What are the main contemporary debates in the area of worship and liturgy? Is it possible to see any resolution to questions of language, accessibility, formality and style? Though most churchgoers are not overly concerned with the deep and complex issues of doctrine and theology, there is a widespread interest in the nature of worship and liturgy in their churches. Worship and liturgy are the most visible and perhaps most important work of the church. This is the most common reason for the choice of church to attend. The reasons for this are clear. People wish to find an enjoyable yet suitably reverential service for their own personal needs. There are other factors in the choice of church such as the other worshippers, location, tradition and for some the theology but worship and liturgy is the most prevalent. The subject of music in the church is perhaps one of the most audible areas of liturgy to be a cause of disagreement within the church community. The example of the clapped-out church organ as described by Bradley (93-94) is a good one to illustrate this. To some it would be akin to heresy to scrap the church organ, to others it is a relevant and necessary progression. The same issue arises with hymns. Are Wesley�s hymns appropriate and relevant for today�s generation or should they be replaced with modern music more akin to the charts. The criticism that some may level that modern music changes too rapidly for it to stay relevant for any significant time is, I feel an easy observation to disregard. This is because the traditional hymns are no more than three hundred years old themselves and in a two millennia old religion surely that renders them �modern� as well. As can be seen in so many fields of the world, not just theology, compromise in this area has not been a success. The compromise approach here is to have some guitar-led music but not too raucous and loud. This tends to attract more sniggers than cheers. They are viewed as out of touch by the young and still too �raucous� and �modern� for the older members of the community. The most fundamental question involved in the whole area of liturgy is what is the purpose of worship. Is it aimed primarily at God or is its purpose to bring people to a closer understanding of the nature of Christianity. This is the root cause of many of the concerns raised about worship and liturgy. The more traditional outlook and that shared by the High Mass celebrated in many churches states the purpose of worship is to glorify God and wonder at his magnificence. Though the approach that many now take, notably in the house church movement and black theology, does not reject this notion it is more focused on the congregation than on the mystery and wonder of God. The correct approach is impossible to objectively determine and shall remain unresolved until Judgement day. The choice of compromise is more successful here than in most areas but the splitting within the Anglican Church caused by this is notable. Both are just as visible but in markedly different ways. The traditional are visible in the landmarks that are their churches and the more evangelical in the high streets where they are encouraging you to �find God�. The Church of England has experienced one of the most well known changes in liturgy over the past forty years. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer has virtually disappeared. Many of the older members of this church bemoan this fact and its �replacement� by the Alternative Service Book. The Alternative Service book was originally introduced to perform the function its name implies � provision of alternative services to those found in the 1662 book. Even this book is due to be replaced in the year 2000. The near-instant take-over by this tome is perhaps representative of the greater part of the population�s need for a modernisation of the liturgy of the church. Despite the success of this publication, the church remains split, indeed the gaps are widening, into three schools of worship � the �catholic�, the �liberals� and the �evangelicals�. Though there is a clear theological grounding in this split, the main cause for the split to be present amongst the laity is style of worship. It is surely the case that the majority of people have little concern for the debate between Barth and Schleiermacher but they do care for how they worship God. It is a case of method over theory. The Roman Catholic Church also experienced a seismic change in the nature of its worship when Vatican II occurred. The whole shift of the focus of the worship to a more people-centred than God-centred style was so theologically profound that it surprised many people. The perverse effect of this of course was that the Roman Catholic service became more like the Protestant churches originally strove to be and the established churches nowadays have returned to the style of the Roman Catholic churches of old. Whether or not this was the correct move to make is a difficult one to answer. It certainly made the Roman Catholic Church international once more after spending a long time as an almost exclusively Italian church. There has not been a rise in attendance in northern Europe though. This is probably more indicative of general trends amongst the established churches than specific to the Roman Catholic Church. The disposal of the Latin mass has of course had its detractors but the size of this minority is smaller than that which berate the Church of England over the disappearance of the Book of Common Prayer. The language of both does aid the cause to dispose of both but the CoE is at least nominally English (or in similar churches in other countries the service was at least conducted in the native language); whereas the Catholic Church had a service in a language few understood or cared to learn due to the fact that it is a dead language. The issue of who leads the service is one that has been the direct cause of notable controversy in recent years, mainly due to the female clergy in the Church of England. Though this may not affect the style of worship, for many people the whole idea of a female clergyman or a lay preacher is the antithesis to their theology. The liturgical aspects of this are manifest. A service led by a member of the lay community or by a woman is, for many, a service that is not befitting to God. Personally, I find that viewpoint difficult to comprehend but it is a viewpoint shared by many churchgoers nation-wide. The continued opposition by the Roman Catholic Church to these matters is rather bizarre as it sets it completely opposed to most churches world-wide. It would be interesting to discover the effect of a change in policy over this matter. The solutions for the problems raised above are difficult to find. As I have already implied above, compromise is not the solution. Compromise only serves to alienate people from all sides of the fence. This is the problem that is a prime cause of falling attendance and membership of the established churches. While the idea of a single united church is a noble one and one which should happen eventually in an ideal world, I fear that this will only happen if Christianity falls to too small a level to sustain more than one church. This would be a disaster. In order to placate as many people as possible the way forward for churches is to target services at niche markets. This of course is what is happening with all the different denominations but this is, I feel not as successful as it could be. The reason for this is that once people become disaffected with one church, they become disaffected from them all. If someone brought up to be Anglican doesn�t like the worship style of his/her church any more that person will probably simply leave. If the church offered three services a day (admittedly difficult with regard to falling numbers of clergy) with one aimed at families, one aimed at traditionalists and one aimed at the young that person may decide to simply attend a different service and thus not lose faith. The person could of course look for a different denomination but this is often a disincentive and apathy can of course also be a hindrance in this field.
