Cranmer’s prayer calls the eucharist “our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.” That’s gospel worship in a nutshell. It is not for the Church to perpetuate a priestly tribe in her ordained ministers, neither is she to ape a pagan cultus in her rites.
As a kingdom of priests the Church offers praise, praise to the One who is worthy as a man to redeem Adam’s lost inheritance, and thanksgiving that Jesus the Son of God and our kinsman-redeemer, came forward on our behalf, when we were still dead in our sins.
Scientists postulate that the universe will eventually die of exhaustion, when all sources of heat expire. What a difference that is from the explosion of praise described in Revelation 5:8-14! Our worship should reinforce that difference, driving it home with every chance we get. We have not evolved by chance only to die in the cold.
Gospel worship can follow a classical form (see interview below) or be infused with a contemporary idiom, but it must always be the new song in praise of the Lamb. Why not join other Evangelical Anglicans this June in Nashville as we learn to sing it better?