They may be found in every hotel bedroom, and are widely available in prisons and hospitals, but members of the clergy claim one of the last places you will find a Bible is in a church.
The absence of the Word of God from the pews is of such concern to the Church of England that it is to debate the issue at the next meeting of its General Synod, or “Parliament”, next month.
The complaint was raised by Tim Cox, a Synod member from Blackpool, who said he had been dismayed to discover that churches he visited “all too often” had no Bibles for worshippers to follow the readings and the sermon.
“Sometimes they have the passages printed in their noticesheet, sometimes they even have bibles available – but have them locked away in a cupboard without the key being available,” he said.
This situation is exactly the same in the U.S. I very rarely find a bible in the pew with the BCP and Hymnal. I have often wanted to follow along with the readings but could not. Of course we could bring our own bible (some in my parish do this) but what about the guest or visitor? This issue should be given consideration at General Convetion. The abscence of Bibles in the pew is a subtle reflection of how we feel collectively about the value of God’s word. This reappraiser says bring them back AND encourage their use!
2 Kings 22.
I’m a cradle Episcopalian, and I’ve never seen bibles in the pews. In offices and classrooms, there are bibles. Plenty of them. There are numerous versions and commentaries available in the library.
But then, I can’t imagine what purpose a supplying bibles in the pews would serve. Aren’t we there for corporate worship, not private reading time? The lessons appointed for the day are read out-loud, and are printed in the bulletin for those who wish to follow along. If a person suddenly feels an urge to read some other passage, would not that person be withdrawing his or her attention from the liturgy to do so?
In my parish, we have a challenge to make sure there are enough hymnals for all the people in the pews. If we had to remove a prayer book or a hymnal from every book rack to make room for a bible, in some cases we would be reducing the number of available prayer books and/or hymnals to one for every three people. And this… so one or two people who desire to ignore the liturgy can do some independent reading instead?
Ladytenor:
Please know that in many Episcopal churches, including mine, the lessons ARE NOT printed in the bulletin. Would that they were! Furthermore, an added benefit is to aquaint people, older children and teens especially, HOW TO use the bible i.e. to become comfortable and familiar with its’ use so that hopefully they may learn to use, read and inwardly digest it’s wisdom, guidance and illumination outside of church as well. Surely it is the role and responsibility of the Church to teach and model this? Perhaps this is one contributing reason to the widespread biblical illiteracy amongst Episcopalians in general.
Ladytenor, in Protestant churches one invariably finds Bibles in the pews, not to encourage private reading time, but so the congregation can see for themselves that the pastor is indeed proclaiming the word of God, not his own words. The lectionary is infamous for skipping the more difficult and convicting passages of Scripture, both within a passage and omitting them between the end of one Sunday’s passage and the beginning of the next Sunday’s passage.
A glaring example comes to mind, which provoked a post by Kendall here on the old T19 site last May. The passage was from the last chapter of Revelation and painted a glorious scene of the new heavens and the new earth, but minus any mention of judgment of unrepentant sinners and especially leaving out the warning against rewriting the word of God, which TEC so loves to do. Bibles in the pews would have permitted the congregation to read these verses, which the lectionary implies do not even exist:
Revelation 22: 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19 And he (an angel) said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” … Blessed are they who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. … I (John) testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Ladytenor, are you pleased that TEC chose the lectionary reading that omits these particular verses, which can only be an intentional omission? Do you want to know the full word that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has for our salvation? Or do you want a horrible and eternal shock if He should say to you, “Depart from Me forever, I never knew you.”? God forbid you or I or anyone should hear these words from Jesus, as He said He would have to say to many!
For anyone interested in reading Kendall’s post Sun. May 13 2007 regarding the lectionary omitting difficult passages from Scripture, especially the one that I quoted above, here’s the link to the post in the T19 archives, which provoked 190(!) comments before T19 moved to this new site:
http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/?p=19446#comments
[url=http://www.vulcanhammer.org/?p=478]My extended commentary (with photo) is here.[/url]
[blockquote]Furthermore, an added benefit is to aquaint people, older children and teens especially, HOW TO use the bible i.e. to become comfortable and familiar with its’ use so that hopefully they may learn to use, read and inwardly digest it’s wisdom, guidance and illumination outside of church as well. Surely it is the role and responsibility of the Church to teach and model this? [/blockquote]
Oh, absolutely. That’s why there are bibles in our [i]classrooms[/i]. They are used in Sunday School instruction, adult education and bible study. I just don’t see that having a bible in every pew rack is constructive or practical for corporate worship.
Milton, I can see that you are very concerned about the state of the lectionary. But do you really think that the presence of bibles in the pew racks is going to resolve that problem? If there’s a problem with the lectionary, then the solution would be to fix the lectionary.
I’m simply being practical. I don’t necessarily object to putting bibles in the pew racks, except to the extent that they mean fewer prayer books and hymnals to go around. Those two books form the backbone of our corporate worship, and that’s what I’m there to do when I’m in the pew.
Ladytenor does really make a good point. We always had Bibles in the pews at my former TEC church, but there was neither the time to look up the readings nor the need. I think it’s fine to have them there, but not at all necessary. In my current parish (Ugandan) we have a table of Bibles at the front door for those who want to take one, but the readings are printed in the service sheets so very few of th Bibles are ever used in the service. Given a choice between hymnals, BDPs or Bibles in the pews, I’d opt for the BCP first, hymnals second, and Bibles third. And this does NOT mean I am subordinating the Bible to the other two, just that I think its availability in the pews is not necessary to our corporate liturgical worship.
One parish I attended used to publish the lectionary readings (just Book, chapter and verse — not the whole thing) for the following week in the bulletin, and the adult Sunday School Class that next Sunday would use those as the basis of their discussion between the services.
I thought that a good thing.
I’ve occasionally shocked some of my more Protestant friends at Seattle U by pointing out that if you wanted to find a Bible in the sanctuary of my church, you couldn’t. Not in the pews, not on the altar, not at the lectern, nowhere. Of course there are plenty of Bibles in the library and classrooms and offices, but none in the sanctuary.
Now, as for the lessons, personally I would be happier if they were not printed in the bulletin. I would very much like to encourage people to hear the Bible by actually hearing it read aloud, not by following along on their own piece of paper.
If it comes to that, I would kind of like to see no bulletins at all. It’s a huge mass of paper to be used and recycled every week. The hymns can be posted on a reader board, and the BCP contains the liturgy. I’ll grant you that the BCP can be difficult to navigate for newbies, and some people really dislike the presider having to constantly say, “…on page X…” throughout the service; but I can imagine solutions to that problem.
On the topic of the lectionary skipping over certain passages, I don’t like that either. Whatever view one takes of Scripture — and reasserters and reappraisers tend to be far apart on this — pretending that parts of it don’t exist serves nobody. I would be strongly in favor of a lectionary revision for this purpose.
As for pew Bibles, as I said, my preference is that people listen to the lesson rather than read along. But I know that isn’t possible for some people; and in the absence of a bulletin a Bible in the pew seems like a good way for them to follow what’s being said. And to catch those missing verses…
Just for the record, for the past 30 years I’ve taken my own Bible with me to church and follow along with the readings from the pew.
My wife and I own our Bibles, and we bring them to Mass every Sunday.
Here is another reason (among the many) that the 1979 Book is inferior to the Classic BCP (1662-1928). In the old prayer book all of the readings for Holy Communion (Epistle and Gospel) are in the Prayer book as are the Psalms (which are in the 1979 book as well). With the new idea of adding an Old Testament Reading to Holy Communion (which used to be un-necessary because people would have heard the Old Testament Reading during Morning Prayer) bibles are now needed in the church pews (or the readings can be printed in the Service Folder.)
So, if the church is using a traditional prayerbook, then the Bible is not needed in church. (I have gotten in trouble with my rector for saying that out loud!!).
I would not criticise anyone for reading along during the service. But I myself always found it distracting. I would read too fast, maybe start looking at verses before & after the day’s selection, or maybe I had a different version from what was being used & would get annoyed for this reason. My mind would wander. For me, it’s much easier to concentrate on what’s being said.
Especially now that we are Orthodox & [i] everything [/i] is sung or chanted. You lose the music of it if you are squinting & fumbling with a book (and candle-light doesn’t lend itself to reading).
No. 5 – If the Church is really faithful to her ancient and Catholic roots, she celebrates the eucharist as the principal service of the day. Morning Prayer, sung, is beautiful and spiritually edifying, but it is, as you know, derived from the monastic offices, and was never meant to supplant the eucharist, in the celebration of which the Church is what she is. And in this respect, at least the 1979 BCP is more theologically and historically authoritative, as it makes the eucharist not only the primary service, but most directly draws the Church to the true beliefs of the real and objective Presence of Christ and provides that the eucharist makes His sacrifice present.
Except for the times that certain mornings may be busy my wife and I have spent a time reading the word of God at breakfast time (for about 40 years now). If our curch ever stopped printing the applicable passages of scripture in the bulletin then we would bring our Bible to Sunday morning worship. We wouldn’t miss bringing it to Wednesday morning Bible study.