Watch this post for a valuable, non-eucharistic Sunday service option

In my last pastorate, I remember getting a steady stream of older Episcopalians who saw in our liturgical practice a reflection from an earlier age: a variation on choral Morning Prayer with sermon. Something Latitudinarian in an age when Episcopalians have decamped to low-church Evangelicalism, or more often, a variety of post-Vatican II Anglican Catholicism with nothing but the Eucharist for, well, just about everything. (You may luck into Compline.)

The particular piety of Morning Prayer — and its centuries of use — have been driven into a second place, and in some areas obscurity. I won’t argue that choice among Episcopalians.  But Morning Prayer  worth preserving among Christian Unitarians and Universalists, for whom it has also been customarily and widely used for worship under a variety of names.

But resources about how to conduct it well are few.

Cue this blog post, which in the bumpy world of Episcopalian liturgics has been plainly useful and venom-free. It’s more than a year old, but still getting comment.

Sunday Morning Prayer in Parishes?” (Haligweorc)

 

One Reply to “Watch this post for a valuable, non-eucharistic Sunday service option”

  1. Right now I work for an Episcopal church where the only priest is on sabbatical; and the budget only affords a supply priest every other Sunday. Bringing back choral morning prayer (not seen here since the 70’s) has been wonderful. The focus on singing canticles and invitatory; and the sustained focus on community prayer has been both lovely and enriching.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.