A Baptist's Journey through the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
A Baptist's Journey through an English Prayer Book
"Didn’t Fall Off the Deep End, I Dived!"
Since
I studied church music in college, I’ve had a great appreciation for church liturgy.
It started with the music, from studying the mass to studying and enjoying choral
literature geared more to liturgical services and the church calendar. Then the
calendar! It might seem like a constricting device for we Baptists to know that
this Sunday (as of this writing) is the 5th Sunday of Lent, but I’ve always thought it could bring a freedom in preparation
for worship services, including prayers, Bible readings, music selection, and
sermon delivery. Not only because of the solid biblical content of the liturgy,
but also the beauty of church tradition.
However,
I’ve never allowed my appreciation for church liturgical tradition to affect my
devotional life. As a Baptist, it sadly never really seemed relevant. We care
about daily devotions, but we’re generally on our own when it comes to doing
them. So, on my own, I grew to love writing out prayers, and reading
written-out prayers by others that are well thought-out and have a high view of Scripture. Prayers in the Bible
(including the Psalms) and prayer book compilations such as The Valley of Vision
have been quite a blessing to my personal devotional life. Also, a solid number
of devotion materials have helped me to pray over the years, such as Spurgeon’s
Morning and Evening, and My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I’ve
also used some theology books and commentaries as devotionals,
such as Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (includes personal worship helps), Bill Mounce’s Basics of Biblical
Greek textbook (trust me, it makes a solid devotion along with learning to read and understand Koine Greek), Warren Wiersbe’s Be Series
commentaries (easy to read and follow), and Psalms by Willem VanGemeren in the Expositor’s Bible
Commentary (highly recommended!).
A
little more than a year ago, I began following on YouTube an Anglican minister in England named
Brett Murphy, and on his weekly vlogs he would share the day’s “collect” (pronounced
CALL-ect rather than what we sometimes had to do to call home before cell phones—a
bit ironic). I sort of wrote them off as old prayers he got from some book for several
months (didn’t give them much thought), but then he got canned by his bishop
for reasons dealing with his conservative theology, bold statements, and public
ministry. His dilemma resonated with me, so much so that I placed him and his
family on our church prayer list, gave to a crowd-funding campaign, and prayed
for him every day. In this hardship, Brett began praying with four other Anglican
ministers in England (one of the other ministers is Calvin Robinson). At least
that’s when I began noticing they were praying every Sunday afternoon on YouTube,
so I began watching when they livestreamed at 1430 hours (We’re in the Army
now, soldiers!). I followed along with them using SingtheOffice.com, and
appreciated the readings, prayers, and chants of the Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis (Scripture with which I was already familiar, Luke 1:46-55 &
Luke 2:29-32).
After
a while I noticed the CALL-ect Brett was reading every Saturday ended up being one of the CALL-ects the ministers read every Sunday (Okay, I’ll begin spelling it
collect, just pronounce it correctly, please!). I also noticed they were
reading the “Evening” prayer, since 1430 Central time is 2030 Greenwich Mean
Time (or British Summer Time)! There’s also a morning reading, filled with Psalms, OT & NT readings,
Canticles, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and various other readings
and collects. What in the world is this? Thus began the investigation.
Turns
out, the Anglicans have an old and rich tradition not only built on doctrine
(an alarmingly wide array of doctrine such as Anglo Catholic, Anglo Reformed,
Charismatic, basically everything Christian but Baptist!), but even more solidly
built on a strong devotional core. They may not agree on theology and other
ideology, but they do agree on prayer (speaking in ideal terms donned with spectacles
of a rosy tint and getting rosier by the year; more about that below). The Church of England may have
begun for less than stellar reasons (so did the Southern Baptist Convention),
but the first Archbishop of Canterbury of the new denomination, Thomas Cranmer,
brought a needed solid theological foothold. He began writing articles that
eventually became the foundation of the Anglican faith, The Thirty-Nine
Articles. Holy Communion services were held in English (a massive departure
from the Latin of Roman Catholicism at the time) and English Bible translation
efforts got placed on steroids (several English versions completed, decades
before the King James Bible). Then, daily prayer book usage began to be
encouraged for the common man. This may not seem like a big deal to us today,
but devotional accessibility to the common man was rare and big-time illegal.
Faithful men were punished and executed for translating the Bible and bringing
Biblical understanding to the people. When was the last time you cherished a Bible,
a commentary or theology book, or a devotional book as a special gift?
I
began going through morning and evening prayers utilizing SingtheOffice.com (includes
Medieval musical notation for chanting, which could be a good topic for a future
article), and continuing the investigation into the prayer book. The typical favorite
conservative book for English Anglicans was originally published in 1662; which
is several decades after Thomas Cranmer’s death, but apparently considered faithful
to his work (I’m still investigating that). Found out the 1662 version is still
published by Cambridge Press, so in November I used money given to me by the
church I pastor for Pastor Appreciation month to purchase a copy (Thank you FBC
Carney!).
Easily 80% of the prayers come straight from Scripture, with all 150 Psalms read in succession every month, an Old Testament and New Testament reading every morning and evening, and several repetitive elements that eventually get memorized by rote (most likely the intent—Psalm 119:11). The written-out prayers allude to Scripture, and the non-Scripture canticles are from the first few hundred years of the Church (including the early Church father Ambrose of Milan). There are calendars in the book with OT and NT readings, but I’m currently using another online resource as a companion called Parish Prayer (parishprayer.org). This site uses a reading schedule that does not skip any verses, the OT (outside of the Psalms) is read once per year and the NT twice per year. The order takes some practice to get used to, but it’s worth the time to do it. The collects and other prayers are old, using King James-style English, and they’ve been teaching me and enhancing my prayer life. Another impressively enormous and thorough online resource, The Scriptural BCP (scripturalbcp.com), has an interactive section citing the Scripture used and alluded to in the prayers and collects of the morning and evening orders.
I’ve
also learned in my investigation that the Anglican faith is highly broken. Not
only has Brett Murphy and Calvin Robinson been in trouble and canned by
bishops, but two of the other three men who pray on YouTube every Sunday got
locked out of their church by the parish’s wardens due to secular political threats
and overreach. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned over child
abuse and sex abuse coverup issues (as a Southern Baptist, no room to judge),
and the near apostate (if not already) Church of England is looking for a new
supreme leader (other than King Charles!) to fill that role. The search for a
successor doesn’t look great, and the next person could be quite the liberal
activist (gay marriage, further climate change initiatives, along with navigating through further
dwindling wealth and parish attendance). The Episcopal church in the US might
be even worse. There are quite a few conservative and biblical Anglicans throughout
the world (particularly in Africa), so there’s still hope for them. I pray for
their strength, especially in areas with severe persecution (not to forget the growing trouble
in the West).
That might be one of the biggest surprises in this newfound prayer tradition for me: praying for the faithfulness and integrity of the people who brought this prayer book to fruition. There is a collect every morning and evening about the Anglican leaders (bishops and curates), and after reading it I continue to pray for them. Prayers for the Anglicans and the Episcopalians not only to get back to the prayer book (particularly the 1662 or another one that is Biblically sound), but also to dwell on the rich and faithful words they are reading and praying. May they be drawn to humble repentance for their sins and straying from orthodoxy. May the Scripture, the prayers, and the ancient and beautiful canticles change them individually and corporately. May the joy of their salvation be restored and solidified (or if they’re lost, may God save them), may they grow in their faith and their understanding of God’s will for them and for humanity.
“Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness: According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences. Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my faults: And my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: That Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.” – Psalm 51:1-4
For more information about the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, watch this video review by a Presbyterian pastor: (3) Cambridge Book of Common Prayer 1662 - YouTube
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