Reasonable Christian: The Irony of Evangelical and Reformed Liturgy: It Does Not Exist

I was recently encouraged by a couple of e-mails and Facebook messages I received this week. So in light of that I would like to say a few things in brief about the order of worship in the churches I have attended and the purpose of a good liturgy. Why does having a common form of worship and order matter in the first place?

At the risk of sounding redundant let me say first that even the Papists understand that most people learn doctrine from the lectionary readings and the sentences of Scripture quoted during the services. The trouble with the Roman Catholic Church and with the Anglo-Catholic movement within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion is that Scripture is not the test of sound liturgy. Rather Tradition, understood as a divine revelation, is introduced and the repeated lines from the common prayer service becomes an indoctrination in semi-pelagian theology and sacerdotalism. The problem here is that this is a violation of the principle of Sola Scriptura, which the confession of the Anglican Communion outright denies.... Read more