Actually, as a non-Roman Catholic, I have found this discussion fascinating.
 All too many of us have failed to take seriously issues of ecclesial
authority.  Recent events in the Roman Communion have highlighted that issue
very sharply (the tightening of the canonical penalties for dissent, and the
disempowering of national Episcopal Conferences).  We Anglicans are
struggling with similar issues at the current Lambeth Conference--what are
the limits of dissent, and how should we handle fellow Christians who seem
to us to have exceeded those limits?  I suspect that the Protestants and
Orthodox are struggling with the same issues in their own contexts.

I do not find these questions at all foreign to liturgical questions. 
Liturgy is the work of the whole Christian People of God.  That is, it
should never be a private expression of the pastor's preferences or even of
the piety of a single congregation.  It must express, on some level, the
worship of the Church Universal.  Like the Centurion in the Gospel, it is
"under authority," with a higher power telling it to go here or go there. 
We would all like to think that the Church ultimately relies on God's
authority.  However, that fine wine is found only in earthen vessels and
human institutions.  How should those institutions seek to incarnate the
Word for our time?

In the context of this list: how should liturgical decisions be made? 
Should a "father figure" in Rome, Canterbury, Wittenburg, or Geneva simply
lay down the law?  Should there be a democratic process of consulting the
faithful?  Should "trial use" preceed formal adoption of liturgical change? 
Should the decision to change be made by the group that attends a particular
service, by the congregation as a whole, by the pastor, by the diocese (or
equivalent judicatory), by the bishop (or equivalent), the national
denomination, or the worldwide communion?  What accommodation--if
any--should be made for those who cannot or will not use the new forms? 
What sanctions--if any--should be used to control nonconformists on either
the radical or traditionalist fringes?  Etc., etc.

All of these affect liturgy as actually experienced at least as much as the
narrower issues of liturgical theology and practice.  If we are interested
in liturgy, we cannot afford to be uninterested in these questions of
ecclesial authority and discipline.  I would be interested in hearing
anything anyone else has to say about the interaction between the *jus
liturgicum* and the plain old *jus*!

Dale A. Rye
Grace Episcopal Church,
Georgetown, Texas


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