One of my students sent me an email to get my thoughts on the short â??Preface Concerning the Confirmation Liturgy Draft Text Proposed by the Bishops Review Committeeâ? of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Itâ??s not clear whether this is the preface to a liturgy already written, or if this was meant to be a summary statement regarding the committeeâ??s approach that they first put to the bishops for their approval before beginning their task. Either way, itâ??s worth reading the statement to see where our ACNA brethren are thinking regarding the hotly debated question of Confirmation.
I should say that I write this as one who has read ACNAâ??s â??Texts for Common Prayerâ? with some real appreciation. It seems that their approach has been (1) to begin with the 1979 Book of Common Prayer currently authorized in the Episcopal Church, (2) to read it with some of its American and English antecedents in mind, and then (3) to adjust and amend it accordingly. And the results have been quite wonderful in many ways. The revised forms of the Daily Office, for instance, are a great example. They restored some items that were lost from the first American BCP:
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