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The Great Litany

O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, Have mercy upon us.

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy upon us.

O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful, Have mercy upon us.

O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God, Have mercy upon us.

Remember not, Lord Christ, our offenses, nor the offenses of our forefathers; neither reward us according to our sins. Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and by thy mercy preserve us for ever. Spare us, good Lord.

From Phil:

The Great Litany is found in The Book of Common Prayer, an old and great book of prayers and services developed from the Protestant Reformation. I and others will explore its themes throughout this season. This is the first paragraph of it and it is the first prayer for use in Church services originally written in English. The author was Thomas Cranmer, a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I, in the 1500’s.

Cranmer wrote a good part of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) still in use in most Protestant Churches today. The BCP has had a deeper influence on Western Civilization, our culture and language than you can imagine. Thomas Cranmer served his Protestant kings faithfully, but was martyred by Mary I, a Catholic who in her brief and bloody rule tried to end English Protestantism. Before his death, Cranmer agreed to recant and swore allegiance to the queen and Pope, but Queen Mary still wanted him dead. Self-absorbed despots do not do forgiveness very well. On the day of his execution he was allowed to preach once more, with the assumption that he would ask for forgiveness again from the Queen and the Pope.

Cranmer was told that he would be able to make a final recantation, but would still be burned at the stake for blasphemy against the Pope and the Realm. He was allowed to speak during a service at the University Church. He wrote and submitted the speech in advance and at the pulpit on the day of his execution, 21 March 1556, he opened with a prayer and a plea to obey the king and queen. However, he ended his sermon totally unexpectedly, deviating from the prepared script. He renounced the recantations that he had written or signed with his own hand and he stated that, in consequence, his hand would be punished by being burnt first. He then said, “And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine.”

He was pulled from the pulpit and taken to where others had been burnt six months previously. As the flames drew around him, he fulfilled his promise by placing his right hand into the heart of the fire, calling it “that unworthy hand”. His last words were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit …; I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

Although this history is a grim one, sometimes we need to be reminded that the freedom we have to read scripture, meet together freely, and now have vast resources to aid and make choices of how we live our faith. These freedoms all came at the great price of the blood of martyrs. Persecution continues to this day in much of the world, and more so in ours every day. So, today let us pray with Thomas Cranmer for mercy, deliverance, courage and redemption in Jesus for ourselves and those who daily face danger for their faith.

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Peace. Phil Parsons

P.S. As the BCP notes, the prayers therein are “common” prayers, our pleas to God are never for ourselves alone. We pray in community, we pray as a church, for our families, our communities, our nations and their leaders, our entire planet. We all need the deliverance Jesus brings.

* * * * *

From Rodger:

Most people are not aware that I spent 3 years as a youth minister in an Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, immediately after I graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary.  (A long and convoluted story, the short version of which is… I needed a job, they wanted someone with proven experience in youth ministry, I was at least 3 or 4 years away from any process of ordination in the Presbyterian Church in the middle of the “reunion” going on at the time.  etc., etc.   yadda, yadda, yadda.)

To be certain, it was quite a tumultuous time.  (Phil knows EXACTLY what that understatement means, having lived with me in Alpharetta, GA for a while!)  Yet in many ways, it was also an incredibly rich and rewarding time, as I was exposed and acquainted with ideas of liturgy and worship that far too many in the Reformed tradition miss out on.  Full disclosure; there were some parts I could only tolerate.  Kneeling in worship did and does nothing for me except make my abused knees hurt.  And I clearly remember how uncomfortable I was watching people come and go from worship services (which were far too long and frankly, far too sloppy for my taste).  For the entire 90 – 110 minutes (I TOLD you they were too long!), people were in and out of the sanctuary almost as if there were revolving doors at the back of the main aisle.  There was a “casualness” with which so many approached corporate worship that seemed borderline disrespectful to me.  And most striking of all, when the Eucharist portion began, it was as if Pavlov’s bell had been rung, and people flocked back into the sanctuary like salivating dogs rushing in to be fed.  It was almost like there was some kind of supernatural, superstitious quality to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  I was never comfortable with the way such a cavalier approach to worship and the sacraments felt.  (And in fact, this was a part of the learning “experiment” that ultimately led me “home” to to pursue my ordination in the PC(USA).)

But the one jewel I came to appreciate from my time in Dunwoody, was my exposure to the Book of Common Prayer.  It’s richness, depth, and (it needs to be said) beauty, is unsurpassed.  Over the years, the churches I’ve served have received more than a gracious helping of prayers and litanies from our Episcopalian brothers and sisters that I’ve used in our worship.

When I learned from Phyllis Tickle (the same person I mentioned yesterday) some years later that the BCP has NO copyright, I was astounded.  “It is,”she said, “Our gift to Christendom and the universal church.”  What a testimony!  Anyone can use any part of the BCP, in any way they want to use it.  Copy it, use it, chop it up and reassemble bits and pieces as necessary, there won’t be any knock on the door, no visit from the copyright owners (or their lawyers), no YouTube automated message that the artificial algorithm has blocked what you wanted to do for copyright violations.  It’s essentially free for all to use.  It’s A GIFT.

Think that through for a moment.  And compare this:  Zondervan “owns” the NIV Bible copyright.  The New King James is the “property” of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the New Revised Standard Version copyright is held by the National Council of Churches.  Which may well be why so many various versions of the Bible are so expensive perhaps?  (Let’s leave aside the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which seems to many to be more a money making “product” than simply a version of Scripture, and which, at $60 – $90 / copy, isn’t really in the same category as the others.)  But the BCP is – by design – in the public domain.  What a novel idea!  Making something that can help feed us spiritually EASY to obtain and use!  If only the others would follow such an example!