Liturgical Commission Meeting Held
Diocesan Press Service. May 1, 1972 [72043]
Standing Liturgical Commission
CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Standing Liturgical Commission held its first meeting of the year in Chicago, Ill., from April 19-22, 1972, under the chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. Chilton Powell, Bishop of Oklahoma. They were joined in this occasion by twelve members of the General Synod Doctrine and Worship Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada, under the chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. Robert Seaborn, Bishop of Newfoundland. Mutual sharing of experiences and insights was of great value to both groups, and plans were made for continued liaison. The Canadians reported wide use in their country of the American Services for Trial Use. American Commission members learned with interest of the Canadian booklet Experiment and Liturgy.
Representatives of the American Joint Commission on Church Music presented the newly published Songs for Liturgy and the More Hymns & Spiritual Songs, a ring- backed collection of both new and traditional material to supplement the Hymnal. Reactions to current trial use were thoroughly reviewed and the American Commission approved a questionnaire to be distributed shortly to all Bishops and Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.
The Canadian and American groups found themselves in substantial agreement as to the desirability of reuniting Baptism and the Laying-on-of-Hands within the one total rite of Christian initiation.
The entire meeting welcomed the American Commission's recently established committee on new forms of worship, under the chairmanship of the Rev. Richard C. Wynn of Philadelphia. The committee was encouraged to continue its exploration of the Liturgical express of new areas of modern life.
The two Commissions gave much attention to the Canadian and American approaches to the work of liturgical revision. Emphasis was placed on the centrality of the Easter Season in the Church Year. It is the Risen Lord who comes to us in the opening of the Scriptures and in the breaking of the Bread. The active participation of all Christians in such an experience of worship is the primary purpose of liturgical renewal. Current liturgical revision is intended to provide in actual practice that relationship between Word and Sacrament which is characteristic of Anglicanism. These broad objectives must be kept in mind in all aspects of liturgical renewal.