That percentage hasn't changed over the past 31 years. An unscientific poll conducted over the past four months by ETF asking respondents which they favor - the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) or the 1979 revision - has shown that the percentage favoring the traditional BCP has held steady despite more than three decades of diluted liturgy. The poll does not reveal how many respondents are still in the Church.

During the 1960s and 1970s, through "trial liturgies" and various permutations, concerned Episcopalians repeatedly expressed dismay with the doctrinal and literary changes. They were treated in a most un-Christian fashion by Church liberals. "Outdated, old-fashioned," were some of the kinder slurs directed at the 1928 BCP.

To the contrary; the 1928 liturgy is ancient, true, reverent, and dignified, compared with recent forays into secular humanism that are undignified, false, and even blasphemous. The 1928 BCP will never go out of fashion, for its words are eternal.

Not surprisingly, it is now the 1979 Prayer Book that is going out of fashion among the "progressives." It apparently was meant to be a temporary bridge between the true BCP and something radically different. Soon, it seems, it will join the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, gathering dust on hard-to-reach shelves in fusty church libraries.

This is the fate of the traditional 1928 BCP wherever the bishop - against Church Canons - erroneously forbids priests from using it, even when parishioners request it. During last summer's General Convention, a boisterous group of conventioneers was creating a commotion outside the meeting room of the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Church Music Committee.

One of the committee members laughed and shouted to the others, "That's the 1979 Prayer Book people protesting." It wasn't, but it could well have been, for the revisionists in that room were busy making ever more radical changes that are taking us farther and farther from the core religion of the Church, eg. rites following abortions, funerals for animals, same-gender "weddings," provisions for LGBT priests and bishops, and other measures that are alienating the rest of the global Anglican Communion, making the Episcopal Church a figure of fun to other denominations, and sending conservative Episcopalians fleeing to one of the more than 50 Anglican churches that have arisen from the rubble of our once-great Church, to Rome, or to Our Church of the Pillow for a sleep-in on Sunday mornings. Why bother? Why not skip church next Sunday and go directly to the Easter Egg Hunt?

All Saints Day

No Ballot Box for Episcopalians

Church conservatives were treated like ignorant rubes when they questioned the wisdom of the Prayer Book adulteration by a handful of radicals. How dare these tone-deaf tinkerers chop away at the foundations of a faith that has stood for 2,000-plus years? To our shame, many of us allowed ourselves to be intimidated by men and women in miters. They've been to seminary, some of us reasoned, so they must know best. Fortunately, some of us had been well-schooled in our religion through confirmation and Bible study classes taught by serious, knowledgeable adults, and we dared question authority in the form of the left-leaning revisionists who were hijacking our Church.

Bishops, clergy, even longtime former friends told us that we should leave for a church more to our liking. So much for Christian charity. So much for "inclusiveness." Those who stayed are being forced to watch as our Church crumbles around us. If American citizens don't like coercive legislation that's been forced on us by the government, there is always the voting booth in November. As citizens of the Church, we have no similar recourse. Episcopalians can't vote out the revisionists who secularized the Prayer Book and told us the scripture-based 1928 BCP can no longer be used - contrary to what our own General Convention decreed twice.

We can vote with our feet and our wallets, as half our fellow communicants have done. Untold millions of dollars in bequests and pledges have been withdrawn over just the past few years. The conservative exodus has left the Church dying of malnutrition, forced to eat its own by suing departing dioceses and parishes for their property. "For Sale" and "For Rent" signs are a not uncommon sight in front of bare, ruined Episcopal Church buildings.

Another Way

We don't have to leave the Episcopal Church so that we can worship as we believe. There's another way. ETF offers an alternative. We choose to remain and fight for our right to practice our faith in the Church we grew up in or joined because of our belief. We acknowledge that Christ is the Son of God, who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven so that we who believe have hope of eternal life.

We commit to God, not social activism, and decline to parrot the "baptismal covenant," a call to "peace and justice," that was pasted into the revised Prayer Book in 1979, and is invoked virtually every five minutes in today's church services. (At General Convention, several revisionists rhapsodized to us on the vision of strong adult voices chanting in unison this peace-and-justice mantra over and over again.) We stand up for our Lord and God, not some pagan tree goddess or a socialist scheme for redistribution of wealth. We recognize that Evil exists.

We choose to stay so that we can help salvage and rebuild our Church along with the godly bishops and clergy who also are committed to remaining in the Episcopal Church and restoring it from within. We can't vote out the arrogant leftists within our Church who flout their vows and mock our religion, as we can public servants who have forgotten their responsibility to their constituents; but we can offer an alternative to their sociopolitical agenda.

We can make our beleaguered dioceses and parish churches a solid offer: Use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in your services, and we will support you. We will stand beside you in your efforts to keep true religion in the Episcopal Church. We will donate our time, expertise, and treasure to help you prosper.

As the shadows of Lent part before the dawn of Easter Day, think about how you can make a difference. If you know that the Resurrection is true, please help our Church reclaim this belief at the heart of our Christian faith, through our timeless work of prayer and praise, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It is the only American Book of Common Prayer in use today that is completely based on holy scripture, the cornerstone of our Church.

If you'd like to start an ETF chapter in your parish church, contact ETF. It doesn't have to be a large group in the beginning. Remember, "When two or three are gathered together . . " Let us help you.

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