BCP Reflections

The Revd. Don Aellen muses on the power of the BCP burial office in the context of a traditional commital, together with its healing effect on family and friends.

On the occasion of starting his position as Principal of Wycliffe College in Toronto in August 2016, the Rt. Revd. Dr. Stephen Andrews wrote about the past, present and future place of the Book of Common Prayer at the College.

Two young Chinese people, James Liu and Morning Wang, have started Mandarin fellowship groups in Toronto Anglican churches. And they are enthusiastic users of the Book of Common Prayer! They were interviewed for the PBSC newsletter in 2016.

The celebrated mystery writer P.D. James, who passed away in 2014, was a warm supporter of the Book of Common Prayer and a patroness of the English Prayer Book Society. A past chairman of that Society, Anthony Kilmister, reminisces about her.

The Revd. Gordon Maitland, PBSC National Chairman, reflects on the subtle interplay between the themes of incarnation and atonement during Advent and Lent within the traditional church calendar, as it is preserved in the Book of Common Prayer.

By Aaron James. This essay won the third prize in a competition organized by the PBSC Ottawa Branch in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Canadian BCP and the 350th anniversary of the 1662 English BCP.

Attending a service of BCP choral Evensong and seeing a young woman in a hijab sitting in a pew, Presbyterian professor Carl Trueman is led to reflect on the powerful Scriptural witness and the compelling devotion found in the Book of Common Prayer.

A sermon preached by the then Bishop of London, the Rt. Revd. Richard Chartres, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, England, on the occasion of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, held on May 2, 2012.

In this piece, written in 2012, the Rt. Revd. Dr. Stephen Andrews, then Bishop of Algoma, reflects on his discovery of the Book of Common Prayer as a young theological student and his ongoing deep appreciation for it.

A sermon preached by the Revd. Dr. Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto, in which he expounds upon the many profound ways in which the Prayer Book is spiritually challenging, nurturing and formative.