Ellen Johnston, program consultant for Virginia Theological Seminary’s Center for Liturgy and Music, writes about a consultation on revising the 1979 Book of Common Prayer:
The Most Rev. Frank Griswold opened with an address in which he submitted that the ethos of the 1979 BCP has not been fully integrated into the Episcopal Church making prayer book [revision] premature. The second plenary was given by the Rev. Dr. Lizette Larson Miller who contrasted the ecclesial and cultural differences between the era of the 1979 BCP’s creation and the present day.
… The Rev. Dr. John Baldovin summed up our topic well as he stated that “the utter centrality of the paschal mystery in our liturgies and a baptismal ecclesiology” were non-negotiable principles in considering liturgical revision.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
