Morning Prayer as ante-communion - Rector's Rambling for September 10, 2017

As you have noticed, I am not at St. John’s today.  The family and I have dashed away for our yearly holiday, to get a chance to do some travel and to recharge for the coming ‘academic’ year.  Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and for a safe return.

Today, being the second Sunday of the month, we will be having Choral Morning Prayer as the ante-communion of our Communion Service.  What that means is that we are substituting Morning Prayer from the prayer book, with it’s Psalms, Bible readings, and canticles (sung portions of scripture as well) for what is the regular ordering of the first part of the Holy Communion Service. 

The reason for this is we are honoring a later development in Anglicanism where Morning Prayer frequently was alternated with Holy Communion, especially in the United States where there was a scarcity of clergy to celebrate the Holy Communion Service.  Now that Communion has regained it’s ancient place as the primary worship of the Church, the Choral Morning Prayer tradition has been slipping away.

This combination allows us to both continue in the Morning Prayer tradition as well as receive Holy Communion every week.

One other great aspect is that by doing this now YOU know how to do Morning Prayer as well.  Using the guide found on page 4 you should be able to pray Morning Prayer (or Evening Prayer) at home as it was intended for all members of the Church to be able to do.  I hope you will take advantage of this wonderful worship, with or without music, at home.