Abstract
Bishop Stephen Platten was the Chair of the Church of England Liturgical Commission from 2004 to 2014, a fruitful period that saw the publication, among other things, of Common Worship: Christian initiation. The various chapters here were first given as talks and published during this period, except for the sixth, ‘The Bible, symbolism and liturgy’, first published as a Grove booklet in 1981. The latter focuses on how inextricably linked biblical revelation and performance are, throughout the biblical witness, using Austin Farrer’s The Glass of Vision as the starting point. It is a real ‘chicken and egg’ matter, and something to be celebrated rather than regarded as a problem to be solved.
The third chapter on the rites of Christian initiation is one of the best in the book. It deals with the problem of how to deal with confirmation now that baptism has been generally accepted as the sacrament of full inclusion. Is it a way of expressing a definitive moment of adult conversion, a pastoral rite, or a rite of passage? Does it need a bishop to perform it? For me as a parish priest, this was the chapter that stimulated the most reflection. How do we tackle the task of discipling today when the cultural support for this particular rite has largely fallen away, existing only in fragments that complicate as much as they help. I liked the idea of initiation as an ‘unfolding event’ that might take different forms in the life journeys of different people, rather than the ‘one shape fits all’ attitude we have inherited from the past.
Together, these chapters are a testament to the breadth of Bishop Platten’s reading in history, science, literature, art, architecture and anthropology as well as theology. I learned interesting snippets about all sorts of things on the way, and mouth-watering clues and concepts to be followed up in further reading. The chapter on the Book of Common Prayer is a great piece of revisionism, explaining why, among all the liturgical changes of the decades, it has retained the respect of so many, while, at the same time, using the scholarship of modern historians such as Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch to bury the old argument between high and low church interpretations of its contents.
As mentioned above, these chapters started life as occasional pieces written or delivered for different audiences. Very occasionally the need for a clear starting point, as in the use of Hoggart’s concepts in the chapter ‘The uses of literacy’, straitjackets the argument a little, and some chapters are very much more academic and dense with reference than others. But this is a very good read, not only for those interested in or in charge of liturgy but for any intellectually enquiring person. It is remarkable how much Bishop Platten’s unfolding vision, though it takes on a different guise in different contexts, remains consistent throughout.