“My Love for the Book of Common Prayer“
(In 2024 the Rt. Revd. William Cliff, the Bishop of the Diocese of Ontario, accepted the invitation of the PBSC to become the Society’s new Episcopal Visitor, following the retirement of the Rt. Revd. Michael Hawkins. The role of the Episcopal Visitor is to act as liaison between the PBSC and the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada. In this article Bishop Cliff reflects on the influence of the Book of Common Prayer in his spiritual life.)
I was raised in a Christian home environment. My father identified as Church of England in a general way, but he was away from home for long periods because of his work, so my mother, who was a believer although not Anglican, took me off to the local Pentecostal church, and it was the formative church of my childhood. The scriptures were very real to me, and the preaching and respect for scripture that I learned as a child were things that I always looked for afterwards, any time I went to a church.
I studied music while doing my undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario in London. While I was there, I was asked if I might like to join the choir at St. Paul’s (Anglican) Cathedral, where the primary mode of worship was the BCP. I agreed; and once I had joined the cathedral and experienced the music and worship, I was bowled over by their spiritual power. It was all a revelation. I fell in love with the language and theology of grace that the BCP embodied. I was truly brought back into the church (having wandered away from it through most of my teen years) by my second year of university. I loved the order and rule of life which the BCP embodied and taught me. I began to say Morning and Evening Prayer privately. I was hooked.
After graduating, I went to Huron University College to pursue an M.Div. There I experienced weekly worship according to both the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Alternative Services, as the Chapel at Huron offered sung services every day. I was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1992 and served a curacy in Simcoe. I then served as Rector of the Parish of Hanover and Durham, followed by the Parish of Strathroy and Adelaide. My love for the Prayer Book liturgy stood me in good stead, for ten years after ordination I returned to Huron University College as the Chapel Rector, and for thirteen years prayed the Offices in the same chapel I had worshipped in as a seminarian.
I was elected Bishop in 2015, first serving in the Diocese of Brandon, and since 2023 in the Diocese of Ontario. Throughout that time my heart has always gone back to the BCP and the Daily Offices. Even today I make it a priority to attend Evensong at the Cathedral in Kingston whenever I can, and thankfully, they usually invite me to sing the Office with them.
As a bishop, I have travelled widely and enjoyed worship with Anglicans around the world. The common heritage, theology and worldview of God’s grace expressed through the life of Jesus in the Prayer Book have formed me as a Christian and been to me a bedrock of Church life, whether in Indigenous communities in Northern Manitoba, in a small parish in the UK, in many churches in the United States or even in Rome on a visit with other clerics. To this day I remain formed and nourished by the prayers of the BCP.