Today's commemoration is of a book, not a human saint. On May 30, 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer was published. The book was primarily the work of Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who pulled ideas and wrote some of his own. It was deliberately ambiguous about things such as Real Presence in the Eucharist, and therefore disliked by both conservative reformers and more liberal ones. For several years after that it was revised, based in large part on who was ruling England at the time. [Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I, James I, the Puritans under Cromwell all had ideas for a better book.] The final version, in 1662, was the one in use until the twentieth century, when some modern touches were added. Most of the colonies and former colonies developed their own Book of Common Prayer. The United States got its own Book of Common Prayer in 1789, the year after the Constitution was ratified. It did not include a prayer for the king! The most recent revision is the 1979 edition, though there are supplements.
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Saints Alive!
I have been privileged to offer Noonday Prayer at my church, usually on Thursdays, which doesn’t matter because it’s on Youtube forever. [It’s amazing what can be done with a smartphone and a smart, helpful parish administrator!] The service is brief, with a place for a meditation. We usually look at the Episcopal calendar of saints, who are nearly always honored on their death dates, not their birth dates. Here is a hymn by medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen to set the mood.
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