"We don't have a liturgy" '-Yeah right!'

Nice little piece from my former colleague Tom 'BigbulkyAnglican' Allen over in Oakworth [Railway Children fame]. He writes something that I would like to get off my chest too. I mark work for students studying through St.John's College Nottingham as distance-learners.
One of the courses I tutor is Christian Worship, and it is not infrequent that I feel I need to point out that 'liturgy', strictly speaking, is the order that we do things in worship and not just a written-down order with set prayers. So for example, a liturgy might be the normal routine where a bunch of worship songs is sung prior to a talk or similar activity followed by prayer ministries. And, as Tom points out, when you actually try to change the order or develop it, you discover that it is every bit as liturgical as something written down, In fact sometimes it is often more inflexible for [a] being unrecognised, [b] having a kind of unexamined folk theology to justify it [c] not being written down as a matter of ideological principle makes it harder to change because you have to mess with people's heads. Oh and [d] because of a, b & c it can also be a means of exerting power or influence or giving certain people a buzz because it creates an environment that they feel comfortable with. That's not to say that such a thing never happens with a more 'formal' liturgy, it just happens differently!

Of course, sometimes we have to recognise that for many people 'liturgy'now simply means 'a written order of service and set prayers'. But I like to remind myself and others that it should be more than that because then we can open up informal liturgies to scrutiny more easily.

And if I'm honest, I like getting my own back on people who are sniffy about 'liturgical churches', it's great to be able to point out how their own tradition has similar pitfalls, just differently configured. Of course that should only be a prelude to creating greater understanding, dialogue and respect. Naturally ;-)
Bigbulkyanglican: We don't have a liturgy!