Shaw on the Prayer Book

Old George Bernard Shaw believes in going to church when nobody else is there. An agnostic, he is not a member of the Church of England, but as an educated Briton he knows the Church services. They annoy him. Cheery, bustling vicar of London's famed St. Martin's-in-the-Fields is the Rev. Pat McCormick, who edits an unparochial magazine, St. Martin's Review, with a worldwide circulation of over 10,000, a host of famed contributors. In the April Review George Bernard Shaw had his heretical say about the Church of England's Prayer Book.

Since Archbishop Cranmer drew up the first Anglican Book of Common Prayer in 1548, revisions and proposals for revision have cropped up regularly. Still more thoroughgoing, Agnostic Shaw proposed to throw out nearly everything. Some of his proposals:

Baptism. "I fear godparents must go; for though they were beautifully conceived, as an institution they are legally and practically powerless, and should not be tempted to make promises which they know they cannot perform."

Burial. "The service should be scrapped as altogether too macabre."

The Apostles' Creed. "It contains so many statements that in the opinion of many good Christians are not statements of fact that it, too, had better be dropped."

The 39 Articles. "The articles should be drummed out of the Prayer Book with all possible ignominy."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.