This centrality of Morning and Evening Prayer to Anglican worship is well worth noting, because these services differ most from their medieval Sarum precursors precisely in the question of Scripture. Historically, the Anglican liturgical tradition on a Sunday would have included Morning Prayer, followed immediately by Communion (or Antecommunion), and then Evening Prayer in the evening (naturally enough), coupled with a requirement for clergy and encouragement for laity to pray Morning and Evening Prayer every day, and for the lay folk to join their local cleric in the church if possible. This trust is reflected liturgically in the Anglican tradition’s historic cycle of services. In the Bible we encounter God, and God can transform us. ![]() However, Homily 1 represents a robust trust in the power of sacred Scripture to transform hearts and minds, to make us holier, to make us more Christ-like. Nor am I saying that Anglicans love the Bible more. ![]() I’m not saying those people don’t love the Bible. Sometimes you meet people (or read them on Twitter, I guess) who seem to think that a church loves the Bible because congregants spend a lot of time listening to a person talk about the Bible. Reading the Bible or listening to someone read the Bible is good for you. In particular, this homily reinforces the Reformation-era Anglican idea that the words of Holy Scripture are themselves powerful. Second, one of the thoughts I had was how this reinforces ideas about Anglican worship and spirituality that I’ve heard people say and observed from inference. It’s only 18 minutes long, and it will fruitfully exhort you to read the Bible. If you’re feeling a bit like you aren’t into it or haven’t read it for a while or anything like, go listen to Alastair read the homily. I had lots of thoughts, most of which have escaped me, but here are two:įirst, go and read the Bible. ![]() The other night I listened to Alastair Roberts read Homily 1, “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture” from the 16th-century Anglican Book of Homilies (Book 1 first published 1542).
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