Theologically Incomparable?

When an Anglican 'priest' is licensed to work in a parish church by the Archbishop, one of the formalities they go through is a 'Declaration and Assent to Doctrine and Formularies'. Basically, this means that they make some public vows and then sign off on paperwork saying they've done so - a bit like what happens at a wedding ceremony.

One of the things that they swear is that

In public prayer and administration of the sacraments I will use the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, A Prayer Book for Australia or another lawfully authorised form and none other.

which just means that in public church services, they will stick to the authorised Anglican liturgies.

Lots of evangelical Anglicans wrestle with this because the Anglican services are relatively rigid. There is a fixed shape to the services, set prayers that must be used and various words that the leaders need to say that are quite formal. For many younger members of Anglican churches, this can all seem somewhat repetitive, predictable, distant and stuffy - especially when so much of the rest of life isn't this formal or scripted and when we live in a time when there's a really high value on 'experiences' including, for believing people, experiences of church services.

While I'm all for thoughtful revisions that help to make church gatherings more accessible to more people, there really is a great deal that's worth holding onto in the Anglican liturgy. And central is the theology.

Whatever shortcomings the format might have for a modern congregation, the formally agreed Anglican liturgies (at least in Australia) are incredibly rich with good, deep, well-balanced, biblical theology. Now, I believe that I have truly worshipped God and been blessed through many church services that haven't used Anglican liturgy. However, I can't really think when I've been exposed to a service that's more theologically sound and well-rounded. The Anglican services have biblical praise, biblical calls to repentance, prayers of repentance, biblical assurance of forgiveness, enacted expressions of fellowship, reading and teaching of the Scriptures, prayers - including the Lord's Prayer - and often a declaration of the Christian faith in one of the Creeds. While at one level rehearsing these things each week might be repetitive, at another, if you come to know these elements of the Anglican services really well, you'll have a pretty robust and well-shaped gospel theology.

A fun thing happened during a meeting I was having with some service leaders in their 20s and 30s in my old church. After months of complaining that we were too tightly bound by the Prayer Book, we received authorisation from the Archbishop to use a much simpler and less prescriptive form of service. But the week this was approved, the service leader who had expressed most frustration at the restrictions of the liturgy announced that they had really now come to appreciate it a lot and would actually probably continue incorporating some of its formal elements in the services they led. We had a good laugh.

Anglican ministers may seek authorisation for alternative service forms or may work hard to explain the benefits of the liturgy to their congregations. But their real challenge is to actually lead Prayer Book services really well - in ways that aren't just repetitive, predictable, distant and stuffy - so that the people  who attend their corporate worship services come to personally experience something of the value of the theological richness that those services contain. It's a tough gig, but I reckon it's worth striving for.