Liturgist: Common Worship Texts Eroding

From the Living Church-

Christian unity is strengthened when worshipers across the world use the same versions of prayers and hear the same readings on Sunday, says the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers.

Meyers is the Hodges-Haynes professor of liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., and leads the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, which prepares liturgical revisions for the Episcopal Church.

“If we cannot pray together, how effectively can we witness together?” she asked in a lecture in Virginia Theological Seminary’s Prayer Book at 30 series. “Common texts are a tool to help us worship together.”

But the liturgical and ecumenical unity underpinning common texts — which flourished in the 20th century — is now losing strength, Meyers said. She cited two primary sources of weakening liturgical unity: widespread ethnic divergence in worship styles around the world, and the Vatican’s moving toward a more literal translation of the original Latin in its new Roman Missal, which is nearing completion.

“English, it is clear, is not simply one language,” Meyers said. “There are regional differences in linguistic norms.”

Among the key principles of liturgical unity emerging from Vatican II, she said, were the teachings that Christians should be united in one universal Church and that division among Christians is contrary to God’s will. One goal of movements toward liturgical and ecumenical unity was to develop as wide a convergence as possible on common worship texts for the sake of the universal Church.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/4/8/liturgist-common-worship-texts-eroding