| The
content of church services
Why
Liturgy?
There is an increasing trend in the Church of England, particularly
amongst evangelicals, to abandon the formal and official liturgies
of the Church. Of course, where formal liturgy is not used an
informal liturgy, that is a standard pattern and regular words,
does usually develop.
The normative liturgy of the Church of England is set out in the
1662 Book of Common Prayer. Although the Church has managed to
sideline this book because the General Synod does not have the
authority to amend or reject the book (under the 1974
Worship and Doctrine Measure) it has not suffered from the revisions of
anglo-Catholics or liberals.
Church Society stands by the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer
as adequately giving expression to the reformed doctrines of the
Church of England. The Society also supports liturgy which is
faithful to the 1662 BCP whilst updating the language used. In
particular in the mid 1990s the Society produced An English Prayer
Book both as a resource for Clergy and Parishes and as a contribution
to the debates on liturgical revision, demonstrating what a reformed
liturgy in modern English might look like.
See
also the following pages on Liturgy:
Common
Worship
Issues to do with Common Worship,
the modern language services of the Church of England:
Other articles on Common
Worship
- The Ordinal
- comment on the draft ordinal presented for General Approval
at the General Synod February 2004. Also see Cross†Way
article on this issue.
Other
Issues
Failed
1928 Prayer Book lingers on.
Scarf
or Stole : Does it Matter?
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