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The new translation deserves to be tested

SIR – Striving for excellence in worship ought always to be a priority of the Church’s witness and mission (Letter, January 5). It is the means through which we express what we believe about God and our loving submission to be conformed to His will for us. The gathered community encountering God through the dynamic vitality of the rites and sacraments, in the varied circumstances of people’s lives, is also bearing witness to the God who is saving souls. Therefore the words and actions we use are important and great care ought rightly to be taken in their composition and celebration. Having said that, I have been in ordained ministry for more than 36 years; both as an Anglican and now as a Catholic, I have presided at the Eucharist using seven different authorised liturgies over the years. None has been perfect or necessarily to my liking, yet each has had aspects which I loved, grew to love and which provided endless opportunities for catechesis and a vision of the transcendant to which each particular liturgy pointed, nurturing my own faith in the process. I have also come to realise that people experience the divine presence and activity in the liturgy despite the form, albeit through the faithful submission of the minister to the said form. The imperfections of each liturgy which have shaped me, as I both experienced it and presided at its celebration, do serve to remind me that we will probably never find perfection in the liturgy this side of eternity, and that this reality is normative, and so it should be, “for now we know in part …” (1 Corinthians 13:9). However, good aspects of the liturgy have stood the tests of time, and that is what changes deserve – to be tested, and time needs to be given for that. It seems to me that the new translation is undergoing such a process, unintentionally of course. This may be the lesson that this translation is trying to teach us as we consider future changes, whenever they may occur. Fr Cecil Rogerson Northfield, Birmingham