A Short History of the Book of Common PrayerHuntington, William Reed
Religion
A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer
Huntington, William Reed
Episcopal Church. Book of common prayer
But to return to the supposed case of a proposition lost because
of some slight defect, which, if only our Medo-Persian law had
permitted an amendment, could easily have been remedied. Surely
the sensible course in such a case as that would be to refer the
subject-matter of the lost resolution to the Committee of Conference,
with instructions to report a new resolution to be finally acted
upon three years hence. So then, whether there be given to the
Committee of Conference either the large power to recommend a
carefully thought out way of dealing with all the material _en
bloc_, or the lesser function of sitting in judgment on new
propositions, and of remoulding rejected ones, in either case
there could scarcely fail to result from the appointment of such
a committee large and substantial gains.
IMPROVEMENTS.
It follows, from what has been said, that if there are features
that admit of improvement in the proposals which the Convention
has laid before the Church for scrutiny, now is emphatically the
time for suggesting the better thing that might be done. Even the
bitterest opponents of _The Book Annexed_ can scarcely be so
sanguine as to imagine that nothing at all is coming from this
labored movement for revision. A measure which was so far forth
acceptable to the accredited representatives of the Church, in
council assembled, as to pass its first stage three years ago
almost by acclamation, is not destined to experience total collapse.
The law of probabilities forbids the supposition. The personal
make-up of the next General Convention will be to a great extent
identical with that of the last, and of the one before the last.
Sober-minded men familiar with the work of legislation are not
accustomed to reverse their own well considered decisions without
weighty cause. The strong probability is that something in the
line of emendation, precisely how much or how little no one can
say, will, as a matter of fact, be done. In view of this likelihood,
would not those who are dissatisfied with _The Book Annexed_ as
it stands be taking the wiser course were they to substitute
co-operative for vituperative criticism? So far as the present
writer is in any sense authorized to speak for the friends of
revision, he can assure the dissidents that such co-operation
would be most welcome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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