St. Paul's Episcopal Church

"The Book of Common Prayer used by [St Paul's] was authorized in 1979, but it follows a 450-year tradition of worship books in the Anglican Church. The reformers in England at the time of the Reformation, including Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, wanted the church’s public worship to be available not only to the clergy and liturgical ministers, but to everyone in the congregation. The first Book of Common Prayer, published in 1549, established this norm, and it has been a hallmark of Anglicanism ever since."*

   

For an in depth discussion of the benefits of liturgical worship see:  "Common Prayer -  A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals" by Shane Claiborne, Zondervan.  Claiborne writes:

 

"Liturgy is soul food. It nourishes our souls just as breakfast strengthens our bodies. It’s sort of like family dinner. Hopefully you get some nutritious food, but more than nutrition, family dinner is about family, love, community. Liturgy is kind of like family dinner with God. Liturgical theologian Aidan Kavanaugh says it well: “The liturgy, like the feast, exists not to educate but to seduce people into participating in common activity of the highest order, where one is freed to learn things which cannot be taught.”

​

*Black, Vicki K. "Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer

(Welcome to the Episcopal Church)", Church Publishing Inc.