Geoffrey John Cuming (9 September 1917 – 24 March 1988) was an Englishliturgist,Church of England clergyman, andmusic historian. After being permanently injured during hisBritish Army service prior to theBattle of Arnhem, Cuming was ordained a priest. He authored and edited several nonfiction texts on music and Christianity.
During and after Second World War, Cuming collaborated with Francis F. Clough to compile theWorld's Encyclopedia of Recorded Music, adiscography first published in 1952. OnChristian liturgy, Cuming's work includedThe Durham Book onJohn Cosin's 17th-century proposed liturgy andA History of Anglican Liturgy. His works onEarly Christian liturgies included collaborations withRonald Jasper and a posthumously published text on theLiturgy of Saint Mark.
Cuming advised the Church of England's committees charged with producing newliturgical texts which produced theAlternative Service series,Alternative Service Book, andCommon Worship. He also served as an editorial secretary for theAlcuin Club, vice-principal atSt John's College, Durham, and on the faculty of bothRipon College Cuddesdon and theChurch Divinity School of the Pacific.
Geoffrey John Cuming was born inGilston,Hertfordshire, on 9 September 1917.[1][2] He attendedEton College, followed byOriel College at theUniversity of Oxford. Cuming would eventually attain three degrees at Oxford.[2] SchoolmateHenry Chadwick described Cuming as "quiet and bookish" who demonstrated a contrasting "enthusiasm" regarding music.[3]
As a member of theBritish Army'sNon-Combatant Corps during theSecond World War[2]—where he was first in abomb disposal and later in parachute ambulance unit—Cuming participated in a parachute drop before the 1944Battle of Arnhem, resulting in a leg injury and painful, lifelong back injury.[4][5] Chadwick suggested that this back injury may have contributed to both his reservedness and sympathy for others' suffering. Cuming trained atWestcott House, Cambridge, before being ordained as a priest in theChurch of England, serving as a pastor.[3][6]: 150
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Cuming was acurate for four years before being appointed the vice-principal ofSt John's College at theUniversity of Durham. Later, Cuming becamevicar atBillesdon in 1955. He was vicar at St. Mary's inHumberstone from 1963 until 1974. He was appointed as an honorarycanon atLeicester Cathedral in 1965 before serving as the cathedral's canon theologian from 1971 until 1980.[4][5] Cuming was one of the few lecturers on liturgy left in England when he retired from his lectureship atKing's College London.[7]: 159 This was followed by him working on the faculty ofRipon College Cuddesdon. He then spent three consecutive semesters teaching at theChurch Divinity School of the Pacific, part of theGraduate Theological Union.[2]Donald Gray wrote in 1982 that Cuming balanced his scholarly pursuits with his work as an Anglican pastor, saying "[t]he bulk of Geoffrey Cuming's liturgical and historical work has not been done in the atmosphere of academia, but with the interrupting knock on the vicarage door always in prospect".[7]: 157
Prior to and during the Second World War, Cuming cataloged new music records. Working with Francis F. Clough, Cuming performed research on recordings while Clough catalogued the findings, writing notes in a copy of the 1936discographyThe Gramophone Shop Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music by Robert Donaldson Darrell. Their self-financed work continued until 1950.[8] With Clough, Cuming editedThe World's Encyclopedia of Record Music, which was published in 1952. Their text was called "huge" by music historianHarold C. Schonberg.[9]Valentine Britten, the librarian of theBBC's Gramophone Library, referred to Clough and Cuming's work in 1956 as the library's "Bible", noting it as "authorative, and enabling one to give immediate, and usually conclusive check, on recordings deleted or extant".[10] The book's title was criticized by Richard S. Hill in a review of its thirdsupplement (published with E. A. Hughes and Angela Noble in 1957) for its "flamboyantly inaccurate title", saying that it was not an "encyclopedia" but rather a "discography" which only provided coverage of music from theWestern world, though Hill added that "once past the title, my unhappiness evaporates, and everything seems worthy of praise".[11]
In 1961, Cuming edited an edition ofThe Durham Book. An annotatedBook of Common Prayer created byJohn Cosin withWilliam Sancroft, the original copy ofThe Durham Book had largely failed to influence the revision process which produced the1662 prayer book. Published byDurham University, Cuming's edited version and his research were positively reviewed inThe Journal of Theological Studies andHistorical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church.[12][13] In 1962, Cuming received aDD from theUniversity of Oxford for the work, of which Henry Chadwick said "for the history of theBook of Common Prayer in the seventeenth century no work is more cardinal".[3][2] From 1965 to 1972, Cuming edited for the journalStudies in Church History.[14]: 18
Cuming wroteA History of Anglican Liturgy, first published byMacmillan in 1969.C. W. Dugmore,Colin Buchanan, and other reviewers compared it toFrancis Procter's 1855A History of the Book of Common Prayer andWalter Frere's 1901 revision of Procter (known as "Procter and Frere").[15][16] Dugmore praisedA History of Anglican Liturgy as "an authoritative and readable account" and as "an admirable supplement" to both "Procter and Frere" andFrank Edward Brightman'sThe English Rite.[17] Buchanan, reviewing the first edition, criticized some "minutiae" but called it "a model of historical, and often original, scholarship".[18] Buchanan later positively referenced the book's second edition, published in 1982, as a notable historic resource.[19]: 667 This second edition featured details on Anglican liturgies through 1980, including theAlternative Service Book that Cuming played a part in producing.[3]
Cuming edited other volumes on early Christian liturgies.[3] WithRonald Jasper, Cuming authoredPrayers of the Eucharist Early and Reformed, which was published in 1975 and became a textbook in courses on eucharistic history; a new edition edited byPaul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson was released in 2019.[20] A study of theLiturgy of Saint Mark by Cuming was published posthumously in 1990 in thePontifical Oriental Institute'sOrientalia Christiana Analecta series.[3] Believing that there was a gap in liturgical studies regardingEgyptian Christian liturgical practices, Cuming challenged Brightman andCharles Anthony Swainson's conclusion regarding which manuscript was the best representation ofAlexandrian liturgical rites.Bryan D. Spinks positively reviewed the book forThe Journal of Theological Studies, creditingKenneth Stevenson with pushing Cuming's text through the editorial process.[21]
In 1965, while he was the vicar of Humberstone, Cuming was appointed to the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England for his experience as aBook of Common Prayer historian.[22][23]: 243 [7]: 158 In this role, Cuming worked on theAlternative Service series andModern Liturgical Texts.[23]: 241 [24]: 172 Cuming was one of five people responsible for editing theAlternative Service Book, the first liturgical text authorized for use alongside theBook of Common Prayer in the Church of England since thefirst Act of Uniformity in 1549.[23]: 359–360 He also served as consultant to the 1981–1986 Liturgical Commission that ultimately led to the publication ofCommon Worship.[25]
Cuming expressed that the 1662 prayer book's communion office "obscured and confused"Jesus's actions at theLast Supper, ignoredJesus's resurrection, lacked substantial reference to theHoly Spirit and theOld Testament, and had archaic language. Cuming was also concerned with the adaption ofliturgical music to the new rites. He expressed belief that Series Two rites lent themselves to previous musical settings fromJohn Merbecke of the 16th century toMartin Shaw of the 20th century, but found Series Three rites presented musicians with a "completely new set of texts". Cuming, "a champion of the new liturgies", was criticized by church music historian Martin Thomas as failing to communicate the basis for the revisions, something "indicative of a wider failure of communication between scholars engaged in revision and the clergy who worked with the new material".[26]
For the October 1966 issue ofTheology, Cuming wrote a study defending the phrase "we offer this bread and cup" within the eucharistic rite.[22] In this role, Cuming worked on theAlternative Service series—a series of rites reflecting liturgical scholarship by the commission—andModern Liturgical Texts.[23]: 241 [24]: 172 It was one of four such studies written for that issue, of which three favoured the phrase. The studies were responding to theevangelical Liturgical Commission member Buchanan's criticism of the phrase as tooCatholic in his pamphletThe New Communion Service—Reasons for Dissent. Cuming's study focussed on 16th- and 17th-centuryAnglican eucharistic theology to make the case that offering the sacramental elements had long been interpreted in amemorialist fashion. Ultimately, to secure passage in the Liturgical Conference, Jasper proposed the revised form of "with this bread and cup we make the memorial of his saving passion", which was approved byConvocation and published for the Series Two communion office.[23]: 253–258
Cuming was among the first people "co-opted" by a new Church of England Liturgical Commission in 1981.[7]: 158 In 1982, to coincide with Cuming's 65th birthday, theSociety for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SCPK) publishedLiturgy Reshaped onliturgists and liturgical revision.[27] Stevenson edited the volume, commenting in its preface that Cuming and other contemporaneous liturgiologists were not only responsible for researching historical practices but also revising liturgies in the present.[28] Gray wrote an appreciation of Cuming for theFestschrift that praised Cuming's "erudition and encyclopedic knowledge". Gray said theAlternative Service Book "enshrined" Cuming and the Liturgical Commission's work, noting that Cuming accepted decisions of the commission despite personal opposition but, on occasion, also won "at the third or fourth round a battle apparently lost at the first".Liturgy Reshaped also included abibliography compiled by David Tripp of Cuming's works.[7]: 157–158
The Latin chantAgnus Dei had accompanied thefraction rite in medieval liturgies. The fraction rite was removed from the Church of England's liturgy in the1549 prayer book and theAgnus Dei was removed in the1552 prayer book. The prayer reentered Anglican usage in the 19th century and 20th-century Anglican liturgies began reintroducing the fraction rite. Cuming produced a translation of theAgnus Dei for his modernized "translation" of the Series Two communion office that remains in widespread use.[14]: 22 His translation was adopted by theInternational Consultation on English Texts and its successor, the English Language Liturgical Consultation.[19]: 23–24 Cuming'sAgnus Dei, which places Jesus's name at the start of each line, appears in theAlternative Service Book andCommon Worship as the second, less traditional translation.[29]
Cuming was married to Ann Rachel Lucas and had two children, a son and daughter, all three of whom survived him. Late in life, Geoffrey Cuming was known for his humour and grey beard but his disabilities caused by wartime injury left him increasingly limited in what he could do. He died at age 70[5] during the night of 24 March 1988 inHouston, Texas. A month prior, Cuming had a successful arterial bypass surgery; he had been discussing returning to England with his daughter during the hours preceding his death. Memorial services in both Houston andOxford were planned, with his ashes to be interred at the latter.[2]
Thefellow position of Geoffrey Cuming Fellow in Liturgy was established at the University of Durham.[30][31]The Identity of Anglican Worship, a collection of 17 essays edited by Stevenson and Spinks, was compiled in his honour.[32][33] Stevenson and Spinks had met at a 1978 event organized by Cuming and Gray. Cuming pressed Stevenson to authorNuptial Blessing on marriage rites, a book that was described by Spinks on Stevenson's death in 2011 as "the only serious monograph on this liturgical topic".[34]
Gray wrote a reflection on Cuming for the 1996They Shaped Our Worship, published by SPCK and the Alcuin Club to memorialize Anglican liturgists. Gray credited Cuming with "restoring the international reputation of Anglican liturgical scholarship" during the last 20 years of his life. Gray emphasized Cuming's influence on supporting young liturgical scholars, noting Cuming's role in establishing the Society for Liturgical Study and his election as the organization's first president.[6]: 154
The Vicarage. Cuming, Geoffrey, age 17, single. Birth 9 September 1917. Student at college.
