1 August 2026

‘The Parish Communion’ was a set of essays edited by AG Hebert in 1937. The essays were on various subjects pertinent to a deeper understanding of the Eucharist. Austin Farrer wrote, ‘Eucharist and Church in the New Testament’ and Gregory Dix wrote, ‘The idea of ‘the Church’ in the primitive liturgies’ and so on.

The book was designed to encourage members of the Church of England to gain a deeper understanding of the Church and its central act of worship, the Eucharist. It was part of an initiative to centre the worship of the Church on the Sacrament of Holy Communion instead of Matins.

In the Preface, Hebert emphasises the importance of teaching within the parish. Some have tried out the Parish Eucharist but it has failed through inadequate preparation. He introduces the testimony of a Belgian parish priest who has taken eight years to introduce liturgical reform:

‘He would be a simple man who thought that he could gain from my people an active participation in liturgical ceremonies simply by announcing from the pulpit on a Sunday that in future this and that will be done, because M. le curé wishes it, or even the Pope wishes it. There is a whole mentality to be transformed: negatively, by demolition of prejudices and positively, by reconstruction.

The former of these is not to be done after the manner of bombardment or a fire, to the great scandal of the romantically-minded devout, against criticism and even open opposition of wounded vanities and slighted interests, but rather by infiltration, as the water wears away the stone by dripping upon it.

If the law of growth be disregarded, many an attempt at reform in various spheres of pastoral activity is doomed to certain failure. The latter work is no less slow and requires no less patience.’