Cake and baptismal ecclesiology

Here’s an argument I have heard often:

We should not revise the Book of Common Prayer because the 1979 BCP has such a beautiful and complete baptismal ecclesiology.

In other words, the baptismal rite—and the forming of the whole prayer book around it—carries an embedded account of what it means to become a Christian, by both sacrament and liturgical formation. We find this meaningful and true.

And some say that, as a church, we haven’t yet fully understood or lived into the deep gifts and challenges of that embedded account of Christian faith and community.

I trained as a scholar before I was ordained. I have revised a lot of things: sermons, book reviews, blog posts, and once, memorably, a dissertation (and then a book manuscript). I would venture to say that the key principal of revision is: Keep the good stuff.

Why assume that the BCP revision process would not do what any revision should rightly do: keep the good stuff? Might we, in fact, have our cake AND eat it too?

I genuinely struggle to understand the argument that we must not revise the Prayer Book because we would lose what is best and most important about it. To my eye, it suggests either profound pessimism — “there is no way we could POSSIBLY get this right” — or else profound fear.

Both seem like sad and heavy things to carry, as part of one’s relationship with the church and its worship. I regret that people feel this way.

And, in this as in many things, I live in heartfelt hope that pessimism and fear will not triumph.

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