I found this piece intriguing, and have several observations.
- In my interaction with Anglicans and Episcopalians on social media, I find myself the “last man standing” in terms of having a living memory of how it was done in the Episcopal Church (let along having been baptised an Episcopalian) before the church’s version of al nakba (the Spanish feel the same way about the loss of their remaining empire in the Spanish-American War) in the 1970’s. Am I the only one left? Obviously not, but with few exceptions the rest of us who are still on this side of eternity have either ridden the ship downward since then or completely divorced themselves from the Anglican world. The ACNA started as a refuge from TEC’s second disaster in the 2000’s, but many of the refugees they picked up were likewise those who joined in the 1980’s and 1990’s not understanding what they were getting themselves into. Since then more newbies have joined up. So the ACNA is from a communal memory standpoint a new project in many ways.
- In my Advent Series 2023: What is Done During Advent?, I pointed out that the whole liturgical year is a hermeneutical lens through which we look at the Scriptures and God himself. That’s a departure from what most Evangelical and Evangelical-adjacent churches do. The liturgical cycle, with or without mandatory Communion each service, is a teaching tool of the Scriptures. Topping the list of changes that newbies must deal with is the way the Old Testament is considered relative to the New, which is vastly different from what we see in typical non-denominational (and many denominational) churches.
- We need to be honest and admit that the earlier or “classical” Anglican liturgies are better at being teaching tools of the scriptures than those influenced by the Liturgical Movement. The 1662 BCP was designed to be a “read the Bible in one year” program set in a liturgical context, and the rest are such to varying degrees. Whether William Palmer Ladd liked it or not, the Liturgical Movement was primarily a Roman Catholic project, where the central emphasis is on the Church. Keeping the Word front and centre has been difficult since Trent (Bossuet is an exception,) and recent Biblical scholarship has only made matters worse.
- The ideal of “Word and sacrament” set forth in the article is a trickier balance than first apparent. The ACNA runs the risk of drifting to the emphasis of the latter over the former. Making Communion the normative service helps that drift along, if for no other reason than time constraints. It is easier to make the liturgy of the word front and centre in Morning and Evening Prayer than in the Holy Communion. Sacraments are great but their reception is no substitute for a laity first pointed to God through the Scriptures. Roman Catholic experience should inform us that overemphasis of the sacraments leads to a church which is good at checking the boxes but not so hot on developing an informed laity, and it also leads to a church where the clergy gets the idea that, as long as the sacraments are being administered, everything is good, and we can neglect developing a strong pastoral system.
Positive Infinity 