Daily Prayer

The C of E website is very helpful for those wanting to use an authorised form of Morning or Evening Prayer. It includes both Common Worship and The Book of Common Prayer and the appropriate seasonal material, Collects etc. and the lectionary readigs are automatically included. Instead of Daily Prayer, The Lectionary and Bible and a good deal of flicking about and bookmarks and so on, all you need is this one website. Fantastic. Now all we need is free wireless access in our churches! :)

On Morning Prayer

One of the many questions I have about life as a Vicar is the value and place of Morning Prayer.

Given that the clergy are required by the Canons to say Morning Prayer, should it be in the Parish Church, and should it be at a set time and advertised? Would anyone else come?

I've been saying Morning Prayer in the study, usually in the morning (!) and usually early on.

Today I left my seat in the study at 9:10am, I was in the Rector's stall at 9:18am, I read the liturgy and readings out loud in full and offered brief intercessions and was back in the study at 9:40am. That's about 15 mins of travel and about 15 mins of prayer. The prayers could easily have been longer, but equally some of the liturgy could be left out sometimes.

Is that a good use of my time, voice and petrol? Does using the Parish Church have symbolic importance? Should I toll a bell? Or is it just a bit silly, sentimental, romantic and wasteful to leave the warmth of the Rectory?





What time would be best? If you go for a set time in the Parish Church, should it be say 8am - 8:15am so that some local people might get to work afterwards? Should it be mid-morning, to attract the retired!? Would more people come if it were longer and more substantial?



Will it be too cold in the winter to use the Parish Church?

Here the pattern might go something like:

Monday - Warbleton Parish church

Tuesday - Dallington Parish church

Wednesday - Bodle Street Green Parish Church

Thursday - study - study day

Friday - day off

Saturday - Osbourne House / Little St Mary's, Rushlake Green

Thoughts most welcome.

Prayer is...

The internet alleges that Archbishop William Temple once said:

If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.

That's to put it rather strongly, but I think its true to say that in the Bible, prayer is talking to God. We listen to God by reading his Word.

Perverse Penance

Glen Scrivner's sermon on Sunday evening (on Christ Alone from Mt 11 & Col 1), suggested that one of the perversities of a system of penance is that it tends to think of saying prayers as some kind of punishment (or a meritorious good work) rather than a privilege of grace.

Prayer

C. H. Spurgeon encourages us to make prayer the key of the morning and the lock of the night. Cf. Psalm 4:8 and Psalm 5:3. (From the Vicar's sermon last night - available on church website)

Hands together, eyes closed

How would you support that practice of putting your hands together and closing your eyes in prayer from the Bible? Are there any biblical examples of it?

I can see a common sense argument that such things may help us to avoid fidgeting and distraction. Which is one of the things that reminds us we don't want a very rigid (caricatured?) view of the Regulative Principle of Public Worship as if "everything that is not [explicitly?] commanded [in the Bible / NT] is forbidden" in worship. Surely no one thinks closing your eyes to pray is always and necessarily wrong? (See John Frame's questions and thoughts about the Regulative Principle).

I'm all for reverence for God, of course, and so bowing down in prayer seems appropriate, but personally I also like to look up to pray from time to time - it feels more elevating, expansive, joyful, hopeful, expectant, open, almost, somehow.

On a rainy day, I'm sure a Bible study on postures for prayer (kneeling, standing, bowing, hand-raising) would be rewarding. But at the moment the sun is shinning (ish) and there's more pressing things for me to be doing...

Turretin on Prayers to the Dead

If I ask my living friends to pray for me, why shouldn’t I ask my friends who have died, or the other dead, to pray for me too?

invocation of saints has neither a precept, nor promise, nor example in Scripture for its foundation. Thus it is nothing else than a corrupt and damnable will-worship (ethelothre_skeia). Invocation of God is indeed everywhere urged, but mention is nowhere made of the invocation of creatures. (Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 11.7.2, v2 p42)

… invocation supposes … knowledge … in the one invoked: knowledge to know all our necessities and everywhere hear our prayers (mental as well as oral) and be truly a searcher of hearts (kardiognwte_s)…. Now these belong to God alone (the one searcher of hearts [kardionwste_s], who alone is the object of faith and omniscient….. As to the saints, on the contrary, we have no proof of their knowledge…. Indeed, Scripture (which often ascribes to God alone omniscience, heart-searching [kardiognwsian] and omnipotence, 1 K. 8:39; 2 Ch. 6:30; Rev. 2:23; Jer. 17:10) clearly proved that these cannot belong to creatures and frequently ascribes to the saints and ignorance of the affairs of earth (Is. 63:16; Ecc. 9:6; 2 K. 22:20). 11.7.3 p43

From the mutual prayers of the living to prayers of the departed for the living, the consequence does not hold good. Among the former, there is a mutual communion of offices and necessities; there is none between the dead and the living. The former are enjoined and praised in Scripture, but the latter by no means. Nor does the perfection of charity (with which the saints are blessed) conduce their praying for us particularly because the condition of that life does not allow of it. 14.4.xxii, v2 p390

Scary Liturgy

According to Rev'd Doug Wilson's weblog:

Jerome commented that in the early church, when visitors used to come the church, they were commonly frightened at the Amen -- it had the sound of thunder, said by people who understood it.

The liturgical responses at Holy Trinity can be pleasingly hearty and lively, but to my knowledge that has never happened yet. May the Amen of the church put the fear of God into people!

Carson on Prayer at EMA

We must attend to "our familial and ecclesiastical priestly tasks".

5 Biblical polarities:

(1) Brief & lengthy prayers

Bullet prayers [= Arrow prayers, I think. Trust the Americans!]

(2) Desperate & steady prayers

(3) Private & public prayer

(4) Corporate Covenant renewal [esp. Lord's Table where beg for the presence of God in blessing OR judgement] & special requests

(5) Acceptable & unacceptable prayers (antithesis)

cf. Nursery rhyme memorization & Bible memorization of Carson's 1 year old daughter. 1 Cor 13 - "when I was a child..."!; Ps 8 etc.

Carson almost chanted Ex 34:6ff.

"Do you see?!"

Good stuff.

Prayer To Mary

I have just been leafing through the Armed Forces Operational Service and Prayer Book (Ministry of Defence, JSP 587, Armed Forces Chaplaincy Policy Board), which contains some useful and some not so useful material, including funeral services from other faiths.

I'm afraid that with the best will in the world, it seems to me that the "Evening Prayer [sic!] to Our Lady" gives to Mary the place that belongs only to Christ. I don't think she or her son would like it!

Please don't "pray" it. You can read it here for research purposes only!

Hail holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve,
to Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and wailing in this vale of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, Thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of Thy womb Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

(p22)

Capital letters for Mary seems to me to give her far too high a status.

Better to go straight to Christ, knowing that he is the only mediator between God and man and that anyone who comes to him he will by no means turn away.

This prayer seems to me obviously to pray to Mary whereas I have heard some try to distinguish talking to Mary and asking her to pray for us, which sounds like as a bit of a fudge to me anyway.

Prayers for Sea Cadet Parade

Having had a look at B.R. 426 Pray With The Navy (Chaplain of the Fleet, Ministry of Defence, 1965) and The Book of Common Prayer (where the extra prayers for use at sea tend to focus on storms and battles), I've come up with the following for tonight's Parade and Trophey Night at the Eastbourne Sea Cadet Unit, where I'm expecting a great display:

Living and true God,

we give you thanks for all the achievements we celebrate this evening,

and we pray for your blessing on the whole Sea Cadet Corps

and especially on this unit.

Eternal Lord God,

who alone rules the raging of the sea,

we pray that you would graciously prosper your servant, Elizabeth our Queen,

and protect all who go down to the sea in ships,

especially those who defend our coasts and waters.

Help us so to accept and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Captain

on our earthly voyage, in this brief mortal life,

that you might bring us at last to the rest and safety of your everlasting haven.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding,

keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,

and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,

and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

be with us, and all whom we love and pray for,

now and always. Amen.

How To Lead The Prayers

Here's a helpful little memo from John, our vicar, with some pointers on how to lead the intercessions in Sunday services.

First of all, a big thank you for contributing to this important ministry.

I would like to share with you 4 guidelines, which I trust will enable this ministry to be even more effective.

1. Intercessions should be intercessions – i.e. prayers for the church and the world, not meditations or mini sermons!

2. They should last no more than 5 minutes. Time yourself beforehand, saying the prayers in an unhurried fashion – not gabbling through them at a rate of knots, in order to keep within the time limit!

3. If asked to pray at a Family Service, with children present – make sure the intercessions are even briefer – i.e. less than 5 minutes. Also make them simple and child-friendly, not using long words that would be unintelligible to small children.

4. Get to the lectern during the previous item (creed / Lord’s Prayer), so that you are ready to pray immediately, without a hiatus in the service.

I hope the above is helpful,

Once again, many thanks

John Cheeseman

(on behalf of the staff team)

Calvin "prayed to" and "revered" the dead

I was amazed to see this in Calvin:

“O Philip Melanchthon! for I appeal to you who live in the presence of God with Christ, and wait for us there until we are united with you in blessed rest.” (LCC, Calvin’s Theological Treatises, ‘The clear explanation … concerning the true partaking of … the Holy Supper’, p258)

Though in fact Calvin seems to be appealing more to Melanchthon’s writings, but it is still striking that he should address a dead man like this, even if only for a rhetorical flourish.

On p265 Calvin adds that Tileman Heshusius should “revere as sacred” the memory of Philip Melanchthon.

Prayers for Reformation Sunday

As Reformation Sunday is only a lesser whatnot in the C of E, there is no Collect for it. Some of these 15 collect-length prayers look pretty good to me. Set prayers and special days are not entirely against the spirit or letter of the Protestant Reformation, of course, though some seem to think they are and it is true that some of the hotter sort of Protestants might have fumed against this sort of thing, perhasp with more heat than light.

A pattern of daily prayer

Here is a pattern of daily prayer for an Anglican minister with a family:

7:30-7:45am personal private prayer with a reading from Scripture (marking off what has been read to ensure a balanced diet over time)

7:45-8am A Psalm and prayer with the wife using a prayer list

8-8:20am Parish Morning Prayer according to Common Worship (perhaps praying through the activities of the church)

6-6:20pm Parish Evening Prayer according to Common Worship (perhaps praying through the electoral roll)

At the main meal of the day: Family devotions: a bit of Old Testament, a bit of New Testament and a Psalm (marking off what’s been read) and prayers. Singing a Psalm.

A short prayer at bed time with each of the children and the wife.

You'll notice this out-does the Muslims!

We’re managing a bit of personal prayer and Bible reading, the wife and I are praying and reading together and we are having parish prayers at 9:15am every morning in the church, but its good to have something to aim at!