“See the Conqueror” is a wonderful hymn on the Ascension of Christ. It is not widely known, but we hope to make it more popular, with God’s help! It was written by a 19th-century English bishop named Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1855), the nephew of poet William Wordsworth. Bishop Wordsworth authored many books, including The Holy Year, a book of […]
In this post we outline the history of the Holy Week Collects, which are found on pages 607-609 of the Book of Common Prayer 2019. In researching this topic, we drew especially from commentaries by Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr., Marion J. Hatchett, and C. Frederick Barbee and Paul F. M. Zahl.
What is a collect? A collect is a short, […]
Holy Week is the high mark of the church’s liturgical year. In it we celebrate Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem, from his arrival on Palm Sunday to his death on Good Friday, to his resurrection on Easter Sunday, with all the momentous events in between. There are many ways to commemorate the week, from personal reading of scripture, to family […]
Prefatory note: This is an updated version of my earlier review of Reformation Anglican Worship. The original post engendered a fruitful and clarifying conversation between the Rev. Dr. Jensen and myself, in which I profited much. In particular, he highlighted a couple of areas in that first version where he felt my reading was not altogether fair. I […]
When I began Worshiping with the Reformers by Karin Maag, I expected a history lesson and perhaps a further introduction into more of the details of the Anglican tradition. What I did not expect was the book captivating me in such a way that I found myself sitting in worship with my eyes watching the liturgy playing […]
The Seabury Society has published a slim volume called A People’s Companion to Holy Communion, meant to function as a guided tour through the Holy Communion service in the ACNA’s 2019 Prayer Book. As explained in the Preface, this book builds upon the 1914 work of Bernard Iddings Bell, The People’s Book of the Holy […]
There is a rather common saying that the Book of Common Prayer is composed of 85% bible passages. It is true. As J.I. Packer once said, “The Book of Common Prayer” is the Bible arranged for worship. I like that.
(To learn more about the Book of Common Prayer, read our Rookie Anglican […]
Did you know about the online calendar of Sunday Lessons and Collects? Our founder, Greg Goebel, has created an easy to use Lectionary calendar for free!
You can subscribe to it and see the name of each Sunday, and all Feast days in the BCP 2019 Sunday and Feast Day lectionary. That way you can […]
I was a new Anglican, trying to participate by watching everyone else. I heard a voice shout “Please stand” and then “Blessed be God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!” As a cross passed, some people bowed their heads.
Everyone stood up as we sang a hymn. […]
This is the third of a series on sacred hymns, the story behind them, their text, a recording, and a simple companion devotional.
“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.” ~William Cowper
William Cowper was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, […]
This is the second of a series on sacred hymns, the story behind them, their text, a recording, and a simple companion devotional.
“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.” – St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. Although never ordained […]
This is the first of a series on sacred hymns, the story behind them, their text, a recording, and a simple companion devotional.
“Many a man who has labored in obscure places, practically unnoticed and un-praised by his own generation, has achieved a fame after his death that grows in magnitude with the passing years,” E. E. Ryden says of […]
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 to be a joyful family […]
Are you at home for the Easter Vigil? We have created an webpage with a guided tour of the Great Vigil of Easter, BCP 2019, with music links for streaming. You can learn more about Holy Week and the Easter Vigil here.
Visit the Great Vigil of Easter Page
The liturgy normally assumes a church gathered, but this […]
For the past three Sundays, we’ve joined Christians around the world in worshipping from our living rooms. As a mom of three children under five, it’s heartbreaking to see their disappointment at not being able to go to church.
They miss church. Of course they miss it—so do I! On Palm Sunday, as we marched around the living room with palms […]
Earlier this week, the Evergreen Project hosted a panel of Rectors from Anglican churches in the US and Canada to talk about how they are navigating online worship and plans for this coming Holy Week & Easter. The webinar began with greetings from Archbishop Foley Beach who prayed for our Rectors and joined us for the entire presentation. He […]
We recently received a question from a reader looking for “Good Friday liturgies that would work well for home worship,” given the global COVID–19 pandemic. Greg Goebel pointed out that the 2019 BCP’s Good Friday service could easily be adapted for use at home.
If you’re looking for liturgical materials for Holy Week and Easter, you should know that […]
Quite a few new priests have never officiated a funeral. We have had many requests for a simple overview, and we reached out to Fr. Lee Nelson for such a post. We also include a funeral planning guide that can be used to work with individuals and families in planning. This post assumes the ability to hold a public […]
“The Psalms are the single best guide to the spiritual life currently in print.” – Ellen Davis, Getting Involved with God
“The Psalms are inexhaustible, and deserve to be read, said, sung, chanted, whispered, learned by heart, and even shouted from the rooftops. They express all the emotions we are ever likely to feel (including some we hope we may not), […]
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 is a regular discipline by which […]
We first enter through the bright red doors of an Anglican church, a preteen and two teenagers in tow. Questions permeate my thoughts, how will our children endure this shift, especially at this stage of their spiritual development? Is this even the right choice for our family?
We have all grown up within the church; however, never exposed to liturgical worship. […]
Many people coming into the Anglican tradition from other traditions have questions. Quite often, these questions center on the sacramental nature of the Church.
This pattern makes sense. After all, the Anglican Church emphasizes sacraments more than some other branches of the Christian Church. All churches have preachers of the Word. Not all have a developed sacramental theology nor a formal […]
Those of us in the Lay Reader Ministry love God’s word. We love to share the life-giving message of the Lord to his people in the context of Sunday worship. And when everything goes well, we have plenty of time to prepare our readings so that we are equipped for whatever the lectionary throws at us: crazy Hebrew names, complicated […]
