The Book of Common Prayer: A Roadmap for Our Faith and Community

The article today might be inspiration to you and is a clarification too.  Let me start with the latter.

Last week’s Holy Crossing article might have been confusing when I wrote about the dates for the next porch talks and what the talks would be about. In meeting with the IMAGINEERS (formally the Long-Term Strategic Planning Team), we renamed the second round of porch talks as “IMAGINEERS PORCH TALKS” compared to the current (and successful) Porch Talks. The Porch Talks are the small group gatherings at a parishioner’s home where scripture is read, and community is built. The IMAGINEERS would like to use the same format to get feedback from you to help determine what the parish would like to see for our church in the future. There will be small group meetings hosted and facilitated by the IMAGINEERS Team beginning in September where answers to questions regarding (1) property/grounds, (2) outreach/community, and (3) worship/marketing will be discussed. The questions will be distributed on August 18 at the Parish meeting, and again in advance of the first meeting in September.

In October the PORCH TALKS will resume with another round of scriptures and questions to ponder as participants gather in the same groups to share and to get to know each other a little bit better. There is great energy here! It is inspiring to listen to the feedback and how welcomed participants feel while sharing their intimate life stories.

Now for the inspirational piece. This morning, I was looking at one of my many Book of Common Prayer books. This BCP is a hardback, looks like new, but is divided with plastic tabs to identify all the sections found in the Table of Contents. This allows for easy access to the Daily Office, The Collect, Holy Communion, The Prayers of the People, The Pastoral Services, The Psalter, and the list goes on. As I was looking at this book, I was reminded of how wonderfully the BCP is written and so full of information that this book is truly the roadmap for all that is Episcopalian…our faith tradition. If you want to know what we believe…it is there (p. 845, An Outline of Faith.) If you are interested in history, read the Historical Documents (p. 864.) If you are a lay reader and want to prepare for your assigned Sunday, you will find the scripture for the day in the Lectionary (p. 888.) The Daily Office Lectionary begins on page 936 but read the rubrics on page 934 for guidance.

Just like the BCP filled with all sorts of information, the members of this parish are equally diverse. As individuals, we bring our unique personalities, desires, hopes, and dreams for this parish together at worship services, to meetings, to leadership teams, and to the ministry and outreach teams. We are the church with “boots on the ground!” in our outreach. Working together we are Body of Christ sharing the Gospel bringing the Living Word to our neighbors on Myrtle Grove with games, hotdogs and music. We are the Body of Christ caring for others in the larger community of Wilmington at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, the Food Bank, and other personal volunteer outreach opportunities. We are the Body of Christ as we share of ourselves internationally with the Guatemala Mission Loupads project and the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund around the world.  Thank you for all that you do! Go God!

Blessings,

Rev. Anne