Opening the Prayer Book (New Church's Teaching Series)

by Jeffrey Lee

What Roger Ferlo did for the Bible in Opening the Bible , volume 2 of The New Church's Teaching Series, Jeffrey Lee now does for the prayer book in volume 7 of the series. Opening the Prayer Book introduces us to the history and liturgies of The Book of Common Prayer , and helps us understand why the prayer book is such an important aspect of Anglican self-understanding.

Lee begins with the fundamental question, “What is common prayer?” He explores some of the ways in which our worship according to The Book of Common Prayer affects who we are as a church, and the way it shapes our lives of faith. In chapter 2 Lee turns to the development of patterns of liturgy from the time of Jesus to the Reformation, tracing changes in the primary liturgies of baptism, eucharist, and daily prayer. The American prayer book is the focus of chapter 3, from the earliest revisions in the new nation through the liturgical scholarship that led to the substantial theological and liturgical changes in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer .

Chapter 4 begins a survey of the pages of the prayer book itself. Lee examines in particular the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter, baptism and eucharist, and the daily office, with a view to understanding the way the parts of the services are rooted in the historical prayers of the church and at the same time reflect the living tradition of Christians today. This theme is further developed in chapter 5, which focuses on the prayer book and our common life. Here Lee discusses questions of how a common prayer book can be responsive to a growing variety of pastoral situations and diverse cultures in a fast-changing world. The final chapter addresses the future of the prayer book within the Anglican Communion, in light of demands for further revision and for greater freedom to adapt the prayer book to local needs and beliefs.

As with each book in The New Church's Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.

Genres: Religion, Theology

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Paul]

Promise of book fulfilled.

[Eugene]

A little dated but worth reading. BCP revision seems to be an ongoing discussion in the Episcopal Church.

[Riley Pearson]

A great introduction to the Book of Common Prayer. As a Roman Catholic, I found the prayer book helpful in my journey of faith.

I love this series!

[Ruth Dahl]

Loved the brief history of how worship services have evolved through time, from the early Christians to now (or, 1999 when this book was published)

[Tynan Brooks]

Most interesting so far, though perhaps because I just haven't read much on the Prayer Book. Still outclassed, though, and I think due to its nature it's a bit light on critique of the current BCP.

[Matt Price]

concise and helpful overview

Glad for a precis on the BCP offering a bit of its history and practical use for the spiritual seeker as well as the local parish church.

[Jim]

A decent description of the history and purpose of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

A few nuggets that I pulled out of the book, and would like to remember...

One thing that may not be intuitive:

"So common prayer does not mean absolute uniformity and almost never has; it means something else, something deeper. It points to a shared life, a common stance toward the mystery of God. It represents a way of believing, a methodology if you will for practicing the Christian faith."

Also - I had not heard this before, and I really like it:

"…lex orandi, lex credendi, [attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine] the law of prayer establishes the law of belief. The way we pray shapes what we believe."

Finally, I really like the way he describes liturgy as freeing us to truly worship.

Recommended to anyone who wants to understand more about the BCP.

[Joshua Booher]

Reviewing series as a whole: This was a good series. It helped shaped the way I think about the Episcopal Church. It has greatly improved my ability to mentor an EfM group. However, my take was that a lot of the books duplicated the same ground and did not necessarily cover the ground they were supposed to cove based on their title and descriptions. Overall, they were helpful, though.

[Chelle]

A good place to start if you want to know about the history and reasoning behind Anglican/Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

[Pablo Rodriguez]

A good history of The Book of Common Prayer and what it means to be an Anglican/Episcopalian.

[David]

very informative, taught me a lot, a joy to read

[Bcoghill Coghill]

Nice small book of the BOC. Did tell us that we should be chanting and singing much of it. That would be very cool.

[Mary]

Wonderful overview of the Book of Common Prayer.