The Episcopal Church was different in 1997, when these words were penned by Neil Alexander, then a professor of liturgics and preaching at General Theological Seminary. Average Sunday attendance across the church was over a third higher. We had more dioceses, seminaries, and central boards and agencies. There were no Millennium Development Goals. There was a great deal less anxiety about the future. And the cross-marked volume in the pews was still known, fairly universally, as “the new prayer book.”
Yet, in 1997, comprehensive prayer book revision seemed to be fast approaching. The 1994 General Convention had approved a resolution calling for “a rationale and a pastorally sensitive plan” for prayer book revision. Morehouse Press published a volume of essays by leading Episcopalian liturgical scholars called Leaps and Boundaries: The Prayer Book in the 21st Century, to which Alexander contributed the closing selection.
Read Full Article »