Why use five words when you can use five hundred?

There’s some interesting liturgical development afoot for the Roman Catholic church. The publication of the new Roman Missal takes me back about ten years to my days at Church House Publishing and the publication of Common Worship. No doubt, around the country right now, there are Catholic priests and congregations either trying to weigh up whether to buy new books, manage their own booklets or see how long they can get away with doing nothing; just as Anglican Vicars did ten years ago.
Anyway, I’ve been struck by sheer verbosity this weekend as I’ve followed this news.
The thing that really got my attention was the Bishop of London’s pastoral letter to his clergy in which he takes 2,500 words to say the following:
- Dear Clergy, when you were ordained and again when you were licensed to your current post, you promised to use ‘only the forms of service which are authorised or allowed by Canon’;
- The Roman Missal is not an authorised text in the Church of England (neither the old one or the new one);
- So, my more Catholic friends, don’t be thinking this new book gives you a license to play games with the liturgy. Read more