Hundreds of people tune into church’s Morning and Night Prayer services
from the Church of England website:
Prayer services dating back to the early days of Christianity have enjoyed a big revival at a Middlesex church during the pandemic..
Daily Morning and Night Prayer, or compline, are attracting online congregations of more than 200 people at a time at St Mary’s Church in Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, since the first lockdown in England. Before the pandemic, Morning and Night Prayer were said by clergy in the parish usually without a congregation.
During the services, broadcast on Facebook Live, the ancient offices of Morning Prayer and Compline are read and traditional prayers like the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis are used. The online congregations are encouraged to make prayer requests and even send through suggestions for their favourite hymns. There are also prayers for key workers including those in the health service and prayers for those who have lost their lives to Covid.
Parish priest Father Andrew Downes said large number of people tuning into the services – from across the country and also overseas – are shielding. The services also give people the chance to join worship with their relatives and friends across the country during the lockdown.
More about compline: In the Anglican tradition, compline was originally merged with Vespers to form Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. The ECUSA‘s Book of Offices of 1914, the Church of England’s proposed Prayer Book of 1928, and the Anglican Church of Canada‘s Prayer Book of 1959, and also the 2004 version of the Book of Common Prayer for the Church of Ireland,[9] restored a form of compline to Anglican worship. Several contemporary liturgical texts, including the American 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Book of Alternative Services, and the Church of England’s Common Worship, provide modern forms of the service. A traditional form is provided in the Anglican Service Book (1991). The Common Worship service consists of the opening sentences, the confession of sins, the psalms and other Bible lessons, the canticle of Simeon, and prayers, including a benediction. There are authorised alternatives for the days of the week and the seasons of the Christian year. As a public service of worship, like Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, compline may be led by a layperson, quite similar to Lutheran use. (from Wikipedia)
Please right-click links to open in a new window.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
