In times of fasting or seasons of special need, Anglicans use an ancient form of responsive prayer called the Great Litany. This litany is extensive and encompassing, running across eight pages in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer (pp. 91-98). It includes prayers to the Trinity, prayers for protection against all manner of evil, petitions…
Behold This Thy Family: Cranmer’s Good Friday Collects
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who led the development of the Book of Common Prayer, crafted collects for Good Friday with a special emphasis on the church as the family of God. There are three collects for the day, the only occasion for which Cranmer appointed more than one. The first asks God to “behold this thy…
A Brief History of Anglicanism, Part 2
With more than fifteen hundred years of rich history, this ancient tradition still has the power to speak to our contemporary world with a faith that is relevant for a new generation.
A People of One Book
“I want to know one thing—the way to heaven…Let me be homo unius libri [A man of one book]. Here, then, I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone: Only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to…
Cranmer and the Book of Common Prayer
Author and theologian J. I. Packer says of the Book of Common Prayer‘s influence on the British people, Long before the age of fish and chips, the Book of Common Prayer was the Great British invention, nurturing all sorts and conditions of Englishmen and holding the church together with remarkable effectiveness. Before the Book of…
What is a Collect? A Rookie Anglican Guide
As you gather for worship on Sunday, you encounter the Collect for Purity and the Collect of the Day. At Morning or Evening Prayer, you encounter “the Collects.” What are these strange things called “Collects,” and how do you pronounce this word? What is a Collect? A collect is simply a prayer meant to combine…
