For those who are new to the Christian faith, or at least to Anglicanism in particular, simply handing them a Prayer Book can be a bewildering experience. This brief article has been written to serve as a sort of pamphlet to provide a brief topical introduction to the value and use of the Prayer Book (2019 version).

CONVERSION

The process of becoming a Christian is often portrayed as a moment of instant clarity and change.  While there certainly are break-through moments along the way, conversion is a process that can take a long time.  In the Prayer Book we summarize it as a three-fold taking off and a three-fold putting on.  It’s found on pages 164 (Baptism), 177 (Confirmation), 185 (both), and 194 (Renewal of Baptismal Vows).  We reject the world, the flesh and the devil (the proximate, personal, and cosmic dangers) and replace them with Jesus, the biblical faith, and God’s commandments.  The repetition of these baptismal vows at our subsequent confirmation and periodically thereafter reminds us that the Christian is both once and always converting from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God.

DOGMA

That which is absolutely required for true Christian faith is called dogma.  These are the non-negotiable points of belief which unite Christians of all stripes, the rejection of which identifies ancient (or renewed) heresies.  The holy Trinity and the two natures in the one person of Christ Jesus are the two primary centers of Christian dogma.  The full statements are called Creeds, of which we have received three: the Apostles’ (page 20 et al), the Nicene (page 109), and the Athanasian (page 769).

DOCTRINE

From the basic dogma of the Church spring a great many other teachings, also called doctrines, which are elucidated to safeguard the core biblical faith.  Sadly, different church traditions (or denominations) differ in doctrine to various degrees, yet despite this disunity it remains necessary for Christians to know what they are invited to believe and for ministers to remain faithful to the standards they have professed.  For Anglicans, our basic doctrinal statement is a set of Thirty Nine Articles of Religion (pages 772–790).  Other “documentary foundations” responding to more recent issues in the Anglican Church are provided on pages 766, 768, and 791–793.

LITURGY/WORSHIP

But the Christian faith is not primarily a set of points to believe or disbelieve, but rather a life that is lived, and expressed first and foremost through prayer and worship, not didactic statements.  As such, the Anglican tradition has retained the liturgical wisdom of the Early Church in the Prayer Book.  Rather than simply reciting points of doctrine, we express our beliefs through our very prayers and worship services.  Liturgy (literally, a ‘public work’) is thus an integral piece of Anglican identity, uniting our practice, faith, and ethos in a single volume.  Conforming to one another in Christ with the Prayer Book liturgy, we are thus given a common language of worship and belief, spiritually shaped and formed into One Body, and directed into our respective lives beyond the church’s walls.

SACRED TIME

With our inheritance of the liturgical tradition comes a conception of time itself that differs from that of the world’s.  Just as the Old Testament shows us that all of history is guided by God’s providence, so too do the Church’s liturgy and calendar show us that every hour, day, week, season, and year is oriented around the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There are prayers for morning (page 11), noon (page 33), evening (page 41), and night (page 57).  There are prayers for Sundays and Holy Days (page 104).  Within each of those liturgies are variations for different seasons of the year, and the calendar as a whole is explained beginning on page 687.  Seven principle holy days outline the Gospel throughout the year: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and All Saints’.  The various seasons are built around these holidays, and a number of other feasts and fasts punctuate the year.  This reflects the biblical witness wherein the Law of Moses taught the observation Sabbath and the three main holidays, while allowing for the creation of additional holy day observations according to custom and need (cf. Esther 10).  A handful of special liturgies for certain holy days is also provided on pages 542–595.

PSALMS

Arguably the very heart of all Christian liturgy are the Psalms.  This book of the Bible contains 150 song-prayers which have been on the lips of the people of God for thousands of years, and they are so vital to the Christian spiritual life that the Psalms in their entirety have always been printed as a part of the Book of Common Prayer – indeed, the longest section of the book (cf. pages 267–467)!  All attempts to learn the Daily Office of prayers in any liturgical tradition ought to begin with the Psalms: learning to read God’s word, praying it as man’s word, and thus pursuing union with Christ in spirit and soul.  Along with the Lord’s Prayer, there is no liturgy in the entire Prayer Book that omits at least something from the Psalms.  The Anglican tradition invites the worshiper to pray through the Psalms every month (page 735).

BIBLE

Also known as the sacred scriptures, holy writ, the word of God, the Bible is the full compendium (or library) of authoritative texts which the Church upholds and guards according to the direction of the Holy Spirit.  It has three parts: the Old Testament (written before Christ), the New Testament (written after Christ) and the Ecclesiastical Books (also known as the Apocrypha or Deuterocanon, also written before Christ).  Each of these sections of the Bible have their own functions (cf. Articles VI and VII on pages 773–775) and are further divided into smaller specific groupings.  Every Prayer Book has come with its own daily lectionary (Bible-reading plan); ours is introduced on page 736, and detailed on the subsequent pages.

BAPTISM

The Anglican tradition is sacramental.  This means that we receive the historic teaching regarding certain rites and ceremonies of the Church wherein God blesses us with his grace in real and tangible ways, as he promised in sacred scripture.  The first and fundamental of these sacraments is Holy Baptism (pages 160, 781–782).  In this sacrament, God regenerates the recipients, giving them birth into a new life, his Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and entrance into the covenant community of faith.

CONFIRMATION

Where Baptism is the beginning, Confirmation is a continuation, a strengthening, a personal affirmation that the faith persists in the recipient (cf. page 174).  Typically an Anglican is baptized as an infant and confirmed as a young adult once he or she has taken personal hold of the faith.  Confirmation is also the Church’s acknowledgment of the individual’s sincerity of faith, marking him or her with the laying-on of hands by the bishop (the pastor’s pastor who thereby represents the universal church rather than merely the local).  This rite is very much like one’s ordination to mature Christian service, receiving new gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer merely to cling to faith but also to pass it on to others (page 176).

COMMUNION

The highest mystery, or sacrament, of the Church is the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, or the Eucharist.  In the species of bread and wine God’s people feed upon Christ’s own body and blood for their own life and salvation.  Where Holy Baptism is the new birth into a new life, Holy Communion is the food that nourishes that new life towards eternity.  The worshiper is exhorted to approach the Lord’s Table with reverence and thorough repentance (pages 147–148).  Two versions of the Communion service are provided in this Prayer Book (starting on page 105 and page 123); the first is the more historic form and the second is more modern.  Additional directions permit further variations to the order of service to match even more historical Prayer Book orders, but it should be emphasized that amidst this diversity of form lies a unity of doctrine.

HEALING

Although the Lord’s Supper has traditionally been termed “the medicine of immortality”, the Church has received two other ministrations for the work of healing in individual Christians’ lives.  The first is the power of the keys (Matthew 16:19 & John 20:21-23) to forgive sins.  Although the primary worship services do include the people’s confession and the priest’s absolution of sins, an additional rite for ministering to the penitent is provided on pages 222–224.  Alongside this ministration to the sin-sick soul is a second pair of rites for ministering to illness of the body (pages 225–235) involving both anointing oil and the laying-on of the priest’s hands, as taught in James 5:13-15.  There are additional prayer resources to minister to the dying, for when the time comes (page 236–242).

FAMILY LIFE

The propagation of life is one of the very first commandments of God in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.  The sacred call to furthering life is provided for in the Prayer Book tradition.  The primary liturgy to this end is Holy Matrimony (page 198 et al), which now includes a betrothal statement to help couples prepare for marriage (page 213).  Another rite that supports family life is the Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child (pages 215–221).  Often overlooked in today’s culture is the need not only to live well but to die well.  The Prayer Book therefore provides prayers for a wake or vigil and for the funeral and burial itself.  Pages 246 and 248 set out the basic parameters and directions that guide how Anglicans are to handle end-of-life memorials.

CHURCH LIFE

Just as human biological life is propagated through families and safeguarded in marriage, so is the Church’s spiritual life propagated through Baptism and safeguarded by specially ordained ministers.  The Ordinal (beginning on page 470) sets out that requirements and manner in which ministers should be ordained.  As per New Testament witness and Early Church practice, Anglicans have three ordained offices: Deacons (servers), Priests (presbyters, elders), and Bishops (overseers).  Each order of ministry has its own liturgy for ordination with specific requirements, instructions, and examinations, as well as distinct Scripture lessons and prayers.  Deriving from this are additional rites for the Institution of a Rector (page 513) and the Consecration and Dedication of a Place of Worship (page 523 et al).

PRIVATE PRAYERS

Alongside the liturgical tradition guiding the way Anglicans prayer when together is, of course, the need for individual devotion, worship, and prayer.  The daily liturgies of Morning, Midday, and Evening Prayer, and Compline (night prayer) are certainly robust and valuable resources for private devotion but can also be time-consuming and non-portable (online resources such as dailyoffice2019.com notwithstanding).  The Prayer Book tradition has therefore developed over the course of time various resources to aid and equip families and individuals to pray.  The Daily Offices in miniature are provided on pages 66–75, and over 100 prayers and thanksgivings are catalogued on pages 642–645.  One frequent tradition throughout Anglican history has been for laymen to take up a handful of such brief prayers and use them in various situations: before and after church, during Holy Communion, at mealtimes, at work, and so forth.