You know how GAFCON makes BCP 1662 definitive and the Anglican Covenant is moving in the same direction. Well there is an interesting letter in the Church Times of London, from a Church of Ireland
Synodsman which asserts that for the Church of Ireland the definitive rite is their current revised Prayer Book. what do you feel about that ? There are a lot of Evangelicals who dislike the baptismal service of the 1662 BCP and for years Sydney has excised it of regenerative language.

Hi All

To distinguish between worship in all of life and what we do when we come together, I often describe the latter as ‘corporate worship’.  A tad clumsy, I know, but I haven’t come up with something better as yet.

On the substantive issue under discussion, I commend Philip G for his posts, and like him am somewhat exercised as to a solution.  So many services/gatherings I have been to are at risk of being banal and superficial - Tom’s original complaint does at times seem highly justified.  But I doubt very much that a return to 1662 is the solution (and I’m almost certain Cranmer would not commend it either).  It’s not as simple as complex and beautiful equals richer, while simple and pedestrian equals banal.  The Bible gives us both.  Psalms 104, 119 & 136 are just a few examples of the former - long, complex, vivid expressions of praise.  But who can deny the power of the tax collector’s prayer, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13) - hardly “complacent and banal”.

These issues are, as Philip says, both important and urgent.  But they won’t be helpfully resolved by simplistic categories of ‘A’ is good while ‘B’ is bad.  Part of the solution, I would tentatively suggest, is to provide a variety of modes for corporate worship, from the simple to the complex, from the solemn to the celebratory, from the stately to the ‘laid-back’; and perhaps encourage believers in time to participate in more than one of these modes.

Bob