Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Monday, February 27, 2012

ACNA Book of Common Prayer

Sanctus advises at:  http://sanctusblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/liturgy-confession-and-language-that-is.html

The ACNA Prayer Book Liturgy Committee (PBCL) is meeting this week at Church of the Apostles in Columbia. This morning's opening Eucharist offered, perhaps, a taste of North American Anglicanism's liturgical future, although the committee's chairman, Bishop Bill Thompson, said it was by no means the finished product. I will be interviewing the bishop for Anglican Ink on Wednesday after the committee has wrapped up its work for the week.

In any event, the service this morning was a moving experience, quiet and reverent yet deeply uplifting with a definite 1662 feel. Although the language was in modern English, it was unburdened by the
cumbersome grotesqueness of sterile "inclusive language" which has plagued so many contemporary liturgies. The restoration of traditional elements which have been missing in the dumbed down liturgies of the age was quite refreshing. Most notable, perhaps because this is the season of Lent, was the prayer of confession and its accompanying invitation. For older generations, the words, though slightly updated, would be quite familiar. For even the most ostensibly orthodox among the younger and emerging generations, however, the language of repentance and reconciliation, of acknowledging and confessing our many sins and offenses, of provoking God's wrath and righteous anger may sound quite foreign.

For more, see the above URL.

No comments: