As an Anglican, my tradition held from our beginning that the language of the liturgy should be in the language of the people. The words and meaning must be accessible.
So my worship has always been in the only language I speak, English, as was true with my ancestors. I cannot imagine either saying or hearing the Mass in images I do not understand. That said, we Anglicans say the Mass in whatever language a people speak, and the Book of Common Prayer is printed in that tongue.
There is still some angst in the Episcopal Church in the United States resulting from the change in Elizabethan English in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer to the more contemporary vernacular of the 1979 version. My own husband longs for what he hears as the more poetic and beautiful wording of the 16th century. I have to admit, myself, that I want Rite 1 (similar to the old book) Burial Office when I die. “I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord” is much to be preferred than “I am the resurrection and life says the Lord.”
If some Roman Catholics need and prefer the Latin Mass, who am I at this stage of my life to object? It is not my choice, yet the work I am doing now at The Interfaith Alliance is to help the American public appreciate and preserve the freedom to worship as they choose. I hope the Roman Catholic Church continues to give their people the freedom to choose the vernacular as well as Latin.
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