Once again, a feeble desire to be democratic and appeal to potential church-goers has led the C of E into muddy waters. No, I’m not talking about women bishops, but the Church of England’s much more significant — and damaging – decision, rubber stamped last Sunday, to remove the Devil from the liturgy of Baptism. Instead of being asked to reject ‘the devil and all rebellion against God’, parents at a Christening will now blandly be asked to ‘turn away from sin’.
The change of language means the liturgy is now so removed from the original Book of Common Prayer as to be unrecognisable, but members of the Synod were told that a pilot scheme of the new version in selected churches had ‘proved extremely popular’. And a report for the C of E’s Liturgical Commission said that vicars now often conduct ‘baptisms for un-churched families’ who may find traditional language impenetrable.
Instead of ‘renouncing’ evil, parents will now reject it, and there will on no account be any ‘repenting’.
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