Disconcerting News from the Prayer Book Society USA

I found this brief article on Virtue Online:

The Prayer Book Society/USA has initiated work on new curricula for orthodox Sunday School and adult education in classical Anglican teaching as exemplified in worship from 1549 through the American 1928 and Canadian 1962 Books of Common Prayer. On July 27, the PBS Board allocated $60,000 to hire an experienced curriculum designer to begin work on teacher-friendly programs introducing a new generation to orthodox truth and historic worship in "the Anglican Way of Being Christian." Information will follow on the Society's home site www.pbsusa.org and resource center www.anglicanmarketplace.com. According to PBS President The Rev. Gavin Dunbar, Rector of Stalwart St. John's Savannah, "The time is propitious. To a large extent the 'worship wars' of the 1980's and 90's have receded so that, though they leave younger generations of laity and clergy ignorant of the classic Prayer Books, it also leaves them remarkably open-minded. "Those 'new' liturgies are now conventional and dog-eared: it is the historic Prayer Book that now has the charm of novelty as well as the venerability of age. Our work with the Prayer Book is now more and more missionary: we have something grand to share, and learning how to do it is our priority."

Most of the younger generations of laity and clergy at which this curriculum is to be directed are unaware that the partially-reformed 1549 Prayer Book and the retrograde American 1928 and Canadian 1962 Prayer Books differ significantly in doctrine and liturgical usage from the classical Anglican Prayer Book--The Book of Common Prayer of 1662. The Prayer Book Society USA is not known to be a champion of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer but of the 1928 American Prayer Book.

The 1662 Prayer Book is substantially the Reformed 1552 Prayer Book. As well as being an official formulary of the Church of England and a number of other Anglican provinces, the 1662 Prayer Book has been the standard liturgical resource for Anglicans since its publication, "translated into many languages and adapted to different circumstance" see Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today, page 46).

At the time the 1928 American Prayer Book was compiled and adopted, Anglo-Catholicism and Broad Church latitudinarianism were the dominant influences in the Episcopal Church and the book reflects these influences. See my article,"What Is Wrong with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer?"

The Prayer Book Society is also responsible for promoting a number of myths related to the 1928 American Prayer Book. These unfounded or false notions are:

• The 1928 American Prayer Book is the American edition of the 1662 Prayer Book.

• The 1928 American book is a "gentle revision" of the 1662 Prayer Book.

• The 1928 book is the classical Anglican Prayer Book.

Rather than recognizing the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as the doctrinal standard of Anglicanism, alongside the 1571 Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the 1661 Ordinal, a standard by which other liturgies may be tested and measured (see Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today, page 47), American Anglicans evidence a tendency to regard the 1662 Prayer Book as defective in its doctrine and liturgical usages. This may be attributed to the influence of the Anglo-Catholic Movement and more recently the Ancient Future or Convergence Movement.

The standard of worship and prayer adopted by the Anglican Church in North America includes the liturgies of the early and Medieval churches as well as the partially-reformed 1549 Prayer Book and the retrograde 1637 Scottish Prayer Book. This standard comes with a theological agenda that substitutes unreformed Eastern Orthodox and Medieval and post-Tridentian Roman Catholic doctrine for Biblical and Reformation doctrine.

Among the developments in American Anglicanism is a resurgence of what was referred to as "Puseyism" in the nineteenth century. The Anglican tradition is viewed as the third branch of Catholic Christianity.

Writers like Victor Novak are putting forward a revisionist view of Anglicanism as "Western Orthodoxy." See the Rev. Novak's article, "The Anglican Rite in Historical, Theological, and Ecumenical Perspective."

Other news that troubles conservative evangelicals like myself is the creation of the Robert Webber Center at Trinity School for Ministry to promote Webber's Ancient Future views among students attending TSM, and Forward in Faith North America's promotion of a new Oxford Movement and a new Tractarian Movement and the Ackermans' purchase of Parish Press for that purpose. Particularly disturbing are the reports that the Catechism of the Anglican Church in North America is to be modeled upon the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.