Alternative Service Book

Records of the Committee of the Alternative Service Book: meeting minutes and documents; correspondence with publishers; papers of Lionel Lennox (Secretary), Derek Pattinson (Secretary-General), Robin Brooke (Publishing) and Brian Hanson (Legal Adviser). Also included are various editions of the Alternative Service Book from authorised publishers and paper 'separates' (separate services from the ASB), some of which were forerunners to those that came with the publication of the Alternative Service Book in 1980.

In July 1973, the General Synod passed a resolution requesting the Standing Committee and the House of Bishops to establish a working party to 'draw up detailed plans for the preparation and issue of a People's Service Book Committee...'. A working Party was subsequently appointed, under the Chairmanship of the Bishop of Durham, and the report of this Working Party (GS 254) was considered by the General Synod last February [1975 or 1976]. The Working Party had, with the consent of the Standing Committee, reinterpreted its original terms of reference (which related to a 'People's Service Book') and reported in favour of an 'Alternative Service Book'; i.e., a book containing those forms of service authorised for use other than those of 1662. There would then be two Books in common use; the Book of Common Prayer and the 'Alternative' Book.

The Standing Committee decided that, following the Synod's consideration of its Report, the earlier Working Party should be discharged, and that a small committee should be appointed, after consultation with the Bishop of Durham, the CBF [Central Board of Finance] and the Liturgical Commission, to handle arrangements for publication. The membership of the committee [was] as follows:

Bishop of Duham (Chairman)

Mr H.S. Cranfield

Mr R. Cross

Sir Arnold France (or his representative)

The Dean of York

The minutes of the Standing Committee meeting of 7th October 1975 provided that the committee should 'handle the final publication, decisions... (and) the final stages of the negotiations'. These are reflected in the Introductory Report by the Standing Committee (para 2) to the original Working Party's Report (G.S. 284).

(Please note that this history was taken from paper ASB(76)1, which can be found in ASB/MTG/D/1).

Open

The ASB Committee was an annex of General Synod Standing Committee, and its papers were previously correctly archived with class SC. Given the important of ASB as a whole, and the quantity of archival material, ASB has been given its own separate class.