The Church of Ireland's new Book of Common Prayer 2004, 80,000 copies of which went on sale throughout the island yesterday, has three significant omissions.
These were discovered by the editorial team last week, who then decided to include an errata slip with each edition in the print run.
Work on the book, the third revised edition since 1870, had been ongoing since a decision at the 1997 General Synod of the church, at which it was decided to undertake a thoroughgoing revision of the prayer book.
The original Book of Common Prayer was published in 1662. It was revised here on the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1870, again in 1878, and again in 1926. An Alternative Prayer Book, using more contemporary language, was published in 1984.
The omissions in the 2004 edition include a line on page 343 left out of the Ash Wednesday service, that "This service may be adapted to meet local customs."
A paragraph on page 593 was also omitted. The correction says, "the following should be added after the note on 'Blessed': Psalters. The Psalter contained in the Book of Common Prayer (1926) remains authorised for use in public worship as an alternative to this Psalter."
However, the most significant omission was on page 565, dealing with the ordination service for priests. Omitted is the charge by a bishop to a person being ordained. It reads, "In the name of Our Lord we ask you to remember the greatness of the trust now to be committed to your charge. You are to be messengers, watchers and stewards of the Lord; you are to teach and to admonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family, to search for God's children in the wilderness of the world's temptations and to guide through its confusions, so that they may be saved through Christ for ever.
"Your ministry will be one of joy as well as of responsibility, of happiness as well as of diligence. Yet remember in your heart that if it should come about that the church, or any of its members, is hurt or hindered by reason of your neglect, your fault will be great and God's judgment will follow. So pray constantly for His mercy and for the grace you will need to fulfil your call."
