The most Anglican of prayers: the Lord's Prayer, the General Thanksgiving, and The Grace

But many of the faithful will be reassured by his conclusion to his address: the Hail Mary. That is to say, the most Catholic of prayers, invoking the Virgin.

So said Melanie McDonagh in her Spectator article on the election of Leo XIV. Her comment led me to wonder what might be 'the most Anglican of prayers' for similar high profile situations. I am not, of course, talking about the very unmemorable 'topical prayers' produced, for example, for the Church of England website. Rather, the issue is what might be the Anglican equivalent to the place of the Hail Mary in Roman Catholic piety.

Three prayers come to mind. They are prayers that should be routinely encouraged by Anglican churches on social media, in public pronouncements, and at significant national and international moments. Rather than instantly forgettable, newly-devised 'topical prayers', prayers which are rooted in and embody Anglican piety should be consistently provided and their use consistently encouraged. 

The first is, obviously, the Lord's Prayer. Said at Morning and Evening Prayer, at Compline, at the conclusion of the Litany, at the Holy Communion, at Baptism, at Matrimony, at Confirmation, and at the graveside, the Lord's Prayer has a central place in Anglican liturgical prayer. As Hooker declared:

our custome is both to place it in the front of our prayers as a guide, and to add it in the ende of some principall limmes or partes as a complement which fully perfecteth whatsoever maie be defective in the rest. Twice wee rehearse it ordinarilie, and oftner as occasion requireth more solemnitie or length in the forme of divine service (LEP V.35.3).

What is more, the Prayer Book translation - with the gentle modifications that are now commonplace ('Our Father, who art in heaven' etc.) - has become the commonly accepted ecumenical form of the Lord's Prayer amongst English-speaking Christians. The matter of the doxology is hardly a significant issue, with the Orthodox very close to Anglican practice, and Roman Catholics well used to the doxology in the Mass. Another point which, I hope, should not need explanation, is that the 'contemporary form' of the Lord's Prayer has no place at all in this proposal. All the contemporary version of the Lord's Prayer has done is to confuse occasional church-goers and those cultural Christian who have retained some knowledge of the Lord's Prayer: the contemporary version should, quite simply, be banished from liturgical use.

That the lightly modified Prayer Book translation has such widespread recognition amongst English-speaking Christians points to another aspect of the Lord's Prayer emphasised by Hooker:

Tertullian and St Augustine ... terme it orationem legitiman, the same prayer which Christes own lawe hath tyed his Church to use in the same prescript forme of wordes wherewith he himselfe did deliver it, and therefore what parte of the world soever we fall into if Christian religion have bene there received, the ordinarie use of this verie prayer hath with equall continuance accompanied the same as one of the principall and most materiall duties of honor don to Jesus Christ.

Here is the prayer to unite Christians. To put it bluntly, no prayer is greater than the Lord's Prayer; no prayer can have a more central place in Christian devotion. To again quote Hooker:

Though men should speake with the tungues of Angels, yeat wordes so pleasinge to the eares of God as those with the Sonne of God him selfe hath composed were not possible for men to frame.

The second 'most Anglican of prayers' should be the General Thanksgiving. I realise, unfortunately, that many Anglicans are not now familiar with this wonderful prayer. It is, however, to be found placed at the conclusion of Morning and Evening Prayer in the Church of Ireland BCP 2004 and, significantly, in both Rite One and Rite Two Morning and Evening Prayer in TEC BCP 1979. It can also be found in contemporary form in, for example, Common Worship Daily Prayer and An Australian Prayer Book 1979. In other words, it is certainly available to contemporary English-speaking Anglicans. 

What is more, the General Thanksgiving is a part of the Anglican patrimony which should be recovered as a spiritual gift for all Anglicans. It is a means of enabling us to heed the Apostolic exhortation, "In every thing give thanks". As Rowan Williams has stated:

When I was a teenager I remember one of the little books of prayer I was given by my vicar had the words of the General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book:

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life;

And I learnt that by heart as a boy, and it's still there, and at moments it's the peg to hang things on. And whether it's hymns or words of a prayer it really helps to have those little formulae that sometimes just quiet your mind.

To have the words of the General Thanksgiving memorised, or memorised in part, or close at hand, is to be equipped to give thanks unto the Triune God, in good times and bad, in the midst of the ordinary routines of life, at moments of particular individual or communal blessing. And in culture in which gratitude is often in desperately short supply, in which thankfulness is often absent from our common life, encouraging use of the General Thanksgiving has the potential of leading us to grasp what Sir Roger Scruton discerned: "Where there is no gratitude there is no love".

The third 'most Anglican of prayers' must be, I think, The Grace. Again, with the unfortunate demise in many places of the practice of Sunday Morning Prayer, The Grace may have been lost to many contemporary Anglicans - although, certainly in the CofI, its use continues to be widespread as means of prayerfully concluding many meetings. To memorise this short invocation from Holy Scripture, however, is not at all difficult. The fact that is a Trinitarian invocation only adds to its significance: The Grace roots prayer and life in the Holy Trinity. 

We can also again turn to Hooker, who beautifully draws out the meaning of The Grace:

Life as all other guiftes and benefites groweth originallie from the Father and commeth not to us but by the Sonne, nor by the Sonne to anie of us in particular but through the Spirit. For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the felloweship of the holie Ghost. Which three St peter comprehendeth in one, the participation of divine nature (V.56.7).

The Grace, then, is an invocation which draws us to behold "the riches of the glory of this mystery ... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory". It is an invocation which - like the Jesus Prayer - can be endlessly meditated upon, sustaining and enriching our prayers.

The Lord's Prayer, the General Thanksgiving, The Grace: these are, for me, 'the most Anglican of prayers'. There are, of course, others which could easily be added. The Collect for Purity immediately comes to mind, likewise the Third Collect at Evening Prayer, for Aid against all Perils. The collect for the Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity is another obvious candidate. But, I think it is the three prayers here proposed which have a particular significance. 

Encouraging use of the Lord's Prayer should be a simple, ongoing mission for Anglican churches, heeding Hooker's words: praying the Lord's Prayer is "one of the principal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ". The General Thanksgiving encourages gratitude, at all times, towards our Creator and Redeemer for His abundant grace. And The Grace prayerfully places us in the grace, love, and communion of the Holy Trinity. Amidst all the effort and resources expended by the central bodies of Anglican churches on various campaigns that are of no enduring value or, frankly, of even transitory significance, it would surely be a much better use of resources to abandon all such faddish campaigns and instead do something rather more central to the mission of the Church: encouraging people to pray to God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the communion of the Holy and life-giving Spirit, and to aid this through 'the most Anglican of prayers'.

(The pictures of the Lord's Prayer, the General Thanksgiving, and The Grace are from Morning and Evening Prayer, BCP 2004.)