About

This blog will be a collection of devotional and expository writings on the Catechism printed in the 1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer.   (You will find other online versions of the BCP at this site.)  The Catechism from the pages of that book is reproduced here on this blog, in full, on a page of its own.

My hope is that those who wish to contribute will choose one question-and-answer topic in the Catechism, and write a short (or longer) educational-cum-devotional essay, considered from the Anglican perspective.  I echo the curators of Full Homely Divinity in offering this as a resource "for the Anglican at the Altar and especially for the Anglican in the pew."

I hope it will be something like a "user's manual" for the Christian faith as taught in the Episcopal Church's Catechism.  When I first came to the church I knew next to nothing about it, and found I used many online resources to help me understand some of the rites, teachings, faith practices, and other particulars which were now part of the new way of life I had taken up.  I would like this site to be a one-stop shop for those who have questions about the faith - for newcomers and any others who'd like to know more about the Anglican way of faith especially.  I'd also like it to be here for those seeking devotional material that can inspire and help them in their own faith lives.   If you'd like to write something like that, please let me know in the comments.

The BCP calls the Catechism "An Outline of the Faith"; this is an attempt to fill in that outline a bit, by showing how and where the faith originated, how it came to be what it is today, and how it is lived and experienced in the present day.   From almost the earliest days of Christianity, writers wrote and discussed and debated the implications of the Scriptural account of Jesus of Nazareth - and Christians "in the pew" made use of devotional materials and objects and events.  Two thousand years later, all of that is still going on - on blogs and other kinds of new media.  So here we are.

When asked, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Christ replied: "The most important one is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"   I very much hope that heart and mind will find integration in just this way here.

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