Church Catechism
Church Catechism, also called the Prayer Book Catechism, is the short manual of Christian instruction printed in the Book of Common Prayer between the baptismal offices and the Order of Confirmation. Its full title is "A Catechism, that is to say, An Instruction to be learned of every person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop": it is designed to prepare those baptized in infancy to ratify their baptismal promises at their Confirmation.
Structure and contents
The Catechism is cast in the form of question and answer. It falls into five parts: the baptismal covenant, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the sacraments. The first part opens with the questions, "What is your Name?" and "Who gave you this Name?", to which the child answers that his godparents gave it to him in Baptism, "wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." He then learns the threefold promise his godparents made in his name: first, that he should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; secondly, that he should believe all the articles of the Christian faith; and thirdly, that he should keep God's holy will and commandments all the days of his life. He acknowledges that he is bound to believe and to do as they promised for him.
The second part rehearses the Articles of the Belief, that is, the Apostles' Creed, and asks what the child chiefly learns from them: to believe in God the Father who made him and all the world, in God the Son who redeemed him and all mankind, and in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifies him and all the elect people of God. The third part sets out the Ten Commandments, taken from the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and asks what the child chiefly learns by them: "two things: my duty towards God, and my duty towards my Neighbour." His duty towards God is to believe in him, fear him, and love him with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, to worship him, give him thanks, put his whole trust in him, call upon him, honour his holy Name and his Word, and serve him truly all the days of his life. His duty towards his Neighbour is to love him as himself, and to do to all men as he would they should do unto him — with particular duties to parents, to the King and those in authority, and to governors, teachers, and masters, and to deal justly and truly.
The fourth part gives the Lord's Prayer in full, and then asks, "What desirest thou of God in this Prayer?" The answer is a wide petition: that God, the giver of all goodness, would send his grace to the child and to all people, that they may worship, serve, and obey him as they ought; that he will send them all things needful for souls and bodies; that he will forgive their sins, defend them in all dangers, and keep them from sin and wickedness and from everlasting death.
The fifth part treats of the sacraments. It asks how many sacraments Christ has ordained in his Church — "Two only, as generally necessary to salvation; that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord" — and then asks, "What meanest thou by this word Sacrament?" The answer gives the classical Anglican definition:
- I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.
The Catechism goes on to distinguish the two parts of a sacrament, the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual grace. In Baptism the outward sign is water, in which the person is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; the inward grace is "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness."
History
A shorter catechism was included in the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549, then entitled "Confirmation, wherein is contained a Catechism for Children." The Commandments were given first briefly, then at fuller length in 1552. The section on the sacraments was added in 1604 by royal authority, following the wishes expressed by the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference; its composition is attributed to John Overall, then Dean of St Paul's. In the last revision of the Prayer Book in 1661–62 the title was changed to "A Catechism," and a few verbal alterations were made.
The Catechism's brevity, compared with longer sixteenth-century catechisms, was deliberate: it was meant to be learned by heart by children, and taught openly in the church.
Purpose and use
The Catechism was designed as the instrument of preparation for Confirmation. Its rubric in the 1662 book directs that the curate shall instruct and examine the children of his parish in the Catechism openly in the Church, and requires that none be confirmed but such as can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and can answer the other questions. When children have come to a competent age and can say these things in their mother tongue, they are to be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed.
Because the Catechism is so closely tied to the baptismal covenant, it has remained the principal elementary textbook of the faith in the Anglican tradition. Modern works of a fuller kind, such as Louis R. Tarsitano's An Outline of an Anglican Life (Classical Anglican Press, 1994), follow the same course of instruction at a greater length.
See also
References
- The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "A Catechism."
- Francis Procter and W. H. Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, Macmillan, 1901.