From The Living Church, Sept 20, 2015
Within Christ’s
sadly fractured body, it has been some consolation for the past few generations
that at least the liturgists could sing from the same hymnal. The convictions and priorities of the
Liturgical Movement have reshaped the Sunday gatherings of most Christians
across the Western world, drawing us together through the use of shared texts,
calendars and lectionaries, as well as a common emphasis on active lay
participation.
The Second Vatican
Council’s liturgical reforms reclaimed the centrality of baptism, simplified
ceremonial and symbolism and exalted early Christian liturgies as a model for
contemporary use. The Roman Catholic
Church’s revised liturgies, which debuted fifty years ago decisively shaped a
wave of new liturgical resources throughout mainline Protestantism, including the
Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer (1979). With perhaps the sole exception of biblical
studies among the other theological disciplines, liturgical scholars have been
educated together and continued in dialogue across confessional borders,
working together to institute change within their respective church
bodies.
But that
longstanding consensus is clearly beginning to fray. The grand promises about reformed liturgy’s
capacity to reenergize Christian mission and catechesis have worn thin in the
advancing days of secularism. Historical
scholarship has undermined earlier confidence about unified patterns of liturgy
within the early Church. Texts, music,
and aesthetic idioms that were exciting and innovative 50 years ago now largely
seem banal and gauche. Roman
Catholicism’s most recent liturgical developments have been oriented toward reclaiming
Latinity, while mainline Protestants have consistently pushed the envelope in
the direction of inclusivity, stressing pastoral concerns. Evangelicalism’s relative growth has
popularized casual and emotive forms of worship untouched by the Liturgical
Movement’s influence.
