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A Christian Spirituality                                                           
Christian spirituality in the Episcopal Church's tradition is rooted in our understanding of what God is doing in human life and history. One way of expressing it is to say that God is drawing us to share in the Divine Love and Unity. All things are being brought into unity and wholeness. So, the church states its mission as being "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."  We see that as our mission because we understand it to be what God is doing; our task is to join God in this act of love and justice.

 
Our worship tradition as Episcopalians is based on a three-part structure. Michael Ramsey, the one-hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury, referred to it as the Benedictine triangle. The three elements, Eucharist, Daily Office, and Personal Devotion, comprise the fundamentals of a disciplined Christian spirituality in the Anglican tradition. If you explore the Book of Common Prayer you'll find that most of the book is devoted to the Holy Eucharist, the Daily Office, and resources to support those acts of worship (e.g., the Psalms, collects (prayers for the day), a lectionary (readings for the Eucharist or the Office). The tradition assumes that personal devotions are related to the individual's unique relationship with God. Some will be drawn to contemplation or meditation, others to intercession or adoration.

The Bible - "Christians are under obligation to see everything in the light of the Resurrection, as did the apostolic generation, and never cite isolated verses from the earlier strata of that gradual revelation as "dogma," i.e. permanently necessary statements of Christian belief, unless congruent with the ultimate "good news" of the Bible."  -The Rev. Cannon A. Pierce Middleton

The Spirit of Our Tradition - "In all things essential, unity. In all things not essential, liberty. In all things, charity."

Worship Resources

The Book of Common Prayer                                The Book of Common Prayer -- another source]
National Public Radio (USA) on the Book of Common 11/27/99

The Holy Eucharist                                                          The Eucharist  - As used in most parishes                                    The Lectionary Page - The lesson texts from the Bible used in the Eucharist; the official readings appointed in the Lectionary             The Holy Eucharist: A Guide to Participation in the Sunday Liturgy James Kiefer's Christian Biographies - Biographies of the saints noted in the church's liturgy

The Daily Office                                                                   The Daily Office  - online                                                       Forward Day By Day - See "Today's Meditation" A reading for the day; usually based on the Office readings

Advice on Prayer

** From Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (article in the Telegraph 2003.

The thing I would like to say first is that it doesn't much matter at first how much time you can give so long as you can give some regular time.

The challenge is to find enough time to become quiet enough and still enough. And all the things about the need to attend to your body is not about exotic yoga techniques. It is how do you use your body in such a way that you can actually center it to be where you are.

Somebody once said that the deepest problem in prayer is often not the absence of God but the absence of me. I'm not actually there. My mind is everywhere. So take a few deep breaths, use a simple formula like the Orthodox, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy', and sense in that that the line is anchored somewhere in the depths.

That's back to where we started, really. Familiar formulae and the rhythms that come naturally actually matter quite a lot and I've sometimes advised people to try to find a verse of a hymn that means something to them or just a single phrase.

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