While I agree with this piece by Dr. Robert Godfrey on the differences between Evangelical and Reformed worship, he never once mentions the contrast between a biblical liturgy and ad hoc liturgy practiced by Arminians and Evangelicals. Sadly, most Reformed churches these days no longer recite the creeds or have a biblical confession of sin and a Gospel absolution of sins. In short, the Reformed Anglicans have something the Presbyterians do not have: a biblical and reformed and common liturgy.
The advantages of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer over ad hoc liturgies are many.
The primary advantage is that memorizing key biblical passages by rote repetition drills them deep into the memory and psyche of the people. Reciting the decalogue every time communion is served drives home the moral obligations of God's moral law and the need for miserable sinners to cry out for God's mercy, forgiveness, and grace.
The Prayer Book teaches a proper view of the self not as righteous but as unrighteous--no matter how holy we may think we are. The genius of the late Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of the English Reformation was in teaching the five solas of the Reformation through a common, consistent and biblical liturgy. Modern "reformed" denominations are indistinguishable from the Evangelicals. In fact, liberal Presbyterians often retain the gloria patri while conservative Presbyterians have all but gone broadly evangelical. Would that all Presbyterians would return to something close to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Just saying.
Click here to read the article by Dr. Godfrey: Worship: Evangelical or Reformed?
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In my own Reformed (ARP) church, we have a real confession, a real absolution, two lessons, a real declaration of faith, and the "gloria patri", plus a thoroughly Biblical sermon. A Reformed Anglican would feel comfortable here, but it's still not the BCP. We do not have the Lord's Prayer, a Psalm reading, and nothing is done as "common" worship. There really is nothing more Reformed than BCP worship, and nothing compares to the real thing (1662 BCP).
Yes, I agree, Hudson. I visited the ARP here in Bartow and it was the closest thing I could find to a truly Reformed worship service. While I was on the road I visited First Presbyterian Church of Monte Vista, Colorado. That church is pulling out of the PCUSA over the ordination of open homosexuals. They did the Lord's Prayer, the Gloria Patri, etc. Strange but even The Episcopal Church has dropped the Gloria Patri from the 1979 Revised Services book. Sad.
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