Pursuing Christ through the Prayerbook Life

Resetting, Reforming, Renewing in Epiphany

Over the past year, I have taken up the 1662 Book of Common Prayer’s daily office lectionary.¹ It has a simplistic pattern long lost in the American tradition, namely, the lessons are organized by chapter, thereby making it easier for clergy and laity alike to keep up with the readings with a simple bookmark instead of necessitating checking the lectionary to determine where one ends or picks back up midchapter on a lesson.  

The simplicity in keeping track of the lessons brings to mind Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s intent in reforming the liturgy and producing a simple, yet breathtakingly eloquent gift shaping both the English language and culture: the Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer desired gifting the people with God an organized, uniformed, and orderly reading of the vast majority of the Holy Scriptures, in opposition to what he and the medieval Church had inherited, namely “that commonly when any Book of the Bible was begun, after three of four Chapters were read out, all the rest were unread.” (Concerning the Service of the Church, 1662 Book of Common Prayer). Cranmer lamented how the Church in his age inherited a needlessly complicated liturgy, stating “the number and hardness of the Rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the service, was the cause, that to turn the book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out.” Id. 

The ease of using the daily office lectionary is more than merely making its use convenient. Convenience can be abused. For example, the shorter lessons of contemporary prayer books are convenient according to modern sensibilities. Namely, the modern crisis as to how little time we have, apparently even when it comes to being nourished by Scripture! Yet the convenience Cranmer originally gifted Anglicans is a straightforward methodology² to read the majority of the Old Testament, a wide swath of Apocrypha, the New Testament (excluding Revelation) thrice, and the Psalter twelve times over the calendar year.³ Utilizing the lectionary from our foundational formulary, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, brings Cranmer’s words to life when he noted his intent to resurrect and reform the liturgy for “good purpose, and for a great advance of godliness” by searching “out by the ancient Fathers.” Id. Cranmer’s method has a singular purpose: to edify the entire Church:  

For they so ordered the matter, that all the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over every year; intending thereby, that the Clergy, and especially such as were Ministers in the congregation, should (by often reading, and meditation in God’s word) be stirred up to godliness themselves and be more able to exhort others by wholesome Doctrine, and to confute them that were adversaries to the Truth; and further, that the people (by daily hearing of holy Scripture read in the Church) might continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion. Id.

The great reform of the catholic Church of England was abandoning multiple uses (or rites) varying regionally to national unity of use, through one, simple Book of Common Prayer, thereby creating a united way of life for all Englishmen. Cranmer united the life of an entire nation by gifting English speakers a common rule of life. His chief intent being that the entire Church would walk away from the abuses and sins of the Medieval period while walking towards Christ in humility and repentance. Cranmer unified the English people with a common language and rule for the Christian life and modeling this new standard on the old way of holiness found in the ancient Fathers. Prayer, fasting, repentance, exhortations to holiness, Scripture, and the sacraments are all found within the prayer book life. When one examines the classic prayer book, one finds the catholic faith as received in the Augustinian West and profoundly influenced by the Benedictine life. Of note, both the reformed English liturgy and St. Benedict’s Rule were influenced by the Eastern Church. Truly, the newfound prayerbook is the oldfound religion of the Apostolic Church. With the 1662 prayer book in one hand and English Bible in the other, the history of Anglicanism is handing over the catholic faith for every common layman to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. 

The traditional prayer book is an incredible rule for governing, organizing, and living the Christian life. Living this prayer book life should be the worthwhile challenge we take up in an age needing repentance, starting within our own Communion and beyond. Clergy were formerly bound by this life, and we should be bound by it again. Godly clergy formation begets faithful protection and guarding of their flocks. Hence, Cranmer historically required clergy to pray the daily offices, because it shapes clergy, their godliness, their knowledge, and their ability to teach and feed the Church: 

And all Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly, not being let by sickness, or some other urgent cause. 

Clergy should once again be expected to keep the daily office as mandatory and a natural part of their vocations. Further, such a rule is not a private rule for the clergy but is a public life for all Christians to be invited into. Clergy are instructed: 

And the Curate that ministereth in every Parish-church or Chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the Parish-church or Chapel where he ministereth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s Word, and to pray with him.

The daily office is the bread and butter of common Christian life. If clergy do not model it publicly, then how can we expect the laity to join, take up, pray, and read? Clergy must lead from the front and engage in the spiritual battle against sin, flesh, and the devil so the saints join in following Christ. We entered the Church in our baptisms by placing our faith in Christ. Now all hell breaks loose against us. Yet Christ did not leave us ill-equipped. He has provided His Church the Holy Ghost, and Cranmer distilled the doctrine, discipline, and life of a saint within the prayerbook. The prayerbook life demonstrates how we may be sanctified into the saints Jesus Christ is daily calling us and forming us into. 

This series of reflections, Pursuing Christ through the Prayerbook Life, is rooted in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, because it is the common core of the common Christian life for Anglicans. It is a formulary which GAFCON (Art. 6, Jerusalem Declaration and the ACNA (Art. I.6 Constitution) both pay lip service to by claiming the 1662 prayerbook as a true, authoritative, standard of worship. prayer, doctrine, and discipline. We laud the 1662 prayerbook with such great authority and influence, but now we must live it in repentance so we may be faithful and fruitful in Gospel proclamation and administering the sacraments to the flock. 

Therefore, I invite you to journey with me once again. Last year we walked together as pilgrims in the 1662 Sunday and Holy Day Lectionary. These next few months, walk with me as we examine, “What is the prayer book life?” What can we learn from the 1662 prayerbook to influence how we faithfully live as Christians in the Anglican tradition? Where modern prayer books are silent or merely suggest a practice, we may find the old ways have a rule to govern our lives toward greater godliness and growth in Christ. Why even those old red rubrics, now printed black, can teach us much about the doctrine and discipline of the Christian Way. Seek and live the prayer book life with me and let us pursue Christ through this common rule. 

Notes 

1. Specifically, the original daily office lectionary published in the first edition of the 1662 and available for free here: https://www.ivpress.com/Media/Default/Content-Articles/1662-daily-office-lectionary.pdf. If you have a modern copy of the 1662 or are using a webpage that claims to use the 1662’s daily office lectionary, then you likely have the 1961, 1922, or 1871 revisions to the daily office lectionary. This column is referencing the original, which is available for free on the IVP Press webpage noted above, and also is printed in the International Edition of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, available from IVP Press.  ↩︎
2. The Order how the rest of holy Scripture is appointed to be read, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, available at: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/intro.pdf.  ↩︎
3. The Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, available at: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/intro.pdf. Note, that on months with 31 days, you simply repeat the Psalter readings appointed for the 30^th day.  ↩︎