The Great Litany (part I)
One of the most curious occurrences within the season
of Lent in the Anglican Tradition is the praying of the Great Litany.
Traditionally, this is done on the first, second, third and fifth
Sundays of Lent, although in many churches it is limited to the first
Sunday. Quite simply, a litany is a series of petitions that are said in
a responsive fashion between a leader and an entire congregation. In
the Great Litany, nearly every general area of prayer is addressed
including prayer for various aspects of the church, the world, the
government, and the poor. These petitions are prefaced by a series of
requests asking God to deliver us from all manner of afflictions: evil,
sin, heresy, schism, natural disasters, political disasters, violence,
death, etc.
The reason why I say this is curious is because it is
definitively not “seeker-sensitive.” By that term I am referring to a
tendency in modern church practice to make everything easily accessible
and pleasing to people with no prior experience at that or any church.
Little could be more peculiar or awkward to someone unfamiliar with the
practice for a church service to begin without warning, with ten to
twelve minutes of a cappella chanting of prayers with the congregation
repeating the same refrain the entire time. This happens as the choir,
clergy and lay ministers process into the sanctuary and continue to
process around the sanctuary until the entire litany is over. Though I
undoubtedly loved the experience and wish it was practiced more
frequently I have to admit it was quite strange.
Ironically, the Great Litany was actually the first
piece of liturgy that ever existed in the English language. Thomas
Cranmer was appointed the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury in
1532. He was largely responsible for producing the first Book of Common
Prayer in 1549 and was later burned at the stake as a heretic under the
reign of Mary Tudor (also known as Bloody Mary). It is hard to
understand at this point in history, but at that time all church
services were in Latin. It was not until the Protestant reformation that
liturgy began to be performed in the vernacular language. Henry VIII
commissioned Cranmer to write the Litany because at the time it was the
practice for litanies to be offered in procession through public
neighborhoods. Henry was disappointed that people were not responding
and joining in the prayers. He keenly perceived that this was because
the people “understode no parte of suche prayers or suffrages as were
used to be songe and sayde.” He accordingly decreed that a litany be
written in English
We know that he compiled the litany from a
combination of Catholic, Lutheran and Greek Orthodox sources. It remains
to the present day almost entirely the same, sung to the same chants
Cranmer originally assigned. Why was this the first piece of English
liturgy? Why is still practiced to the present day? The only reason I
can imagine, is that from its inception, the Anglican tradition saw
prayer as central to its life together and mission in the world. The
Great Litany, though now seeming like an oddity to many, is a reminder
that English speaking and worshipping Christians from the beginning
earnestly desired God’s intervention and involvement in all areas of
life. With this, I could not be in stronger solidarity.
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