Following the recent discussion about praying by heart I ended up in a conversation which I think we often encounter in differing forms: “Don’t forget what Jesus says about vain repetition” (ie. Matthew 6:7). To which I reply, yes, in Matthew’s Gospel the Lord’s Prayer is an example of how to pray, like a model
The church’s new year begins on Advent Sunday, December 2. In the three year lectionary the focus is on St Luke’s Gospel. In your community, and in your own life, is planning underway how to best make use of this year’s lectionary? It is just plain stubbornly irritating, especially if your denomination (like mine) has
Breaking News: Bishop Justin Welby to be next Archbishop of Canterbury. The video shows the end of a process for choosing the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. Three names were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community
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“THE Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel; except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary of the Place.” (BCP 1662 The Order for Morning and Evening Prayer). “All Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or
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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
