I will, with God s help. Christian Ethics and the Baptismal Covenant in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer David J. Malek December 2, 2009 MOR-D500-01 1
In this paper I intend to review the changes made to the Baptismal Covenant in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Beyond noting the differences in the 1979 BCP from the 1928 BCP, I want to begin to explore the impact of those changes on Episcopal ecclesiology, worship, and Christian ethics. A good starting point in addressing this topic is to acknowledge that the changes to the 1979 BCP followed naturally from post-vatican II liturgical reforms that developed from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, as promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963. Whereas the Roman Catholic Church moved away from the strict use of Latin to the vernacular, the Episcopal Church moved away from the singular use of Elizabethan English in its Prayer Book. But changes to the language were not nearly as important as changes in the rite of Baptism itself through this period of liturgical renewal. Liturgical renewal during the second half of the twentieth century offered contemporary Christians the opportunity to renew their theological understanding of baptism. Anglicans, among other Christians, have moved from a private, domestic celebration of this moment in an infant s life to promises that are publicly made, shared, held, and affirmed in gathered community amid individual lifetimes of godly living. We are moving away from patterns that obscure God s goodness in creation. Ecumenically baptism has shifted from an emphasis upon the stain of original sin to the promise of new life in Christ. 1 The opening instruction for the rite states, Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ s Body the Church. 2 The Rev. Ruth A. Meyers has written extensively on this idea that baptism is full initiation into the Body of Christ. She suggests that the belief put forth in the baptismal directives impacts Episcopal theology and liturgy in very significant ways, noting the following: 1. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Baptismal Living: Steadfast Covenant of Hope, Anglican Theological Review 86, no. 1 (Winter 2004) : 10. 2. The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 1979) [henceforth BCP 1979], 298. 2
Understanding baptism as complete sacramental initiation, including the gift of the Spirit who empowers Christians for ministry, means that baptism must also be the basis for admission to communion, the principal sacramental means of nurturing members of Christ s body. This is a radical change for Anglicans, whose prayer books since 1549 included a confirmation rubric requiring confirmation before admission to communion. 3 While debate continues about who may be admitted to communion and when, there is even greater controversy surrounding the inclusion within the rite of Holy Baptism of an explicit Baptismal Covenant. While some theologians dismiss the promises found within it, others see it as a way to state that there is a natural progression from faith to action in the life of the Christian person. Appropriately our response to God in the Baptismal Covenant starts with an affirmation of faith. This covenant begins with the Apostles Creed recalling Jesus life, death, and resurrection, and affirming God s triune nature. 4 Having affirmed this faith in God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are invited to enter into a new and more explicit covenant which is stated as follows in the Rite of Holy Baptism in the 1979 BCP. Celebrant Will you continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? People I will, with God s help. Celebrant Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? People I will, with God s help. Celebrant Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? People I will, with God s help. Celebrant Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? People I will, with God s help. 3. Ruth A. Meyers, By Water and the Holy Spirit: Baptism and Confirmation in Anglicanism, Anglican Theological Review 83, no. 3 (Summer 2001) : 420. 4. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Baptismal Living: Steadfast Covenant of Hope, Anglican Theological Review 86, no. 1 (Winter 2004) : 12. 3
Celebrant Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? People I will, with God s help. 5 Rev. Dr. Louis Weil, a priest and professor of liturgical and sacramental theology at Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary, was one of the members of the Standing Commission on the Liturgy who helped to draft this document. In an address at the Hayes Conference Center in 2007 he made the following remarks about the intent of those completing this work. Our intention in the five questions of the American rite was quite simple: we felt that it was necessary and pastorally useful to spell out as it were, to flesh out the implications of keeping God s holy will and commandments.it was our hope that by being explicit about some of the basic implications of our baptismal commitment that thus the Baptismal Covenant would become a constant basis for reflection and a reference point for catechetical instruction. 6 In view of this statement I want to suggest that the 1979 BCP presents baptism as full initiation into the Body of Christ in two distinct ways as noted in the Catechism. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit. 7 Baptism initiates us into God s family and, at the same time God initiates the life long work of grace in us through the action of the Holy Spirit. To summarize, The 1979 Prayer Book situates Baptism as both entry into the Body of Christ and commissioning as a 5. BCP 1979, 304-305. 6. Louis Weil, When Signs Signify: The Baptismal Covenant in its Sacramental Context, (paper presented at The Hayes Conference Center, Derbyshire, England, 21-23 November 2007). 7. BCP 1979, 858. 4
disciple. 8 We understand by this that faith demands action and this covenant begins to form a particular type of Christian ethics which can guide that action. What we believe we ought to be doing is colored by the liturgy and some theologians suggest that the texts of the 1979 BCP have helped us to begin to understand ourselves as a sacramental and incarnational community. In writing about the 1979 BCP, James E. Griffiss states, Its services of worship have opened the way for us to understand more deeply that the Incarnation expresses our belief about the relationship between God and our humanity, and that sacramental life is the living out of that relationship in the church and in the world. 9 In the American Episcopal Church, this sacramental and incarnational identity has developed over time into a baptismal ecclesiology. Liturgy and ethics provide reciprocal contributions to our understanding of how we constitute ourselves as a church the people of God. Rev. Dr. Louis Weil wrote at length about this in one of his many books titled A Theology of Worship. The model of baptism as the fundamental sacrament of identity in the church is sometimes referred to as a baptismal ecclesiology that is, an understanding of the church that defines Christian community in terms of the common ground that all baptized members share. This understanding of the church sees baptism as the defining sacrament of incorporation into its life. This shift to a baptismal ecclesiology has shaped the church in several extremely important ways. 10 This author then proposes that we have returned to a greater appreciation of the fact that ministry in the church is much broader than what is done by bishops and clergy. A baptismal ecclesiology affirms that the gifts of the Holy 8. James F. Turrell, Muddying the Waters of Baptism: The Theology Committee s Report on Baptism, Confirmation, and Christian Formation, Anglican Theological Review, 88, no. 3 (Summer 2006) : 342. 9. James E. Griffiss, The Anglican Vision, (Boston: Cowley Publications, 1997), 93. 10. Louis Weil, A Theology of Worship, (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 2002), 13. 5
Spirit are given to all members so that ministry can be understood and shared by all of the people, whether lay or ordained, each according to the nature of the gifts that the Spirit has given. 11 This theme is addressed in the Catechism of the 1979 BCP under the heading of The Ministry where we read the following question and answer. Q. What is the ministry of the laity? A. The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be: and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ s reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church. 12 Having considered the impact of the 1979 BCP on liturgical practice and ecclesiology, I now want to explore the impact and meaning of this Baptismal Covenant in terms of Episcopal Christian ethics. The relationship between liturgy and ethics is well established. At the foundations of Christian faith and throughout Jewish teachings, liturgy and ethics are bound together internally. 13 A Latin phrase familiar to many is lex orandi lex credendi the order of prayer is the order of believing. One contemporary theologian expands upon this phrase by adding to it lex bene operindi the order of doing well. On the question of liturgy and ethics, we can come at once to the heart of the matter simply by adding across a second implied is the appropriate Latin words. Lex orandi lex credendi lex bene operandi. The order of prayer is the order of believing is the order of doing well. This statement, too, is reversible, and in any combination the three activities of the church to which the words refer: praying, believing and well-doing. No subordination should be implied of one or two of these actions to a third in which Christian life more fundamentally consists. 14 11. Ibid., 14. 12. BCP 1979, 855. 13. D. E. Sellers, Liturgy and Ethics: Some New Beginnings, The Journal of Religious Ethics, 7, no. 2 (Fall 1979), 174. 14. Paul Ramsey, Liturgy and Ethics, The Journal of Religious Ethics, 7, no. 2 (Fall 1979), 139. 6
It is important to remember that what we believe about God and how we worship God are intimately bound up in how we work out a suitable morality in the Church. Of fundamental significance for our moral endeavor, moreover, is the fact that Christian worship professes the confidence that it is in our midst, as the assembled worshiping community, that God effectively reshapes us, not willynilly, but in the image manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. 15 The fundamental belief that God does in fact continually reshape us as individuals and as a church body is reflected in the response that we make to each of the five promises of the Baptismal Covenant when we say I will, with God s help. Here I wish in particular to point out that Episcopal Christian ethics are not duty-based (deontological) but rather they are goal-directed (teleological). The goal that we are directed toward is to live as Christ s body in the world. Enabled by the Spirit, our ethics are the means by which we govern our actions, and our spirituality is the means by which we grow into the presence and reality of God. 16 Now I would like to address each of the five promises of the Baptismal Covenant and note how they provide direction for our moral life. In the first promise, we state that we intend to continue in the Apostles teaching and the fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and the prayers. By this we commit ourselves to ongoing Christian formation, participation in community life, sharing the Eucharist, and regular individual and communal prayer. These are the behaviors which constitute us as a church. To be the Church is to share a 15.Phillip J. Rosi, S.J., Narrative, Worship, and Ethics: Empowering Images for the Shape of Christian Moral Life, The Journal of Religious Ethics, 7, no. 2 (Fall 1979), 244. 16. Stephen Holmgren, Ethics After Easter, (Boston, Cowley Publications, 2000), 6. 7
common life sustained by a common faith, not as isolated individuals, but as a people who share a participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, who share the celebration of his Gospel, who share the problems and joys which are part of every human life, and finally who share a common mission, a common ministry as agents of transformation in the world. 17 When we promise that we will persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord, we are acknowledging that we are all sinners in need of God s grace. We say also by this that we understand conversion to be a process rather than an event. We claim that we intend, with the support of one another and the assistance of grace, to continue our journeys of faith. And finally we acknowledge that salvation is a communal enterprise and not the privilege of isolated individuals. The authentic liturgical act is a truly communal act; full participation is not the coinciding of the private piety of isolated individuals, but an integration of all the gathered individuals into a single act, as members of one Body. The liturgical act should constantly call each one of us back to a sense of membership in the Church, membership in the Body, membership in the people of God. If sin is often a prideful turning in upon ourselves, to our needs, our concerns, our priorities, then grace calls us outward to the other person in his or her needs, concerns, or priorities. In an extraordinary way, the other person looked upon in Christ calls me out of my narrow self to my true self, the self fulfilled in the mystery of our common life. 18 When we promise that we will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, we affirm our commitment to bear witness to Jesus in the world in which we live. This is our commitment to social justice. In the Episcopal Church, as well as many other faith communities, there has been a long history in our tradition of this witness. The church, sometimes corporately and 17. Louis Weil, Sacraments and Liturgy, (Oxford, Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited, 1983), 67. 18. Ibid., 94. 8
officially, sometimes through the actions of individual members, makes choices, takes stands, and speaks out on issues affecting both its own life and the life of the society of which it is a constituent part. 19 This witness is much more robust than just doing good and placing ourselves at the service of others. It conveys the idea of taking one s faith into the world, standing up for it, and when necessary, suffering the consequences. 20 When we promise that we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourself, we affirm that we intend to love one another as Christ loved us. This love which we promise to extend to all people is a particularly Christian mode of being in the world. We understand that in baptism we are radically included into the Body of Christ, and so we must be radically inclusive with everyone we encounter. This demands love, and acceptance, and creates an open table around which all are welcome to share. Fellowship and service, grounded in response to the Christian story, give some indication of the character of the Christian life. The traditional emphasis on love as agape stands at the center of both. Such a love cares for neighbors near and far, in their need. This means an openness to those about us and a willingness to embrace what may be troublesome. 21 When we promise to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being, we affirm our incarnational theology. The fact that God-in-Christ took on our human nature allows us to understand that every human person is of infinite worth and value. This insight offers us a guiding principle for the relation of each Christian to the world: the work of the 19. Harold T. Lewis, Christian Social Witness, (Boston, Cowley Publications, 2001), 1. 20. Ibid., 2. 21. Timothy F. Sedgwick, Sacramental Ethics: Paschal Identity and the Christian Life, (Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1987), 47-48. 9
church is not to escape the world, but to be the agent of transformation and healing whenever we encounter injustice, abuse, hatred, or indifference. 22 It is apparent that the Baptismal Covenant of the 1979 BCP is still in the process of reception within the church. Over the past 30 years, it has been unevenly received and incorporated throughout the various Episcopal dioceses in the United States. In a review of the 2005 report of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops entitled Forming Christians: Reflections on Baptism, Confirmation, and Christian Formation, James F. Turrell stated, The selfreported, present practices of a number of bishops fail to constitute a model of appropriate initiatory theology and practice. 23 Rev. Ruth A. Meyers, a colleague of Rev. Dr. Louis Weil, and member of the Standing Commission on the Liturgy that drafted the Baptismal Covenant, writes the following. The 1979 Prayer Book thus represents a growing understanding of baptism as the foundation for Christian life and ministry. But the new rites were preceded by over two decades of theological reflection and changing liturgical practices. So also is the Episcopal Church only gradually realizing the full implications of the 1979 Prayer Book. 24 The Baptismal Covenant of the 1979 BCP has had, and will likely continue to have a strong impact upon how the Episcopal Church in America works out its Christian ethics. The current state of affairs has our Church facing a wide variety of hotly debated issues. We must work through issues around the ordination of women and persons in same sex relationships to priesthood and the 22. Louis Weil, A Theology of Worship, (Cambridge, Cowley Publications, 2002), 17. 23. James F. Turrell, Muddying the Waters of Baptism: The Theology Committee s Report on Baptism, Confirmation, and Christian Formation, Anglican Theological Review, 88, no. 3 (Summer 2006) : 342. 24. Ruth A. Meyers, ed., Baptism and Ministry, (New York, The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1994), ix. 10
episcopate. We must confront issues of gender and race discrimination. The potential schism that is forming in our ranks requires attention. How we as a body want to approach the issues of a just war as opposed to pacifism is also a worthy topic for consideration. There are also issues of global warming and economic justice to be addressed by us. This list could go on and on. The fact of the matter is that if we hold true to our baptismal ecclesiology then that is what needs to guide how we determine what we consider to be right moral actions as a Church. It is through the baptismal promises that all of us invite the Holy Spirit to be within and among us as individuals and as a Church. To say it plainly, no account of justice can be intelligible without drawing on the profoundest convictions of ourselves as a community which is gathered and banded together by tradition in a boundaried commons. Baptism generates this kind of identity for us Christians by initiating us into this kind of community. Baptism thereby denotes the truth about who we are, and who we are destined to become, and what constitutes a good life and a good death. We then understand ourselves to be a people for whom it is better to give than to receive; who save their lives by losing them; who are each other s advocates and not their adversaries; who are God s friends, and not God s enemies. 25 The 1979 BCP states that, The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble. 26 I believe that the bond between us and God made through baptism needs to be for us life-changing and Church-changing. It must color how we work out our Christian ethics as a body. A common Episcopal axiom states that Church authority rests on a sturdy three-legged stool. That means that we must apply what we read in Scripture, what we know by our tradition, and what we believe by way of reason to working out our moral theology. A more robust notion of Church authority suggests that in the American Episcopal Church, 25. Harmon L. Smith, Where Two or Three are Gathered: Liturgy and the Moral Life, (Cleveland, The Pilgrim Press, 1995), 35. 26. 1979 BCP, 298. 11
authority derives from no less than five sources which are; biblical authority, creedal authority, tradition, liturgy, along with personal conscience and experience. 27 Other theologians suggest that authority derives principally from consensus; that is, when the clergy, laity and bishops meet at General Conventions and National Assemblies, they work out the teaching of the Church by coming to a consensus which we believe is guided by the action of the Holy Spirit. 28 Yet, however we believe the Church derives its authority to speak on issues of morality, by reason of how we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, we must work together in all charity as we work through the various issues currently vexing us as a Church. All of that must occur in the context of mutual love and respect. Put most directly, Christian ethics differs from other ethics in this way: we are in Christ, and we have received assurance that our approach to the moral life is God-enabled, Christ-indwelled, and Spirit led. 29 I think that another valid way of understanding the potential impact of the Baptismal Covenant on our individual and congregational lives is to place it in the context of the commandments that Jesus called the greatest in Scripture. One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. 30 27. Robert E. Hood, Social Teachings in the Episcopal Church, Wilton: Morehouse Publishing, 1990), 185-186. 28. Stephen Holmgren, Ethics After Easter, (Boston, Cowley Publications, 2000), 38-40. 29. Ibid., pp. 167-170. 30. Mt. 12: 28-31 NRSV (New Revised Standard Version). 12
The Baptismal Covenant is grounded in the Apostles Creed, followed by five promises that sketch out our morality in a general way. So the format of the Baptismal Covenant can serve to help us recall the commandments that we first love God and also love our neighbors as ourselves. Additional directives on Baptism in the 1979 BCP stipulate that we renew these baptismal promises no less than four times a year; those being, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints Day, and on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. 31 This may be the greatest hope we have for unity and consensus in working out our moral theology as faithful Episcopalians in the twenty-first century. If the texts which we pray are indeed the faith which we share, then their proclamation in the midst of the assembly of baptized people has a formative impact upon the people gathered. The proclamation through word and sacrament becomes the foundation of the common memory shared by all believers of God s work of redemption in Christ and of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as the life principle of the Church. What we acknowledge by faith in our corporate prayer is the basis of what we are becoming through the grace of God: what we pray is a manifestation of what we believe. 32 When we renew together our baptismal promises, we must allow the words to seep into us rather than just wash over us. We must hold fast to love of God and love of one another by way of commitment to the Baptismal Covenant, and then we may actualize in our lifetime the words of the familiar hymn Ubi Caritas while we work toward consensus on Episcopal Christian ethics. Where charity and love prevail there God is ever found; brought here together by Christ s love by love are we thus bound. Let strife among us be unknown, let all contentions cease; be his the glory that we seek, be ours his holy peace. 33 31. 1979 BCP, 312. 32. Louis Weil, Gathered to Pray: Understanding Liturgical Prayer, (Cambridge, Cowley Publications, 1986), p. 128. 33. Ubi Caritas. Latin: tr. J. Clifford Evers. Cheshire. Melody and bass from The Whole Book of Psalms (1592) in The Hymnal 1982, (New York: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1985), no. 581. 13
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