The Prayer Book Challenge

Here we go. 2 days from Advent. I have been waking up full of ideas. One is to grab the ball and run. After much thought and a couple of emails and a phone chat, I have decided to make a personal commitment to pray with the Book of Common Prayer once a day. Perhaps it will end up being the short snappy Midday Prayer every day but I plan to make it part of my day. Every day. For one year. 

I have also decided to “hang in with” the local Anglican Church, despite my not wanting to attend services there at the moment. I suffer from what may be something now called Avoidance Syndrome. I find social situations trying and need a little space right now. It is not just the newer liturgy that makes me jumpy. It is the gearing up for the event almost more that the actual event itself that makes me anxious.

So I am going to take on a year of devotion with the Book of Common Prayer because I am liking it more and more and find it helpful in a way I cannot understand, or care to understand even. 

Off I go on my little journey. Last Sunday I met my former Catholic pastor on his way to Mass. I explained that I would have to confession before I could receive Communion because I have been receiving Communion in the Anglican Church. And that because I would receive Communion in the Anglican Church again I couldn’t go to confession. Click goes the door into the Catholic Church.  I don’t make the rules.

I don’t believe in that kind of Holy Communion. So away I go on my challenge, a little frightened, a little sad, but ever trusting and hopeful that I am not abandoning God, and that God is not abandoning me.