Last month, the Reform movement, the largest synagogue denomination in America, began shipping its long-awaited new prayer book, “Mishkan T’filah” to congregations. More than two decades in the making, “Mishkan T’filah” (literally, “A Dwelling for Prayer”) is billed by its editors as the first prayer book “of the people.” And the people have definitely had a say in its production, having tested out various incarnations at synagogues across the country and at several national conventions. If “Mishkan T’filah” is accepted as the standard prayer text in the movement’s 900 congregations, it could affect how more than a quarter of American Jews pray.
“Mishkan T’filah” replaces “Gates of Prayer,” released in 1975, which in a nod to the movement’s ethos of personal choice contained 10 different worship services from which individuals could choose. The new book offers only one. Its principal innovation is its design, a two-page layout in which each prayer is accompanied by a translation from the Hebrew, a transliteration, a commentary and a “spiritual reading”–all aimed at appealing to multiple orientations within the context of a single service.
Those who pray together tend to stay together, because praying shapes believing. The huge splits in TEC that first became apparent during the 1967-79 timeframe corresponded to some degree with the divisions between those who participated in the Trial Use process and those who clung to the 1928 Prayer Book up to the last minute… and often well beyond.
I wonder whether this example will affect the deliberations of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.
Dale,
Those who objected to the ’79 prayer book did so on two issues:
1) the changing of the theological basis between the ’28 and the ’79 (others have posted more on that, with a much better grasp then I can provide here);
2) the manner of it’s being ‘mandated for use’ with no recourse to any other, and no input being allowed from the pew to the committee.
Hardly the best way to gain friends.