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1928

Prayer Book Alliance

The 1928 Prayer Book Alliance celebrates our freedom to worship as we believe with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

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The Annunciation, 1900, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Arlington Street Church, Boston, MA

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Observed on April 8, 2024

The Feast of the Annunciation customarily is observed on March 25, nine months before Christmas. This year, however, this date occurs during Holy Week, so it will be celebrated on April 8.

The Collect

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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                           -- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, page 235

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Saint Matthias's Day

February 24, 2024

The Collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

                                               -- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, page 234

 

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"The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying

Unbroken wings." -- T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday.

Add Something New for Lent

Instead of following the custom of giving up something for Lent, why not add something that will inspire and strengthen you? Worship with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in church and use it at home for private devotions. If you read this classic prayer book daily for the 40 days of this Lenten season, you'll establish a beneficial habit that you'll want to continue throughout the year.

Pray that God create a new and contrite heart in you and in others, particularly those who care for and protect those "in all sorts and conditions of men," from the preborn to the elderly. 

In the Lectionary section near the front of your Prayer Book are Psalms and Lessons for the Christian Year, readings for each day. Starting with Ash Wednesday on page xvii 

Set aside time each day to read from this book. It will change your life. Yoga, diet, "wellness" meditation, aerobics, massage, and pills might provide temporary respite to the body and mind, but the inspirational, reverent words of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer will comfort and strengthen your very soul.

For Lent this year, give up chocolate or bourbon if you must. Donate to your parish church if you choose. Most important, give up an hour a day and "draw near in faith" with those millions worldwide who open their hearts to the Word as revealed in the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Such a small thing -- 60 minutes that otherwise might be spent in some mundane pursuit -- in exchange for restorative time in the presence of the triune God.

Ashes, Reminder of our Human Nature

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The ashes that your priest applies to your forehead today in the form of a cross are a reminder that God created Adam and all of us from dust, and we'll eventually die, just as Adam did. 

 

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  

-- I Corinthians 15:22. 

 

But look ahead 40 days to Easter, the highest holiday of the Christian year, the festival of Christ's glorious Resurrection, his triumph over death. Use the Lenten season as a time for reflection, penance, and renewal, in preparation for the path ahead and the life yet to come.  

    

 

Order your new 1928 Book of Common Prayer today, so you can worship throughout Lent and through the year with a liturgy that is ancient, beautiful, and true.  

 

If your parish church or diocese needs new prayer books, please ask your vestry, priest, or bishop to order them here.   

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FIND A CHURCH NEAR YOU

For 475 Years, The Book of Common Prayer
Has Set the Standard for Anglican Worship

The Book of Common Prayer brought Christianity and the values of Western Civilization to the New World. The occasion of the first Prayer Book service on American soil is commemorated by a 57-foot high sandstone cross that towers over Drake’s Bay near San Francisco, California. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake’s ship the Golden Hind made landfall here during his voyage as a privateer commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I. 

 

In 1577, Drake set out from England in pursuit of Spanish treasure. He rounded Cape Horn on the treacherous seas later named Drake Passage, emerged onto the Pacific, sailed up the coast of South America, and continued north to Vancouver, seeking a northwestern passage. The bitter-cold weather drove him back south, where he hauled the Golden Hind to caulk its leaky timbers. 

 

On June 24, 1579, a few days after Drake’s landfall, the first Christian service on the soil pf the New World was conducted by ship’s chaplain Rev. Francis Fletcher, a Church of England priest, near the place that is now San Francisco. This was at the midpoint in Drake’s voyage, the first circumnavigation by an Englishman.

 

In the early 1600s, a continent away on the East Coast, English settlers brought their Book of Common Prayer, the official liturgy of England then as today, to Jamestown and Plymouth. 

 

According to a 2019 account in San Francisco’s Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon, 

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"The Midwinter Exposition, mentioned in the cross’ inscription, was to be San Francisco’s coming-out party as an up-and-coming city with its mild winters on the West Coast. Construction for California’s first world’s fair exposition would also create jobs during the economic downturn at the time. The cross was unveiled as part of the Midwinter Exposition running from January to July, 1894. “

 

The front and back inscriptions on the 57-foot-tall sandstone cross reads: “Presented to Golden Gate Park at the opening of the Midwinter Fair, January 1, A.D. 1894, as a memorial of the service held on the shore of Drake’s Bay about Saint John the Baptist’s Day, June 24, Anno Domini 1579, by Francis Fletcher, priest of the Church of England, chaplain of Sir Francis Drake, chronicler of the service. Gift of George W. Childs, Esquire, of Philadelphia. First Christian service in the English tongue on our coast. First use of the Book of Common Prayer in our country. One of the first recorded missionary prayers on our continent. Soli Deo sit semper Gloria (God alone be the glory forever).”

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The 1928 Book of Common Prayer

Ancient      Beautiful      True

Set aside time for individual and family church activity.

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Coming events and days to remember here and on your church's Sunday bulletins

March 21, 2024

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Thomas Cranmer's martyrdom in 1556

March 24, 2024

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Palm Sunday

March 28, 2024

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Maundy Thursday

March 29, 2024

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Good Friday

March 31, 2024

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Easter Day

He is risen!

April 8, 2024

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The Annunciation

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BOOKSTORE

Great gifts come in small packages. This especially is true of the pocket paperback 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

 

Hardcover Prayer Books have sold out. This classic of Christian worship will be available again soon. We'll let you know when they're ready to send. To preorder your Prayer Book(s), send an order now through this website and be among the first to receive them.

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