We are celebrating 350 years of the Book of Common Prayer 1662. Many of its principles and rationales are deeply sound. There is much we can learn from it, embodying its principles into our different time and context. The Tables and Rules for the moveable and immovable Feasts together with the Days of Fasting and
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A member of my community initiated a very thoughtful conversation with me starting with the ideas presented around a hymn we are singing: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. He highlighted that the verses we sing are only a small part of a larger poem, The Brewing of Soma by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf
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How often do you read the scriptures? When you read the scriptures, do you pick a verse here and there, out of context? Or as you read are you conscious of what you are reading fitting within a whole scroll (“book”)? When you listen to someone preaching (or preaching yourself) is the preacher ducking and
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The Jewish “Mourners’ Kaddish” is said at all prayer services and certain other occasions. It takes the form of Kaddish Yehe Shelama Rabba, and is traditionally recited several times, most prominently at or towards the end of the service, after the Aleinu and/or closing Psalms and/or (on the Sabbath) Ani’im Zemirot. Following the death of
I am all in favour of appropriate technology. I recently wrote about using the iPad at the Eucharist. There have been useful discussions about this here and elsewhere. Some of the better points I have seen have been the suggestion that the cantor at the Easter Vigil use an iPad when chanting the Exsultet (Exultet).
This blog-post will look at what a collect is. The collect is under threat in New Zealand Anglicanism. If the Bill before General Synod Te Hinota Whanui passes, the collect will become indistinguishable from just a nice little prayer. Those who visit this site will realise my passion for the collect. Each week I provide
Currently, for each celebration, the NZ Prayer Book provides a number of options for the collect. Communities that wish to use a collect in the great tradition of praying to God, the First Person of the Trinity, through Christ, in the Spirit can always find one like that. I have been informed that a Bill
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I have been encouraging a deeper living with the psalms. The above video connects with the awe expressed in Psalm 150, traditionally prayed daily by devout Jews and Christians. 1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to
On Ash Wednesday we said “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. And also: I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, self-denial, and giving to those in need, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.
This year is the 350th anniversary year of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, preaching earlier this month in Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral, on this topic, made some good points: “Central to these reforms [the Church seeking to preserve much of its ancient order, while also
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