Russian Observations upon the American Prayerbook

The question of the validity of Anglican Orders and Rites has also been taken up by the Orthodox. One group over a century ago transferred from the Anglican to the Orthodox traditions, desiring to be Western Rite Orthodox while retaining the Book of Common Prayer then in use. This is a commentary on these Rites from the Orthodox point of view. In the period that has elapsed since then considerable advance has been made in the better mutual understanding of Orthodox and Anglican. But it is thought that the Observations deserve to be known in England, because they may help still further to advance that cause. The circumstances that evoked the Observations are described in the opening remarks, and they must be accurately noted if the document itself is to be properly appreciated. It was not the satisfactoriness, or the reverse, of the American Prayer Book in itself, that was in question, but its satisfactoriness as a group of rites for use by an Orthodox congregation-and a congregation too which was for the first time conforming itself to Orthodoxy. This being the case the scrutiny was bound to be more searching, and the requirements more exacting, than they would have been in the other case. The Observations are not controversial - they are practical in their character and brotherly in their spirit. They will seem to us Anglicans to betray at times some prejudice and some deep-seated suspicions, which we had not, perhaps, anticipated. But if we realize how much of similar prejudice and suspicion there is among us with regard to Orthodox belief and practice, we shall not let ourselves be surprised, or even hurt, by this.