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.
7 comments:
I rediscovered the Anglican tradition more consciously as a middle adult, including Common Prayer. Seeing things again for the first time, I was surprised and interested to see how much of Common Prayer is scripture rearranged, like how you discover many of Jesus' gospel zingers are quotes from Psalms or Isaiah (meek shall inherit the earth, my god why have you abandoned me). It brings a certain poignancy and focus when one reads scripture as prayer (and not too much).
I confess that reading Bosco Peters on prayer is a mixed experience for me. One part of me feels very interested and grateful that someone with such depth of knowledge is holding this and offering it to us - when this sort of memory is very rare. He's a genuine kaumatua of our tradition. On the other hand, I find the discussion often gets very technical and then I drift off - like on what precisely constitutes a "collect", and when precisely in the liturgy does one read the sentence of the day (why do we need a sentence?). I also remember Maurice Gray, a great keeper of the memory of the Bank Peninsula tohuka traditions, being taught by his forefathers and mother's to stick precisely to the karakia forms as received.
Common prayer is definitely one of Anglicanism's great treasures. I feel it also needs constant tempering and pruning, like a raucous cottage garden, to keep it from becoming too word-cluttered and allow us to fully take in and experience the richness of what it offers and, on our side, in response, the movement of the spirit within.
Generally, most Anglican services use too many words for me, so I'm very drawn to early morning communions and contemplative forms where it is more minimal and the silence (i.e. Spirit) has much more space.
Mark, I love the "raucous cottage garden metaphor"! Needless to say, as a non-Anglican I find all the wordy stuff impenetrable really.. overwhelming.
Yes it must seem so wordy!
Have you checked out A New Zealand Prayerbook, the Anglican Church in NZ's book of common prayer?
It can look so overwhelming too as it contains prayers and liturgies for almost every occasion, and in different styles. But I like the sections at the start of the book called "Daily Services" and "Midday Prayer" and "Night Prayer" in particular. They are simple, not word cluttered, chock full of scripture, intimate, and rich.
Let us be at peace within ourselves.
Let us accept we are profoundly loved...
Let us be aware of the source of being
that is common to us all
and to all living creatures.
Let us be filled with the presence of the great compassion
toward ourselves and towards all living beings...
With humility let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.
(From Midday Prayer)
Beautiful, Mark! Thank you. Yes, I got myself a 2nd-hand copy a while back, mostly so I could look at the night section. An American had told me about the "Lord, it is night.." prayer. I see why they like it.. I do too! I'll explore the other sections you've mentioned :)
I think "Lord, it is night", and "Let us be at peace" (above) were both written by Jim Cotter, a very talented English priest and writer of prayers. See Bosco's tribute here https://liturgy.co.nz/god-our-love-maker
If anyone is interested there is a Zoom NZPB Night Prayer on Sunday nights at 8pm called ‘Breathe’ led by Rev. Bernard Walker.
An opportunity to join
others around the city
for Night Prayer
https://zoom.us/j/959998327
Oh yes, Mark, the link to Bosco's tribute re Jim Cotter is very interesting! Re the writer of "Lord, it is night", I found the story of that (quite by chance) after a quick search to remind myself of the words - up came a link to Bosco's site so I went there - and also got the back story! Funny how things happen.
https://liturgy.co.nz/lord-it-is-night
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