Anglican walk with Jesus Christ

“ The Anglican Walk with Jesus Christ”

( ST Peter’s Publications, 1998)

    My first contact with the Anglican way was in my grandfather’s church in Philadelphia.  Now that sounds odd.  He was an Englishman in many ways having been born in Maryland but was then in England till he was almost 20 years old with his father .   In his Presbyterian church I saw the little prayers or collects that they were called in the bulletin , and I said ---now that is a prayer!  They were the prayers from the Book of Common Prayer .

   Then I had the opportunity to attend seminary in Philadelphia near him and I lived with him in the Presbyterian manse.  The seminary was the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church founded in 1874.  Here I was introduced into a new style of worship at least for me using the BCP.  The prayers were beautiful.  It lifted me to another world ----a world where  God was speaking to me through the Scriptures and the Anglican way of prayer.

    We come to God through Jesus Christ .  We are much like Thomas who said, “ Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14.  “ A Christian way ….is a particular and complete culture or ethos of truth and life, including language, art, music, doctrine, worship, and morality….capable of engaging other cultures and bringing them to Christ.”- page 4 ( AWJC- Anglican Walk with Jesus Christ)

    This was first called the “way” in Acts 9:2.  Anglican comes from the Latin “ anglicanus” which means English.  As the Anglican church was dispersed through the world it grew and became known as the “ Church of England”.  The English BCP “ , adopted in 1662, ( the first BCP was in 1549), remained the pattern and standard that guided” other nations as they developed their own PB’s.

     “ Jesus Christ is the one and only welcoming door into the glories of heaven and into the fullness of the communion of saints and angels , who adore the Father.  The Anglican ‘world with out end’ is an eternal order of praise in which each human being, whatever his calling or station, has his own appointed place.  The Anglican way is the way of the Te Deum , to enter into the Son’s glorification of the Father and to join the hosts that praise the Lord God of Sabaoth:  ( TE DEUM LAUDAMUS-P. 10 BCP from Morning Prayer).” –pg 12, AWJC)

“ The Church of England …did not produce one prayer book for the king, another for bishops and priests, and yet another for the laity.  …it is ‘common’.  “  This is the meaning of the word common in its Latin root, “ community” & “communion.”   I like this quote that follows: “ Common prayer…serves as the foundation for all other prayer and for the life in Christ formed in prayer.”  Titus 1:4 “ To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

   The “ king and peasant received the same sacramental body and blood of the Savior at the holy table where the Lord’s Supper was administered to all.  Bishops and servants were laid in their graves by the same burial rite….There was one service of holy Baptism for all babies, whatever their Christian or family names.” Pg 15 , AWJC.

    ..” the Prayer book did not present the daily services of Morning and Evening Prayer ( Matins and Evensong) as the private business of monks and nuns or even of the …clergy…These daily offices were intended to be the daily expression of the common prayer of all..”pg 15, AWJC

“ to participate in the daily office…is something very different from having a ‘quiet time’ or performing ‘personal devotions’….so to join in the daily office is to join with the Church , to be active in the royal priesthood, and to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His Father, who is our Father by adoption and grace…”pg 18, AWJC   Most of the offices of Morning and Evening prayer are taken straight from the Bible.  “ The Canticles have been sung, and the Collects prayed, and the Psalms chanted in English ...since 1549 by countless thousands of people.  As Archbishop Cranmer said, “ He that keepeth the words of Christ is promised the love and favour of God; and that he shall be dwelling place or temple of the Blessed Trinity.” Pg 20 AWJC