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Out of the question
Write, if you have a question you would like answered, or to add to the answers given below Your answers Why do so many clergy add “and those you love” as an appendage to the blessing? Is not the liturgy to protect congregations from the discretion of the minister? Stevie Smith, in her poem “Why are the Clergy . . . ?” (Collected Poems, Allen Lane, 1975), addresses the mawkish habit of appending extra words to prayers in the liturgy: . . . last night in church I heard (I italicize the interpolation) ‘The Lord bless you and keep you and all who are dear unto you’ As the blessing is a congregational blessing and meant to be This is questionable on theological grounds But is it not offensive to the ear and also ludicrous? . . . I suppose we shall have next ‘Lighten our darkness we beseech thee oh Lord and the darkness of all who are dear to us.’ . . . (Canon) Ian TomlinsonAndover Since the blessing comes from 2 Corinthians, adding extra words may be seen as superfluous. But it is also liturgy. Canon B5.1 reads: “The minister . . . may at his discretion make and use variations which are not of substantial importance.” B5.3 adds: “All variations . . . shall be reverent and seemly and shall be neither contrary to, nor indicative of any departure from, the doctrine of the Church of England.” Since many churchgoers leave at home family members who are less devout or live remote from them, it is probably seen as desirable to include them all within the outreach of God’s blessing as invoked by the priest. Neither loss of reverence nor doctrinal departure is involved.Christopher Haffner (Reader) East Molesey, Surrey At theological college in South Africa, I was taught a difference between “May Almighty God” do this, that, or the other, and the impetrative “and the blessing of God Almighty . . . be upon you.” The impetrative formula was held to apply only to things or people in front of you. This would preclude any group who were not present. (The Revd) Bruce Bridgewood London N11 When I was training to be a Reader in the 1990s, a lecturer who celebrated for us had the salutary habit of adding to the blessing the words: “on those you love and on those you cannot stand”. Frank Cranmer London SW1 Address: Out of the Question, Church Times, 13-17 Long Lane, London EC1A 9PN. questions@churchtimes.co.uk |
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