Chapter 11: Anglican Intercesdions and other Liturgical Labyrinths

After exploring several intercessional dead ends (BCP, AAPB, APBA) in search of keyed-to-the-liturgical-day intercessory prayer texts, I discovered ( with the kind assistance of Rev. David Robinson of St Marks National Theological Centre, and Kate Ross of St James Church King Street) Janet Nelson's "Let us Pray", which contains a 3 year cycle of intercessory prayers, useful (with local adaptations and additions) because they are based on the (previously unmentioned) Revised Common Lectionary readings. Thank God for Pauline Books & Media at Castlereagh Street in Sydney, who keep Janet Nelson's book in stock.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to write original Intercessory Prayers based on the known needs of one's parish community. The "original" component of these prayers should, however, be soundly grounded in Anglican doctrine and tradition, and the obvious sources to turn to are the St James Bible and the BCP (1662 Book of Common Prayer).

Being visually oriented, I am currently designing a large, demystifying coloured wall poster, depicting the fascinating labyrinth of Anglican / Episcopal liturgical planning sources. Including, of course, the various liturgical planning websites and mobile apps, who promote a variety of Anglican agendas, and use different text sources. Being a veteran student of Catholic liturgical convolutions, I plan to draw a roaring Minotaur of doctrinal disagreement, that appears to be roaming the corridors.

Chapter 10: UK Women Bishops

Reviewing Blogdom in between writing profound Intercessory Prayers today, I found the following fascinating updates on the state of play re UK women bishops :

http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/005985.html

and a (totally unrelated, of course) compilation of writings on holy fools :

http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/005985.html

Chapter 9: Vespers Evening Prayer with Candles

Vespers, otherwise known as Evening Prayer, is prayer throughout the world in many Churches. It is one small section of the immense Christian Church prayer system known as the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office. Scratch a Christian prayer and you'll find that it originates or has an echo somewhere in this ancient system. Vespers has a very large Christian musical repertoire, that is greatly underrated, and deserves greater exposure and use in Churches and Christian homes.

Some years ago I made a Powerpoint Presentation on Vespers to explain how it is used today in many forms and in most Churches. Of course this is only an introduction - Benedictine sites in particular contain much more detailed information about how Vespers and the other six prayer offices are planned and performed.

Here's the Vespers Presentation link to cut and paste into your URL -

http://www.slideshare.net/elizabethsheppardstb/the-divine-office-evening-prayer-vespers 

If you find my presentation useful, please use it, with acknowledgement.