The SCRIPTUAL CATHOLICITY of the Prayer Book

My intent here¹This article is closely derived from a paper presented at the 2018 Conference of the Prayer Book Society in Savannah, GA which was originally to have been addressed by the late Bishop of Gibraltar (the Anglican Bishop for Europe) the Rt. Revd. Dr. Geoffrey Rowell who was not able to be present on account of health challenges. In his opening the author paid a warm tribute to “the great Bishop Rowell’s” work and scholarship at the outset of his presentation. is to speak to the Catholic side of Anglicanism’s inheritance, Catholic and Reformed. As a historian of liturgy, it seems best that I do this with a defence of the Catholicity of the Book of Common Prayer. My remarks will be divided into four unequal sections. First, I shall explain why my task today is exceptionally difficult. Second, I shall advance a recklessly simple hypothesis that I call “Cranmer’s Scriptural Criterion,” according to which the Prayer Book is best read as the Catholic tradition expressed within the language of scripture. Third, I shall explain why I