Something new, something old

A liturgical revolution is changing the countenance of contemporary worship

By Paul Friesen - Special to ChristianWeek

Revolution is not too strong a word to describe the winds of change blowing through the middle-class evangelical sub-culture in Britain and North America. While few well-known evangelicals have converted to Roman Catholicism in recent years, a significant number have been attracted to the liturgical traditions–older Protestant denominations and various Orthodox communions.

An important trend is in the making–small but significant groups of students are heading into Eastern 0rthodoxy (some as priests) after graduating from evangelical institutions such as Fuller Theological Seminary and Wheaton College. Former Campus Crusade for Christ worker Peter Gillquist, most notably, is now a priest in the Antiochian Orthodox communion.

Less dramatic but equally significant are the evangelical divinity and graduate theological students who have moved into the older Protestant denominations from baptistic groups. Since the 1980s at Wycliffe College in Toronto, for instance, there has been a steady movement of students from groups such as the Fellowship Baptists into leadership roles in the Anglican Church of Canada. The same is true at Regent College in Vancouver.

New Appreciation

Beyond that, however, many evangelicals content within their own denominations are developing a new appreciation for or fascination with liturgical worship. The "Anglo-Catholic" congregation at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto, for example, welcomes a steady stream of evangelical pilgrims searching for a full sacramental experience of the theological truths they already confess, especially at Christmas and during Holy Week (the week before Easter).

On another front, the largest evangelical seminary in the country–Ontario Theological Seminary–has just begun offering an MTS degree in Worship, a program that promises to draw on the rich history of Christian liturgies throughout the centuries.

So there is a revolution going on. But what, more precisely, is liturgy? While it can be most simply understood as a fixed form of worship, some feel "liturgy" should be rejected because it lacks spontaneity. It is too formal and dead. But honesty compels us to admit that any component of an act of worship–be it kneeling, rising, raising hands, making the sign of the cross–is a ritual. Repeated rituals make up a liturgy.

Because liturgy is basically a form of worship, our attention should be directed toward the significance of different Christian liturgies. It is not possible for those who worship Christ to avoid liturgy of one form or another.

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