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"We may be confident that liturgical worship is the best of all.

There is some loss in the use of printed words; but there is a greater gain. We have in them the accumulated wisdom and beauty of the Christian Church, the garnered excellence of the saints. We are by them released from the accidents of time and place. Above all we are preserved against the worst dangers of selfishness: in the common prayer we join together in a great fellowship that is as wide as the world; and we are guided, not by the limited notions of our own priest, nor by the narrow impulses of our own desires, but by the mighty voice that rises from the general heart of Christendom."  — Percy Dearmer, Everyman’s History of the PrayerBook, 1912
"The 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, and along with it the other Prayer Books of the Anglican Communion, have been hugely influential in shaping the identity of the Communion as a seriously liturgical fellowship of Churches. In some Provinces, especially where it is used in a local vernacular tongue,

it still feeds people with a secure spirituality;

and in these and other Provinces it often remains as a standard of doctrine." — from The Lambeth Conference, 1988; Mission and Ministry, 184
"The Book of Common Prayer: a book

so scriptural that it is full of scripture from one end to the other,

and built altogether upon it; so catholic that nothing therein is found contrary to the decrees and practice of the apostolic, nay the universal Church, men’s private fancies only being excluded; so comprehensive that every man finds his wants represented and his petitions anticipated;...let a man be as devout as he will, he will find his devotion cannot soar to a higher pitch, if it be sober, rational and Christian; and withal so elevated that it leads us above the narrow views and petty prejudices of party into the clam and holy atmosphere of heaven." —  Bishop John Medley
“I believe there is no liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England: and though the main of it was compiled considerably more than two hundred years ago, yet is the language of it

not only pure, but strong and elegant in the highest degree.”

 — John Wesley, 1784

“Through radical changes in polity, through revolutionary movements in Church and in society in general, through frequent “theological shifts” of one sort or another, the relative stability of the Prayer Book

tradition has provided a focus of unity, in which Anglicans

could recognize their self-identity. Everything distinctively Anglican is embraced by, fostered by, and preserved by that tradition, so that the Prayer Book constitutes, in fact, the fullest expression of the consensus fidelium for Anglicans.” — Robert Crouse

Catechesis Project

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The Common Prayer Catechesis Project: Rooted in the Faith, Bearing Fruit for the Future. Find out more

 

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The Anglican Way is published four times a year by the Prayer Book Society. To subscribe, please become a member of the PBS.

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Peter Toon Memorial Lecture

Inaugural Lecture: "Justification by Faith" by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali 
16 April 2013 
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England  Details 

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

 

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The Comfortable Word

THE COMFORTABLE WORD – Part I

  In the traditional Prayer Book service we are offered three “comfortable words” just after the Confession and Absolution. They are observed mostly by their absence from our new liturgical ceremonies. But I know people for whom these words in that particular place have been instruments, not only of comfort, but also of genuine conversion. And I must speak also for myself, since one of them is my absolute personal choice of all the texts of the New Testament.

  In the translation of Coverdale, pre-served in the 1549 Prayer Book (and in 1928), the text reads: “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” An earlier translation, that of Tyndale (1534), reads: “I will ease you.” In the King James (1611) it is: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

  And the text continues: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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Practical Advice for Lent

ExCrossAThe Three Disciplines of Lent: A Practical Guide

Works of Repentance: There are three “works worthy of repentance” commended by the example and teaching of Christ, the apostles and prophets:  fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. (In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus gives counsel “when”, not “if”,  we fast, pray, and give alms).  In Lent, the Church devotes itself the corporate practice of these disciplines, so that dying to sin and rising again to a new life of righteousness, we may be fit to keep the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter.
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Presentation of Christ in the Temple

presentation-melchiorbroederlam-728The Presentation of Christ in the Temple commonly called The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary - February 2.

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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The Circumcision of Christ

Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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