Not an excerpt

This book calls it a "significant gain" that the 1979 prayer book made confession optional. Bah! I say. Bah! I don't care if the earliest Eucharistic rites did not include confession. Confession may be more important now than ever, in our individualistic approaches to life in general and religion in particular. It does not behoove us uncritically to adopt every aspect of the early church's liturgy. The various and sundry traditions of the Church Universal may all inform our understanding and theology of worship. Confession does not eliminate the communal nature of worship, particularly when we remember that our sin, like our confession, may be corporate as well as individual. Sure, confession isn't the Main Point of Worship, whether it's a Eucharistic service or not. That doesn't mean it's superfluous. Bah! I say again.