¶ Honorary President
The Rt. Rev'd Robert Atwell
Chair of the Liturgical Commission
¶ Chair
The Rev'd Michael Gisbourne
¶ Secretary
Member of the Executive
The Rev'd Richard Curtis
Sponsoring organisations of Transforming Worship
Praxis was formed in 1990, and encouraged by the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England, the Alcuin Club, and the Group for the Renewal of Worship.
These three groups maintain active connections with Transforming Worship, and nominate members to our Council, helping to ensure that Transforming Worship is able to work across the spectrum of traditions in the Church of England.
The sponsoring organisations do not fund Transforming Worship financially. The work that Transforming Worship does is supported mainly by affiliation.
If you are not already an affiliate, why not consider becoming one? Find out more about affiliation.
The Liturgical Commission
The Liturgical Commission is a permanent Commission of the General Synod of the Church of England. It has a four-fold purpose.
- to prepare forms of service at the request of the House of Bishops (to be submitted to them in the first instance)
- to advise on the experimental use of forms of service and the development of liturgy
- to exchange information and advice on liturgical matters with other Churches both in the Anglican Communion and elsewhere
- to promote the development and understanding of liturgy and its use in the Church.
The Alcuin Club
The Alcuin Club plays a significant part in the liturgical life of the Church. Founded in 1897, it has a long and respected tradition of promoting sound liturgical scholarship by publishing a series of collections and other works.
The Club played an important part in the debate in the Church of England in the early part of the last century about the proposed revision to the Book of Common Prayer. More recently, its aims have been broadened to include the study of the liturgy of other denominations, but with special reference to the liturgical life of the Anglican Communion. Members of the Club’s Committee continue to be involved with the work of the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England and with international societies for liturgical study.
The Group for the Renewal of Worship
The Group for Renewal of Worship has existed for over fifty years, and works primarily (though not solely) to produce or commission booklets in the Worship Series published by Grove Books.
We have a working membership of around twenty people (some of whom are usually serving on the Liturgical Commission) and, through our booklets, reach a bigger audience in the wider church.
Coming from the evangelical part of the Church of England spectrum, GROW seeks to encourage evangelicals not just to work for good quality worship at the local level, but to engage with the wider agenda in the Church of England. This has meant producing commentary and ‘coaching’ material on all the official liturgical material, but we also keep an eye on broader trends and seek to address them.
Full details are available at Grove Books