The day no words would come Whenever I’m with my family and I make a dumb joke, my parents like to roast me by saying that they look forward to eventually writing in my baby book the first time I tell a good joke. If this mythical baby book that has been dangled over my…
Reading Scripture Together: Recapturing Thomas Cranmer’s Vision
In 2008 Phyllis Tickle made the important observation that about every 500 years, a significant transformation takes place in the Church. She points to the arrival of Jesus in the first century, the collapse of the Roman empire five-hundred years later in the late 5th century, the Great Schism five-hundred years after that in 1054,…
Lessons in Omission: Why Are Some Chapters Missing in the Daily Office Lectionary?
Many folks accustomed to reading Bible-in-a-year plans are delighted to find out that the Book of Common Prayer (2019) has a Daily Office lectionary that leads the faithful Anglican to read through the whole Bible in a year—at least, most of it. Those same folks are sometimes a little dismayed to then find out that…
The Consolations of Compline in Quarantine (and Beyond)
In the shadow of a global pandemic and the uncertainty it has brought to every aspect of life, I have found myself drawn again and again to the Compline service in the Book of Common Prayer. I have especially found deep comfort in the service’s collects and prayers, which deftly blend a realism about the…
How to Pray as a Family at Home
Family Prayer, sometimes called Family Worship, is a cornerstone activity of the Christian family’s life. In it, we come together to sing, read Scripture, and pray. Yet, this activity can feel daunting and unfamiliar. What do we read? What do we pray? How long should it be? How often should we do Family Prayer? My…
Should We Pray Written Prayers? Didn’t Jesus Tell Us Not to Repeat Prayers?
Jesus teaches us how to pray by example and by explicit teaching. Embedded within the Sermon on the Mount written in the Gospel according to Matthew, there is an instruction from Jesus that seems to speak directly against repeating our prayers to God. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For…
Praying Around the Table: Making a Prayer Space in your Home
Now that the family is together every day and worship is virtual, families begin to wonder how to keep their children growing in the faith. Family devotions begin to seem more necessary. But how to begin? How to keep everyone’s attention? Maybe you’ve tried before, but things didn’t seem to work. You want family devotions…
What Do Anglicans Believe about Scripture, Prayer, and Worship? A Brief Overview of Anglican Spirituality
The following is an excerpt from the Anglican Church in North America’s catechism, To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (Crossway, 2020), pp. 81–87. You can download a PDF of the entire catechism here. A Rule of Prayer: Scripture, Prayer, and Worship 224. What is a “rule” of prayer? A rule of prayer is a regular discipline by…
The Liturgical Home: 5 Suggestions for Advent Devotions with Children
I had an idea, and it was a great idea! My family was going to do something new that year. Every night, we were going to sit down at the dining room table and do Advent devotions together. I could already see how the night was going to go in my mind’s eye. It was…
The Daily Office Is Not Enough: The Importance of Reading Scripture Devotionally
It was J. I. Packer who made an Anglican out of me. Although I had attended a student-led Anglican service when I first became a seminarian at Regent College, it wasn’t until I moved to the Anglican church that Dr. Packer attended (and at which he sometimes led liturgy) that I was struck by the…
