The Traditional Church in the Twenty-First Century: Revitalizing the Liturgy – Part III

By Robin G. Jordan

Five years ago the late Peter Toon published an article titled, “Worship Simply, Engage in Mission Joyfully: How to Grow a Traditional Church.” Peter championed the traditional Prayer Book—in particular the 1928 Book of Common Prayer—for more than ten years. Several of the ideas that I present here come from that article. I expand upon these ideas and present a number of ideas of my own.

In using the traditional Prayer Book, Peter believed that it is best to stick to “the classic text of the Prayer Book, as is,” and not to make additions to the liturgy from manuals like The American Missal and The Anglican Missal. In the main I agree with Peter. At the same time I think that the evangelical pastor using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer will want to make some alterations to the services, mostly in the way of omissions or the rearrangement of liturgical elements, with a few additions. In a future article I plan to look at what changes that I recommend that he make and explain why I recommend them. I also plan to post in installments the text of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with the invisible mending suggested by Roger T. Beckwith in Praying with Understanding and some other changes, and adapted to North America.

Peter advocated a “simple, dignified worship” and the use of “minimal but well executed ceremonial and ritual to accompany the words. This is the application of an important principle of good liturgy—“less is more.” We should strive for that “noble simplicity” that characterized not only classical Anglican worship and later evangelical worship but also early Roman worship. The popularity of the Roman Rite with the Anglo-Saxon church is attributable to its simplicity and explains why it eventually displaced the more complicated British Celtic Rite.

Byron Stuhlman in Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded makes a very important point:

“Over the course of time ceremonial actions tend to accumulate and clutter liturgical rites, distorting their structure, proportion, and meaning. In the Middle Ages a fascination with allegory and a highly artificial symbolism developed which had a pernicious effect on Christian worship. The English Reformers ‘pruned’ the ceremony of the Prayer Book with considerable skill, but the spare ceremony of the Prayer Book rites led nineteenth-century Anglicans to impose on the Prayer Book the ceremonial tradition of the Roman Rite.”

The Roman Rite to which Stuhlman refers in the late medieval Roman Rite. He draws attention to two problems that arise from this development:

”1. The ceremonial of the Roman Rite does not always conform to the structure, rationale, and theology of Anglican rites;

2. The Roman Rite before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council retained the medieval stratum…to the detriment of the liturgy.”

He goes on to stress:

“ In particular, this ceremonial of the Roman Rite poses problems when imposed on Anglican Eucharistic Prayers It is inappropriate because the structure of the Roman Canon is different from that of Eucharistic Prayers in the Scottish-American tradition. It is also inappropriate because it presupposes a theology of consecration alien to Anglicans.”

We must also do some judicious pruning, restoring the liturgy to its pristine simplicity. In the Communion Service the three places that tend to attract the most extraneous devotions and other clutter are the beginning of the service, the offertory, and the end of the service. This clutter must be loped away just as a grape vine is drastically cut back in winter so that the vine will bear fruit in the summer. The result will be a leaner liturgy but it, like the vine rid of its overgrown parts, will be a more profitable liturgy.



Peter recognized the importance of the public reading of Scripture and preaching to not only to the revitalization of the liturgy but also to the growth of the traditional church. He believed that “an obvious, serious and sincere attempt to read the Bible as God’s Word and to apply it to life’s journey, needs and questions” would attract younger people. Howard Hanchey in Church Growth and the Power of Evangelism: ideas that work, made similar observations in 1990, as did Bishop Michael Marshall in Renewal in Worship almost a decade earlier. Thom Rainer’s research, published in 2001 supports their observations.

Peter recognized that a traditional church, if it was going to draw younger people, must have “good music.” Peter advocated “the use and development of modern (dignified) forms of music to accompany traditional psalms and canticles, alongside the creative use of traditional music.” Peter was not at the time aware of Thom Rainer’s findings regarding the correlation between the quality of the music used in a church’s worship and the perceptions of unchurched people of the church’s attitude toward worship. See my article “The Traditional Church in the Twenty-First Century: Revitalizing the Liturgy – Part I.” His instincts, however, told him that a church with poor quality music had little chance of reaching younger people.

In a future article I also plan to look at how traditional churches can use and develop modern forms of music and make a more creative use of traditional music, drawing upon my own observations and experience as a music minister and worship planner. This includes the use of electronic recordings (MP3s, MIDIs) in worship. Music is another key ingredient in the revitalization of the liturgy.

Peter suggested the printing of “the texts of the services in attractive booklets in a modern typeface and with suitable illustrations and explanatory comments.” With today’s computer technology such booklets are easy to produce. Alternately a traditional church may wish to invest in a multimedia projection system and project the lyrics of songs and the texts of the traditional Prayer Book on a multimedia projection screen. Peter himself was open to this idea if it was necessary and useful. With the right operating system this can be done quite tastefully. A number of Arthur Rackham fonts can be purchased online and can be used for song lyrics and Prayer Book texts in combination with backgrounds drawn from a variety of sources and involving a variety of formats (e.g. video clips or loops).

Peter stressed that traditional churches must recognize the distinction between “being simple and being simplistic.” They must learn “to major on majors not on minors,” for example, they do not “major on the minutiae of ceremonial, of clergy dress or of specialized music.” This means focusing on the basics of worship—the atmosphere of worship, the Scripture reading, the congregational participation in the liturgy and music, the welcome of newcomers, and the sermons. It means tailoring the worship of the local church to its circumstances.

Peter recognized that the pendulum had swung toward “vintage worship” and this shift in interest in the younger generations represented a real and vital opportunity for the planting of new Anglican churches and the revival (retooling) of existing ones to catch this movement of the pendulum. He believed that the points that he enumerated in his article would help a local parish catch the pendulum’s movement. My own experiences in church planting in the 1980s and in the past 9 years support his conclusions.

I have only touched upon a few of his points, those that relate primarily to the liturgy. I plan to look at the other points and a number of my own ideas and expand upon them in future articles. I believe that we still have an opportunity to catch the movement of the pendulum.

All kinds of churches are needed to reach North America’s growing unchurched population. Traditional churches that offer continuity with the past and familiarity, simplicity and stability in a complicated, constantly changing world are needed as well as contemporary churches. One kind of church will not reach all people. God in the New Testament does not prescribe a particular form for the visible Church. He only requires that whatever form it takes it must be faithful to Him and His Word, and believe in the One whom He sent.