Explanation

In Resolution 2018-A068, the 79th General Convention created a Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision, called for bishops to engage worshiping communities in experimentation and the creation of alternative texts to offer to the wider church, and urged each diocese to create a liturgical commission to collect these resources and share them with the Task Force. To guide this work, the Task Force developed a set of liturgical principles rooted in Anglican tradition as received and interpreted in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. During the triennium, the Task Force received a number of liturgical texts, which it evaluated in light of the liturgical principles.

This resolution returns responsibility for liturgical and Prayer Book revision to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM). It directs the Commission to use the principles in the ongoing work of revision. The Task Force has made recommendations about the liturgical resources it received during the triennium, and this resolution directs the SCLM to review those recommendations.

This resolution also calls for liturgical revision to continue in two ways: first, through experimentation and creation of alternative texts in local worshiping communities, under the guidance of diocesan bishops and liturgical commissions, a process introduced in Resolution 2018-A068; second through development of liturgical texts that the 81st General Convention can consider for authorization for use throughout The Episcopal Church. For the latter, the SCLM might draw from resources already submitted to the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision, and/or from new resources it receives from dioceses and local worshiping communities, and/or from new texts it develops.