Slaves to No Sect

The Anglican Clergy and Liturgical Change

Bibliographic Data

ID3201938
AuthorsAlan Aldridge (corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume34
Issue2
Pages357-380
Publication date1986-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-954x.1986.tb02706.x
OpenAlexW1971007278
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited5

Many writers have argued that the Church of England, in common with other Christian denomination, is undergoing a profound crisis of identity. One crucial aspect of this is the clergy's rapid abandonment of the traditional services of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer in favour of the radically different, modern language services of the Alternative Service Book, published in 1980. Liturgical change on this scale is said to be both cause and effect of a gradual transformation of the Church of England into a sect. In this article, evidence from a survey of the parochial clergy of one English diocese is presented, showing that the great majority of respondents approve of the Alternative Service Book and use it frequently for the conduct of worship. However, then outlook on the role of the Church of England in national life does not display any of the essential characteristics of sectarianism, the fact that the Church of England is the established Church is an important obstacle to sectarian tendencies, and the argument that the Church is being transformed into a sect is not warranted

Abandonment (legal) · Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis) · Ecclesiology · Economics · Economy · Identity (music) · Political science · Prayer · Sect · Sectarianism · Service (business) · Sociology · Worship · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies

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