A friend recently said, referring to Presbyterians (PCA) who were not diligent in maintaining Biblical standards in ordaining ministers, "This is sheer Americana-make-it-up-on-the-fly." How true, and I would love to say that Anglican churches, because they are liturgical, have an advantage over non-liturgical churches because they are not subjected to the same flights of fancy. The strength of liturgical churches is that they can be prevented from making it up "on the fly".
Unfortunately Anglicanism never, even in the beginning, had any prohibition from changing the Prayer Book... which we did for better but mostly for worse from time to time and in the various countries. The entire concept we had of allowing "alternate forms" of liturgy was misguided. Just imagine how different things might have been if America's Anglicans, over the course of the last 200+ years had maintained the original text of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
For this reason, I am reluctant to support efforts, regardless of motive that would "improve" the 1662 BCP, or would replace its 39 Articles with a different Reformed confession that someone deems superior. Nothing should be done to justify or simplify the process of liturgical and doctrinal innovation.
For this reason, I am reluctant to support efforts, regardless of motive that would "improve" the 1662 BCP, or would replace its 39 Articles with a different Reformed confession that someone deems superior. Nothing should be done to justify or simplify the process of liturgical and doctrinal innovation.
Pandora's Box
That being said, Pandora's box is already open because of the innovations of 1928 and 1979. The question is how to return things to a state of orderliness. Can Humpty Dumpty be put back together again?
450 years ago there should have been a process in Anglicanism whereby innovations of liturgy and standards were prevented across the entire Communion unless their meaning was deemed to be the same as that of 1662. As it stands, any Province, Diocese or even Parish can make up their own liturgies "on the fly" without being held accountable to standards.
In the local parish, the mimeograph machine and then the copy machine has been the cause of much mischief since the middle of the 20th century. Today, the projector screen attached to a computer is the cause of much more mischief, allowing the fanciful and poisonous teaching of any greenhorn seminary graduate to prevail.
In the same way, hymnology has evolved quickly and uncontrollably in a worldly direction. Hymn books once were put in the pews in part for the purpose of maintaining standards of doctrine. Where they no longer exist, permission is tacitly granted to make up your own. Song lyrics are a notorious venue for the introduction of all sorts of heresy. The projector screen and song lyric printed on the fly has destroyed all these foundations, and now our worship is built on shifting sands.
In many ACNA parishes I know, printed handouts contain the "liturgy" because the 1979 BCP is thought to be too confusing for the unchurched (which it is). At one such church, a liberal one, I begged the rector for the sake of biblical doctrine to dump the 1979 Nicene Creed in favor of the older version . At length, he unbelievably decided to just replace "we" with "I" (the item of least importance) and to keep the rest, thereby reinforcing the false notion that Anglicans (in ACNA) think they have the right to tinker with both the liturgy and doctrine of the Church, ignoring the precepts of Apostolic teaching. At another ACNA parish I know, one trending towards Roman Catholicism, they tossed out both the 1979 and the 1928 BCPs and created their own mix of Anglican and Roman liturgy... saying in effect that they know best.
Implementing changes in the right direction can be worse than no change at all. We do NOT have the right individually or by parish or by diocese or even by province to change the content of liturgy or doctrine. When we do make a change, our #1 duty is to remain in absolute conformity with Scripture and the whole council of the Church. For Anglicans, that baseline of doctrine is found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.