The Lord’s Prayer is one of the most well-known features of Christian worship. Many Christian denominations, even ones that don’t use pre-written prayers in their worship services, still teach children this prayer in Sunday school. However, to many Christians, Anglicans included, it can easily lose its meaning through rote repetition. So why do we pray…
He Is Risen: A Manifesto for Leavened Communion Bread
Let’s stop using wafers! Let’s return to regular bread. Pita bread from the store is better than wafers from an online store, but homemade bread is even better!
Communion for Children: A Rookie Anglican Guide to Paedocommunion
(Editor’s Note: Views on whether small children should be admitted to Communion vary within modern Anglicanism, including within the Anglican Compass team and leadership, some of whom disagree with the practice. With that said, our ministry president, Peter Johnston, here presents a case for paedocommunion.) If you are new to the Anglican way, you might…
The Decalogue: A Rookie Anglican Guide
The Decalogue is a responsive paraphrase of the Ten Commandments, used (sometimes) in the Sunday Communion service. Each commandment is recited by the priest and is followed by a congregational response. For example, here is the first commandment: God spoke these words and said: I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other…
(Why) Are Priests and the Liturgy Necessary for Holy Communion?
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…
The Prayer of Humble Access: A Rookie Anglican Guide
The Prayer of Humble Access is a traditional part of the Anglican service of Holy Communion. I recently learned how beloved the Prayer of Humble Access was to so many Anglicans when I posted about it on Twitter. I posted what I thought was a slightly humorous tweet poll that indicated some questions I have…
How to Receive Communion, Part 2: A Practical Guide
My last post discussed receiving communion by faith, and was more about our understanding of the spiritual aspects of communion. This post is just plain practical. We all want to reverently receive communion, not get in anyone’s way or spill anything, and to not have any surprises. But the surprises and spills will happen. Even…
How to Receive Communion, Part 1: Receiving with Faith
First time I visited an Anglican church, I was afraid to go forward for communion for two reasons. If you are visiting an Anglican church for the first time, you may feel the same. So here is what we believe is happening during communion in this post, and then in the next post, some instructions…
Why Every Church Should Have Weekly Sunday Communion Like the Anglicans Do
There was a long period where many Anglican churches didn’t have communion every Sunday. They would have morning prayer for a few weeks, and then a Holy Communion once a month or so. But a movement called Parish Communion successfully restored the tradition around the world. Today, most (but not all) Anglican churches celebrate Holy…
Holy Communion: A Rookie Anglican Guide to the Eucharist
This article was originally written in 2018 using the 1979 BCP and updated for the 2019 BCP in 2023. Important: As with all of our Rookie Anglican guides to the Prayer Book, differences will exist between what exists here and other historic and global Prayer Books. Have you ever wondered what’s going on during a…
