The Church of England (Worship and Doctrine) Measure 1974, No. 3 is a Church of England Measure passed by the

General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

. The Measure gave the General Synod the power to reform the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

.James W. Torke, 'The English Religious Establishment', ''Journal of Law and Religion'', Vol. 12, No. 2 (1995–1996), p. 415. The Measure was the outcome of the controversy over the use of the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'', the conflict between those who wished to preserve the 1662 prayer book and those who advocated new forms of worship that employed modern language and symbolism.James A. Beckford, 'Politics and Religion in England and Wales', ''Daedalus'', Vol. 120, No. 3, Religion and Politics (Summer 1991), p. 190. The report of the Archbishop's Commission, chaired by

Owen Chadwick William Owen Chadwick (20 May 1916 – 17 July 2015) was a British Anglican priest, academic, rugby international,Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

should pass the regulation of the church to the General Synod rather than

disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

. The

sociologist of religion Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, ...

James A. Beckford James Arthur Beckford (1 December 1942 – 10 May 2022) was a British sociologist of religion.Swatos, William H.; Kivisto, Peter''Encyclopedia of Religion and Society'' Rowman Altamira 1998, p. 44, . Retrieved 20 June 2010. He was professor eme ...

said there was "a deep cleavage within the Church of England between, on the one hand, the view that the church represented the whole nation and should therefore retain the cultural form in which the nation's ethnic and historical particularity was embodied, and, on the other, the view that the church could only exercise effective influence over the course of events by adapting its liturgy to modern cultural forms". Opponents of the Measure said it was inconsistent with the Church's status as the national church but were pleased with the provision that the 1662 liturgy could still be used in a minority of parishes.

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 t ...

said the Measure "was to the great detriment of the power and authority of the Church", and added: "it was this measure that has allowed the creeping disestablishment of the Church, so that 'alternative services' can be laid before the congregation as though it were freedom rather than certainty that they wished for".Roger Scruton, ''The Meaning of Conservatism: Third Edition'' (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), p. 165.

Notes

{{Anglican liturgical books, state=expand Church of England legislation Christianity and law in the 20th century