the scottish episcopal church

A New History, by gavin white

Preface

1
Tullochgorum

2
Eighteenth Century

3
Seabury

4
Worship

5
Edinburgh

6
Oxford Movement

7
Glasgow

8
Publications

9
Church or Province

10
'English Episcopal'

11
Schools

12
Social Service

13
Synods and Councils

14
Clergy Training

15
A Small Dog Barking

16
As Others See Us

17
Women

18
Society

19
Second World War and After

Selected bibliography

Links

It is often said that during the eighteenth century Episcopal services only differed from Presbyterian in having the "Glory be to the Father..." after the psalm, and having the Lord's Prayer said every Sunday. Further, the minister dressed in the same black gown with white tabs or "bands" at his neck. When Bishop William Skinner of Aberdeen demanded in 1823 that all his clergy should wear the surplice, he having been to Oxford in his youth, "some of the clergy", wrote William Walker, "and those not the youngest, were overpowered by a feeling of shyness and a nervous horror of the effect which the sight of them in the white robe would produce on the unaccustomed eyes of northern churchmen." Mr. Shand of Buckie "is said to have hung his head down", and Mr. Robertson of Old Meldrum had to cross the road from his house to the church and "this was something of an ordeal, like running the gauntlet or walking the plank." And in early days the communicants would be issued with tokens admitting them to the Sacrament, which they would receive, even under William Skinner at St. Andrew's in Aberdeen, at "tables" in the old Presbyterian fashion. In 1904 Dean Farquhar recounted Canon Bruce, then 83 years old, speaking of his days at Peterhead with old Bishop Torry, who wore a brown wig, "Bp Torry would not wear his Episcopal Robes except on great occasions for Episcopal Offices. Always the black gown. And at Communion, I remember, we always used to sing the verse of a psalm between the successive 'tables' and the Bp used to dismiss each 'table' with a special form of blessing." Bruce was also at St Andrew's in Aberdeen with Bishop William Skinner, who seems to have kept some old customs despite his English education, for, "You know when Wagstaffe came and upset all our old-fashioned ways I had to go", and to Dunfermline he went. That must have been as late as 1844. (1)

Yet there were Scottish Episcopal churches in which the English Book of Common Prayer was established early in the eighteenth century, and of course the Qualified chapels were required to use that book and none other. Canon William Cooper says that in the last half of the century Bishop Petrie and others used the English Prayer Book, on Sundays having Morning Prayer, Litany, the Ante-Communion (the non-Sacramental early part of the Holy Communion service), and Sermon, with, apparently, some singing of the psalms. Petrie celebrated Holy Communion four times a year. Bishop Gerard had an 8.00 am Holy Communion on its own on Easter Sunday, "probably for the benefit of servants, but this is not heard of elsewhere". Mr. Cruickshank at Meiklefolla had the usual opportunity for non-communicants to withdraw before the consecration, and after communion he had the 116th Psalm, and he then consumed the remaining elements, "except what was reserved for the sick". At Fraserburgh in the later eighteenth century Bishop Jolly celebrated as infrequently as everyone else but communicated himself each Sunday from the reserved sacrament; he was probably as unique in this as he was in everything else. J.B.Craven says that the English Prayer Book was introduced into some congregations after 1690, that St. Andrew's in Aberdeen used it from 1735, and that others adopted it much later. Patrick Cheyne in Aberdeen was the first in the north to use the Athanasian Creed, except for Bishop Jolly, since that creed was avoided by Hutchinsonians. The impression given is of a Presbyterian morning service slowly giving way to English Morning Prayer with Litany and Ante-Communion. But we do not know why this happened. There may have been a desire to outflank the Qualified chapels, and a desire to avoid harassment by association with the Church of England, but the main reason was probably devotional. Those who remained Episcopalian in 1690 were the sort of Christians who would have wanted a fixed liturgy anyway. (2)

And yet there was a Eucharistic liturgy, or succession of such liturgies, of quite a different tradition. It was used in the Diocese of Aberdeen where most Episcopalians were to be found, and occasionally elsewhere. Bishop Gadderer of Aberdeen, who had brought the English Jacobite or "Non-Juring" episcopal succession into the Scottish Episcopal Church, published an office for Holy Communion in 1724, with pen and ink alterations. In 1731 there was a Concordat to use either Scottish or English, but some thought the former meant Gadderer's rite, and some the virtually forgotten book of 1637. There was another printing in 1735, and in 1743 a final Gadderer version which spread, and in 1744 Bishop Rattray's studies favoured either a liturgy of 1718 or that of 1735. There was then a version of 1755 and finally that of 1764, but with alterations to the Invocation of the Holy Spirit which was vital to all these productions. (3)

The Invocation, or Epiclesis, had appeared in a very mild form in the 1637 Scottish Prayer Book, supposedly based on the English 1549 book, though there have always been those who argued that the Epiclesis was very ancient in Scotland and derived from a presumed Eastern Orthodox influence on Celtic Christianity. Apart from its hesitant appearance in 1637, there is no evidence of it before the eighteenth century. It was possibly introduced because the English Non-Jurors were trying to enlist the support of the Patriach of Constantinople, calling themselves the "Ancient British Church". On the other hand, W.Jardine Grisbrooke and Marion Hatchett have shown that there was intense interest in liturgical revision in the eighteenth century Church of England, and this often involved the introduction of an Epiclesis. It could be argued that this brought about approaches to the Patriarch, rather than approaches to the Patriarch leading to the adoption of an Epiclesis. In any event nothing came of it; the negotiations became public and the Patriarch had to back down in the face of Church of England protests. But what was done in Scotland has to be seen in relation to the somewhat larger movement in England. (4)

But just having an Epiclesis raised all sorts of new problems. Was the prayer asking that the Holy Spirit fall upon the communicants, or upon the elements of bread and wine ? If the latter, did this consecrate them, and if so, did that downgrade the Words of Institution ("This is my body...") ? Which were the critical words, or should the whole prayer be taken in its entirety without any critical point ? And should the Epiclesis be before the Words of Institution or after ? And if the elements were consecrated by the Epiclesis, should there be a phrase guarding against abuse by saying they were consecrated for the benefit of the faithful who received them ? In Aberdeenshire a few clergy became studied in the art of liturgy, and favoured eastern practices, which were opposed by others. The 1764 liturgy was thus something of a compromise, with the Epiclesis after the Words of Institution. This allowed those who wished to believe that the consecration was effected by the Words of Institution to regard the Epiklesis as an optional prayer for an effective use of the consecration. The 1764 form had, however, become so widespread in the north that the 1911 Scottish Book of Common Prayer, which seemed to limit the Epiclesis to its effect on the congregation, "to the end that all who shall receive the same may be sanctified in body and soul, and preserved unto everlasting life", was somewhat resented. It was in fact an attempt to make the old Scottish Liturgy more widely acceptable, and in this it succeeded. (5)

But in the 1920s eastern theories of liturgical development were all the rage, and in the theological college the priest knelt at the Epiclesis, while no "special significance" was given to the Words of Institution. Furthermore, it was proposed to put an "Amen" after the Epiclesis. Of such things are revolutions made; an observer complained that, "An attempt is being made to commit the Scottish Church to an Eastern theory of consecration and no other", while "even the 1764 Liturgy was at pains to preserve the Western theory of consecration", by using heavy print for the Words of Institution. But belief in eastern antiquity ceased to dominate liturgical scholarship, and the Epiclesis was preserved as a relic of penal days in the north rather than a theological proposition. Yet all this argument about the Epiclesis was rather unreal; most of the students of the college would never use the Scottish Liturgy anyway, but only the English Communion Office. (6)

In eighteenth century liturgical scholarship the great name is Thomas Rattray, a Perthshire laird who became bishop of Brechin, then Dunkeld, and finally Edinburgh before his death in 1743. He it was who translated into Greek the letters of the English Non-Juring bishops to patriarchs in Constantinople and elsewhere, and he was much involved in controversies between those who used certain liturgical practices, now commonplace, called "usagers", and those who did not, called "non-usagers". His critical edition of the Liturgy of St. James was accompanied by a version for use by Episcopalians, with the Epiclesis prudently placed after the Words of Institution instead of before. But his work was largely frustrated by the failure of the 1745 rebellion, which sent so many Episcopalians to seek the protection of the English rite. (7)

In the nineteenth century there was only one attempt to produce an entire prayer book for Scottish Episcopalians, which occurred in 1849 when Bishop Patrick Torry issued the old 1637 Prayer Book with the 1764 Eucharistic Liturgy as a Book of Common Prayer for the entire Episcopal Church. Other bishops had not been consulted and repudiated the book. This was hardly surprising, for Episcopalians were warding off enemies who wanted to prove them Roman and unfaithful to Anglican ways. But Torry stuck by his book, and his right to issue one, even as his fellow-bishops rushed to pretend it did not exist. (8)

Production of a fully-authorised Prayer Book waited for another half-century and was largely the work of a later liturgical scholar, A.J.MacLean, Bishop of Moray from 1904 until 1943. He had been in parish work at Portree and then Selkirk, was head of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Christians from 1886-91, and was elected from the principalship of Coates Hall. His firm hand lay upon both the 1911 and the 1929 Prayer Books, and if he expressed himself without lightness of touch, he was thorough and thoughtful. But the Scottish Liturgy in the 1929 Prayer Book was marred by an historically correct but hopelessly impractical section in which the Prayer of Consecration, the Prayer of Oblation, the Epiclesis, and the lengthy intercession of the Prayer for the Church Militant, stretched on and on with no congregational participation. As was remarked of this book, "among frequent worshippers moments of sleepy oblivion are quite common during the Canon until they are roused to attention by the recitation of the Lord's Prayer." In fact the 1929 revision was largely overshadowed by the English revision of 1927, a moderately Scottish sort of book with an Epiclesis as was then fashionable, which Canon Henderson-Begg suggested should be used by the Episcopal Church with a new title page and the Scottish office inserted. This was an interesting idea, though that was virtually what the 1929 Scottish Book seemed to be anyway. But the English 1927 book was not popular with many and after being twice rejected by Parliament it disappeared from sight. The 1929 Scottish book was thus left out on a limb as liturgy moved in other directions. (9)

Yet all of this passed over the heads of the majority of Episcopalians who never used the Scottish Liturgy in any of its forms. Those who had come into Scottish Episcopalianism from Qualified chapels after 1788 were guaranteed the right to continue to use the English Communion Office, and in the more southerly dioceses even those of Jacobite ancestry were accustomed to the English Prayer Book and had never known the Scottish Liturgy. Throughout the nineteenth century there was a constant see-saw as the balance tipped one way or another - - the Scottish was paramount, but the English was protected, the English was paramount and only those congregations which already used the Scottish could continue to do so, then the Scottish - - but with the 1970 liturgy both the older forms were cast into the shade, and everyone used a liturgy with an Epiclesis whether they knew it or not.

It is sometimes suggested that clergy of extreme Anglo-Catholic views found things too hot for them in England and took refuge in Scotland, where they could empty churches at will. Certainly there were some such, but precious few, and in general clergy were sensitive to, if not entirely sympathetic with, the willingness or otherwise of the laity to welcome change. As Drummond and Bulloch have observed, "Even in the Scottish Episcopal Church, which shared the national characteristics as much as the Presbyterians, lay influence counted for far more than in England and clerical influence for less. All branches of the Church in Scotland in the first half of this century had been subject to pressure for change in worship. The laity created this pressure and they decided where it should stop." (10)

But in the late nineteenth and throughout the twentieth century the main development was the replacement of Morning Prayer, with or without Litany and Ante-Communion, by Holy Communion itself as the major Sunday service. This was usually achieved by small steps - - a sung Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month, then on the first and third Sundays, and finally on all Sundays. Or else a sung Morning Prayer had a sung Eucharist added to it, and then the sermon moved to the later rather than the former, then Morning Prayer was said and not sung. To a very large effect this was due to the sacramental teaching of the Oxford Movement which had penetrated everywhere, but in its later stages it was also a response to decline in church-going. There had been a large following of non-communicant adherents who withdrew from the service before communion, and decline cut these down while leaving the more committed communicants still in place. It was natural that worship should be ordered for the communicants who remained rather than the adherents who did not. But the new frequency of eucharistic worship high-lighted the inadequacies of both the 1662 English Communion Rite and the 1929 Scottish Liturgy.

That the 1929 Prayer Book went wrong in ordering the prayers of the Eucharist in such soporific fashion was seen when certain clergy in Glasgow initiated a revision which led, after an opinion poll, to the 1970 Liturgy or Grey Book. This placed the intercession before the offertory, rather on the lines of the English Series 2. It became very widely used, and the 1929 book only lingered on amongst the most suspicious. Then came a temporary Orange Book of 1977, and finally the 1982 Liturgy, or Blue Book, rather on the lines of the English Alternative Service Book Rite A.
But Episcopalians also produced a great many hymn books, though probably no more than their numbers warranted. Bishop Walker of Edinburgh compiled one for his diocese as early as 1830. This went through eight editions before a committee of a lay and clerical member from each diocese headed, inevitably, by Dean Ramsay, produced a draft book of 289 hymns in 1856. This was not widely used as too many hymns were translated from the Latin, so Bishop Wordsworth revised it it 1858 with only 119 psalms and hymns. Another revision of 1866 was only used in Edinburgh, while the 1850 St Ninian's Hymnal by Alexander Lendrum was only used in St. Andrews Diocese, and a book of 1857 by Norval Clyne was issued for Aberdeen. Glasgow, meanwhile, had a metrical psalter compiled by Bishop Trower in 1853, which was dismissed by musicologists as being "of no particular merit". Apart from these, Gilbert Rorison of Peterhead had issued a hymnal in 1851, printed in England for general use, while Patrick Cheyne had his own hymnal for St. John's, Aberdeen, later revised by Comper, who then produced mission hymns for St. Margaret's, Aberdeen. There were at least nineteen other hymnals, several coming from Millport, until a few nationally-used collections from England replaced local Scottish books as well as English. And, with almost no opposition, these provided most of the hymns in Presbyterian books. (11)

But books were only part of the story. In the year after Sir Herbert Oakeley became Professor of Music at Edinburgh in 1865 he replaced Dr.Chipp at St. Paul's, York Place, and set about raising musical standards throughout the diocese and beyond. Meanwhile in Glasgow the musical centre was St.Mary's, where the fifty years from 1868 until 1918 saw six organists, all, like the clergy, English. First was H.A.Lambeth who founded the Lambeth Choir, and composed the anthem, "God is our help and strength", before moving to Park Parish Church, to the horror of all good Episcopalians. Then came Benjamin Whitham who was commemorated, not by an anthem, but by a stained-glass window, and then Arthur Simms who left for Hillhead Parish Church, moving from there to be professor of music at King's College, London. Next was W.G.Martin who stayed twenty-five years and "dispensed with" the ladies of the choir, and then George Pattman from 1904 until 1917, and finally a Mr. Pullein who was dismissed in 1939 because of his "low standards", though it seems odd that they took so long to became aware of this lowness. But at least he was given a pension, and he took his dismissal more philosophically that an organist at St. John's, Princes Street, in Edinburgh, who was dismissed for much the same cause after much the same lapse of years, and responded by a dawn-raid on the churchyard from which he removed the bodies of his parents. (12)

The "proper cathedral establishment with daily sung offices" at St.Mary's, Edinburgh, was initiated by Dr. Collinson who had assisted Dr. Armes at Durham Cathedral and moved to Edinburgh at the age of twenty. That was in the old iron church a year before the cathedral was built, and he remained in Edinburgh until his death in 1928. Originally both Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer were sung, but later it was only Morning Prayer with a Sung Eucharist on saints' days. A recollection on St. Mary's Choir School in the 1920s has it that, "The musical education was good. The school teaching was less than mediocre." This was led by Old John Keith, "in his earlier days a teacher in a Lancashire 'half-time' school. He brought the crude methods of such an institution to Scotland." "But the boys were happy enough It was just as well for them that they never took John seriously." But any school with only one teacher varied according to the teacher; others, notably the Rev. Reggie Woodward, were excellent. (13)

Elsewhere in Scotland, St.Mary's, Glasgow, had a daily sung Evensong from its becoming a cathedral early in this century until about 1929; it was abandoned through "practical difficulties" and without a choir school it is astonishing that it lasted so long. There were daily sung services in the cathedral in Inverness, and at St. Columba's, Edinburgh, which depended on its school. And when Charles Cowe, assistant to Collinson at Edinburgh, moved to St. Paul's, Dundee, in 1890, he set a high standard for the years ahead. But gradually the pattern of English cathedral worship was modified for Scottish and parochial conditions, women crept back into chancels whether seen or unseen, boys were still singing but were no longer the mainstay of the musical programme, and if cathedrals were still cathedrals, they did not try to be Salisbury or Durham. (14)

In the final analysis, the Scottish Episcopal Church had to find a middle way between being Scottish and being English, and most of its members, even in Aberdeenshire, wanted it to be a middle way. Its worship therefore had to be a little different from that of the Church of England without being too different, and this was achieved by a variety of compromises and alternatives which shifted according to circumstances.