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Oh, please. Of all the things to get bent out of shape over, the words in the prayers should be way down the list. Even the words of the Bible itself are subject to different English translations of the original Greek. Jesus didn't specify which exact words REALLY mean "I repent" and which don't.

Yes and no. Our liturgy is instructive as well as act of worship, and quite carefully constructed (in my church we are engaged in a four-week course examining the service of Holy Communion in quite some detail). Yes, you could change the words and preserve both the reverential and penitential tone and the meaning. But it is likely that the tone will be lost; a sad thing but not critical. But what can also happen is that the theology will be lost or changed -- and that is in fact what did happen when ECUSA adopted its 1979 BCP.

I had not been really that aware of the change until I compared the prescribed services for consecrating a bishop in the 1928 and 1979 BCPs. V. Gene Robinson simply could not have been "properly" consecrated in the 1928 service, but he could in the 1979.

But as the article makes clear, the language is important. Believe me, you cannot recite the General Confession without at the very least being drawn along. Even from memory, or maybe especially from memory.

Compare 1928 BCP (archaic):

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind In Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

with CofE (modern):

Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.

"Through weakness, through ignorance"? Hm, that wasn't in the other. Now we're excusing ourselves as well -- "I couldn't help it; I did not know." But we've just modernized the words in the prayers, right?

Unless you have come to know the true beauty and reverence of the liturgy, it would be difficult to understand.