Tradition in the Anglican Liturgical Movement 1945-1989*

One of most striking changes in Anglican thinking about liturgy around middle of twentieth century was dramatically greater authority which came to be ascribed to tradition. Those who had created Book of Common Prayer in 1540s and 1550s had been suspicious of all human traditions, by which they meant rules of worship, devotion, discipline, and order not found in or capable of being inferred from Scripture. In their view, however essential it was to have traditions of various kinds, there was always danger that they would begin to attract an excessive devotional dependence and an excessive theological credit that were described in such words as superstition, idolatry, and abuse. The proper function of tradition was to support and teach scripture, which according to Article VI of Thirty-nine Articles was only authority for articles of faith. Through centuries, even though Book of Common Prayer itself became a tradition, and even though, if truth be told, it sometimes attracted an alarming devotional dependence of its own, few Anglican thinkers strayed far from Article VI. Evangelical Anglicans, high-church Anglicans, liberal Anglicans, and anglo-catholic Anglicans alike agreed in rejecting independent theological authority of tradition. Things were changing by middle of twentieth century, under influence of Anglican branch of Liturgical Movement. This ecumenical movement for restoration of liturgical tradition of early Christianity had originated in Roman Catholic Church in nineteenth century and gathered energy from a pastoral statement of Pope Pius X in 1904. It conceived of liturgy as summit towards which activity of Church is directed and the fount from which all her power flows;1 and it sought to re-cast practice and theology of contemporary worship according to norms found in preConstantinian period. Anglicans were involved in movement by 1920s, but it was publication of The Shape of Liturgy by Anglican Benedictine Gregory Dix in 1945 which launched Liturgical Movement as a vital force in Anglican world.2 The liturgical revisions of 1970s and 1980s were most conspicuous fruit of Liturgical Movement. In support of these revisions, influential Anglicans in Englishspeaking world did indeed cite early Christian tradition as a theological and liturgical authority independent of scripture, and as a standard against which received practices should be tested. The last hurrah of Anglican Liturgical Movement was Book of Alternative Services of Anglican Church of Canada in 1985,3 although several academic studies in same spirit followed. While forms of worship produced by Liturgical Movement remain in wide use and while its perspectives continue to be taught, by late 1980s Anglican confidence in authority of liturgical tradition had been eroded. Two reasons for this development are notable. One was a postliberal or postmodern understanding of history, which recognized that our institutional memories, like our personal ones, are reconstructions rather than simple descriptions of past. The historical justifications which liturgical revisers had confidently advanced only a decade or two earlier for their various decisions now looked more like a pseudo-scholarly sleight of hand than a true recovery of past norms. second, a revived interest in inculturation of liturgy began to break spell of third- and fourth-century Mediterranean world. I For English Reformers, two great enemies of true word of God were papacy and mass. The authority of papacy in England was abolished between 1529 and 1534, and papal mass was abolished between 1547 and 1552. The problem with popes was that they were seen to have usurped authority of Christ and to be, therefore, anti-Christ. The problem with mass, it was declared, was that it was a cesspool of corrupt human traditions designed to support authority of popes. …

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