Not nostalgia junkies.

Dear editor,

It is a shame that Canon William Portman feels that Discovering the Book of Common Prayer "suffers from a kind of 'prayer book fundamentalism.'" As someone who values the "clones of the 1662 BCP," I found Discovering to be an invaluable resource. It is unfortunate that the Prayer Book has become consistently less appreciated since the 1980s, the benefits of the Book of Alternative Services notwithstanding. All over the English-speaking world, young Anglicans my own age find themselves "bored" by the treasures of Thomas Cranmer's poetry. The Prayer Book may indeed be a "work in progress," but some of us prefer to see some continuity with previous Prayer Books and the option of retaining traditional language and a sense of the joy of penitence.

While some of Sue Careless's treatment of the Eucharistic Liturgy may be anachronistic, she speaks for a number of Anglicans who are concerned about the rapid abandonment of the traditional liturgical gems of our shared tradition. It is lamentable that Canon Portman has fallen into the trap of seeing Prayer Book Anglicans as crotchety, change-resistant, nostalgia junkies. Some of us happen to be young and liberal, but even those who are neither have a deep and abiding love of the Anglican church and a profound fear of losing sight of hundreds of years of liturgical heritage.

Geoffrey McLarney

Guelph, Ont.