Episcopal Press and News
French Prayer Book Project Under Way
Episcopal News Service. May 22, 1980 [80186]
New York -- An Anglican and ecumenical international committee has begun work on what it hopes will be the "single finest French Prayer Book available in the Anglican Communion."
The Committee for the Translation of the Book of Common Prayer met in mid-May at the Episcopal Church Center to plan its work and begin translation of the eucharistic portion of the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer. The committee consists of Anglican, Episcopal and Roman Catholic French and liturgical scholars and its work is financed by a grant from the Bible and Common Prayer Book Society.
The Rev. Samuel Van Culin, executive for World Mission in Church and Society at the Episcopal Church Center and chairman of the panel, explained that the group broke into subcommittees which will translate the Collects, Prefaces, Prayers of Intercession and the Rite I and II Eucharistic settings. They hope to review these works in a meeting of the full committee in November.
In expressing the committee's hope for the "finest French Prayer Book available in the Anglican Communion, " Father Van Culin cited the potential for worldwide usage of such a book. The immediate focus is on the Diocese of Haiti, he said, but it will also be useful in French-speaking areas of New England, in French congregations of Canada, in the newly inaugurated Province of Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire and in other French-speaking areas of the world.
He also said that the committee visualized the Book as being a valuable tool in ecumenical settings where French is a common tongue. The new Anglican province has already asked to have access to the translations and a Canadian is a member of the committee.
The coordinator for the committee is the Rev. Jacques Gres Gayer, a Roman Catholic translator and liturgical specialist from the faculty of Yale Divinity School. Father Van Culin noted that Father Gayer had wide experience in translating similar Roman Catholic texts into liturgical French.
The Rev. Canon Charles M. Guilbert of San Francisco serves on the committee in his role as Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer.
Other members of the committee are: the Rt. Rev. Luc Garnier, Episcopal Bishop of Haiti; Prof. Grover E. Marshall of the University of New Hampshire; Prof. James W. McCrady, department of French of the University of the South; the Rev. Marie-Louise Sherwin of New York; the Rev. Serge A. Theriault of the Centre d’Etude universitaire dans l'Ouest quebecois; the Rev. Prof. Louis Weil of Nashotah House and the Rev. Thomas Wile of New York.