69:6-7) solemnly into account:

O God, you know my foolishness, *
and my faults are not hidden from you.
Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
Lord GOD of hosts; *
let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me,
O God of Israel.

As serious a matter as Prayer Book revision is, I believe the PCP’s alterations are guided by the Holy Spirit, as God’s work is always that of liberating us from sin and oppression. It is time, once and for all, for the Church of women and men to follow God through the Red Sea onto dry land.

If you have an opinion about this, please comment below, and continue to do so day by day as we proceed with implementation. The Subdeacons and I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for praying with us, and God bless you. We think this is going to be a great change. And if it isn’t, I still have all the Prayer Book psalms in my hard drive.

I am betting that once we experience more freedom, we won’t want to go back to slavery.++

Josh Thomas
Evangelist and Founder
March 4, 2013

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