The Parson's Handbook
Encyclopedia
Percy Dearmer
Percy Dearmer, was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice...
, first published in 1899, that was fundamental to the development of liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and throughout the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
.
The 19th century Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
brought the High Church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
within the Church of England into a place of confident leadership of the mainstream of the church. By the end of that century, many were struggling to find suitable forms of worship that were at once obedient to the letter of the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
(if not its intention) and reflected the desire to a return to more Catholic forms of ritual and ceremonial. Some in the church took on board much of the ritual of the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
. Dearmer and other members of the Alcuin Club
Alcuin Club
The Alcuin Club is an Anglican organization devoted to preserving or restoring church ceremony, arrangement, ornament and practice in an orthodox manner. It was founded in 1897, with its first publication, English Altars by W. H. St. John Hope, appearing in 1899. The Club is dedicated to the Book...
decried this wholesale adaptation of Italianate forms, and they campaigned for a revived English Catholicism that was rooted in pre-Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
ritual, especially in the Sarum Use — something they termed the Anglican Use or English Use. The Parson's Handbook is Dearmer's brotherly advice to fellow churchmen about the correct way to conduct proper and fitting English worship. Dearmer's writing style is strong: he disparages customs he finds quaint or misguided, and makes good use of his subtle wit. Although Deamer's directions would have originally been considered High Church, the popularity of the Handbook has made them normative. This norm has been influential throughout those portions of the Anglican Communion that have been open to the development of a more Catholic ritual. Although the Handbook now appears somewhat dated, and many Anglican provinces
Ecclesiastical Province
An ecclesiastical province is a large jurisdiction of religious government, so named by analogy with a secular province, existing in certain hierarchical Christian churches, especially in the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican Communion...
have adopted more modern liturgies than the single BCP
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
of Dearmer's age, his work remains surprisingly useful in the modern context.
The Handbook was first published by Grant Richards in 1899. Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
published their first edition in 1907. The twelfth edition was published in 1932, four years before Dearmer's death. The final, 13th edition was extensively revised and rewritten by Cyril Pocknee, a former pupil of Dearmer's.
Chapter headings
- Some Liturgical Principles
- The Christian AltarAltarAn altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
and its Furnishings - The Chancel and Nave and their Furniture
- Vestments and Vesture, including Episcopal Insignia and Liturgical Colours
- The Ornaments of the Church
- Vestries
- Matins and Evensong
- Processions, including the use of the Litany
- The Holy Communion: (1) Introduction
- The Holy Communion: (2) Solemn Eucharist or High MassHigh MassHigh Mass may mean:*Solemn Mass, a Tridentine Mass celebrated with deacon and subdeacon *Missa Cantata, a sung Tridentine Mass without deacon and subdeacon...
- The Holy Communion: (3) Priest and Clerk; a plain Celebration
- The Rites of Christian Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion
- The Solemnization of Holy Matrimony and the Churching of Women
- The Visitation, Anointing, and Communion of the Sick
- The Burial of the Dead, including Memorials to the Departed
- Notes on the Seasons
- The Parish Meating and the Parish Breakfast
- Appendix I: Collects for Use in Processions and on other Occasions
- Appendix II: New and Revised Canons (1964): Section G, Things Appertaining to Churches