How does one move from a faith driven by emotional intensity and ministerial performance to the quiet, steady rhythms of the Prayer Book and healing in the ordinary means of grace?
The Five American Prayer Books: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Neither the ACNA nor the Book of Common Prayer in our hands today is a present-day import from England. Our Prayer Book, like our Church, has been a native, naturalized inhabitant since 1789.
The Prayer Book’s Exhortation for Faithful Priests
On a crisp, bright Alabama day in December of 1994, I received my commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. I proudly stood before my friends and family in my dress greens (an abominable polyester creation) as each of us new officers received the gold bars of our new rank. One of…
For the Procreation of Children: The First Purpose of Marriage
The first purpose of marriage is the procreation of children. This is the teaching of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. What’s more, children are a blessing and a joy! Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior…
Psalms and Prayers after an Assassination
After an assassination, we really ought to pray. By definition, an assassination is a surprise, a shocking and unexpected murder of a political or religious leader. We remember assassinations because we feel them personally; at the assassination of public figures, our minds and bodies participate in the shock. This shock produces anger, and anger can…
The Lord’s Prayer: A Rookie Anglican Guide
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…
Book Review: A Walk Through the Prayer Book
Klukas, Arnold W. A Walk Through the Prayer Book: The 2019 Book of Common Prayer Explained. Anglican House, 2023. 118 pp. As the Anglican Church in North America celebrates its fifteenth year, its 2019 edition of the Book of Common Prayer likewise celebrates five years of use. Fittingly, Anglican House Publishers has released a helpful…
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Do you want to pray with the church and immerse yourself in the Bible? Then the Book of Common Prayer is for you. But there are lots of different versions. If you crave simplicity, then consider The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition. This book can be a structure for your spiritual life. It’s…
Getting Started with the Daily Office: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Let’s face it: to the modern ear, “Daily Office” sounds more like your workplace than your prayer routine. However, while this “office” is not the workplace that it sounds like, it is, in a certain sense, a task or, more appropriately, a vocation. The odd name comes from the Latin officium divinum, which means “divine…
Family Prayer: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Do you want to introduce the Daily Office into the life of your family, but the length of those prayer times is a bit daunting for your small children? Or do you want a quick version to do yourself when you have a busy workday? Family Prayer is here to help! It is for exactly…
Explaining Our New Prayer Book
When the first Book of Common Prayer was released on Pentecost in the year 1549, it was such a shock to the liturgical and theological intuitions of some portions of the Church in England that riots and rebellions broke out over the matter. Especially in Norfolk and in Devon, and most memorably in the city…
The Standard of Prayer Book Worship (Jerusalem Declaration 6)
We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.