The Book of Common Prayer

The First Book of Common Prayer, 1549, is appropriately observed on a weekday following the Day of Pentecost. (BCP p. 23)

"So that here you have an order for prayer (as touching the reading of the holy Scripture), much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old fathers, and a great deal more profitable and commodious, than that which of late was used. It is more profitable, because here are left out many things, whereof some be untrue, some uncertain, some vain and superstitious: and is ordained nothing to be read, but the very pure word of God, the holy Scriptures, or that which is evidently grounded upon the same. . . ." (Preface to the First Book of Common Prayer, 1549)

The Book of Common Prayer is what made me an Anglican. My first extensive exposure to the Daily Offices of Matins and Evensong is described here.

I immediately recognized the riches of the Offices, and of the Holy Eucharist conducted for the most part in the traditional Rite One language. Nonetheless, I had some scruples. I had been taught in my Fundamentalist upbringing that Episcopalians and Anglicans, like Roman Catholics, worshipped the Virgin Mary, did not believe the Scriptures, and were corrupted by atheistic liberal humanism.

Again, the BCP saved me; I found and studied the Articles of Religion (BCP p. 867-876). This was the true catholic and evangelical faith, in greater depth than anything I had encountered as a Baptist. I was convinced; I joined the teenagers in the year-long confirmation class, knelt before the bishop, and received the sacramental grace of Confirmation. For, as I learned, there were not two, but seven sacraments -- and "sacraments" indeed, not "ordinances."

It was in this (the seven sacraments) that I began to learn the limitations of the Articles of Religion (viz. Article XXV. Of the Sacraments). As the years passed, I learned that the Episcopal Church has pretty much discarded all Thirty-Nine of the Articles. Would that it were otherwise.

The BCP makes the Church look better than it is. Or, to state it more positively, it stands as a measuring rod for what the Church ought to be. It has been for me a school of prayer both liturgical and private; a comfort in perplexity and sorrow; a daily companion and teacher; a guide through the liturgical year and the Holy Scriptures; an introduction to the Saints; a connection in prayer, praise, and life with the "one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church."

Alongside the Scriptures in the Authorized Version (KJV), it has been a guide and teacher of my native tongue. It would be hard to find any passages in the English language, even in Shakespeare, to equal the traditional Confession (BCP p. 331: "Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men...." or any number of passages from the Eucharistic Prayer: "And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses, through Jesus Christ our Lord...." and "We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies...." Or the post-communion prayer, which lists in one magnificent sentence of eighty words the blessings of the "holy mysteries," continuing with the petition "that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in," and concluding "through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen."

And then there are the Te Deum, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. These are words to grow into, by God's grace, through daily rehearsal. One does not tire of such things; they grow more precious with each repetition. I hope that if I live long enough to lose such mind as I have, the last things that remain in it are the Canticles of the Office and the Lord's Prayer as guides to lead me home.

Were I limited to only three books for the residue of this life, it would be the Holy Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and a good Hymnal. Were I limited to two, the Prayerbook would come ahead of the Hymnal.