I am a great believer in maximising common ground between otherwise disparate people. We may not reach unity but we can give it a very good try at getting as close as possible.
For Anglicans, a significant common ground we share (or could or should share) is our prayers: our founding document for the Post Reformation period of our life is the Book of Common Prayer - the prayers which the English Anglicans prayed across England in common, from parish to parish, from Holy Communion to Holy Communion, Mattins to Mattins, and Evensong to Evensong, and later across the world until language push came to local shove and we diversified (another story for another time, including the story of how "common" prayer continues to permeate more recent liturgies). And, even the diversification in services in the 20th and 21st centuries, involve general synods and general conventions determining that we (in Province A or Province Z of the Anglican Communion) we would pray the prayers we have agreed to pray together.
But, wait, there is more to explore by way of common ground among praying Christians: what if we found the written prayers we have in common across our different denominations. Potentially a very big exercise - true. But one narrower slice of work could be to find the prayers which Anglicans and Catholics pray in common - for instance, their collects.
Bosco Peters - a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch, owner of the globally popular Liturgy website (a compendium of wide ranging resources and host of Bosco's regular Liturgy blog) - has been working on common collects for some time and this month has published Book of Prayers in Common (2025 February Edition). This book, in PDF format, is freely available to download from his website.
I commend it to you.
On my "other" blog, Resourcing Preaching and Worship Down Under, I have begun using these collects for my posts about Sunday readings.
Both on the webpage linked above and in the introduction to the book, Bosco clearly sets out the role collects play in our worship and the benefits of praying them in common.
It is worth exploring the authorised collects of Anglican churches in the Communion which also happen to be prayed by the Roman Catholic church (at least somewhere in their globally wide communion): this post is not intended to make any claim that the collects Bosco has published in one handy volume are "better" than the collects provided for in our 2020 NZPB (themselves something of a work in progress through this decade); but they may be "useful" to us as we plan our services; and they have the particular charism of being "common".
We live in convulsing times. Chinese warships are practising warfare in ... the Tasman Sea. Lies are being told by USA leaders - dangerous lies which could lead to untold damage to other nations. Hamas is finally being more clearly than ever revealed for the evil organisation is it. Christians have been beheaded in Congo. What are we to do?
At the least, pray!
Let's, if possible, also pray together our common prayers.
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