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Anglican

Anglicans form the family of Christians closely related to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Whilst tracing their inheritance back to Christ and the earliest Christians and to the ancient Roman Catholic church, the sixteenth century Reformation was a crucial moment for Anglicanism.

Bishop

‘Bishop’ comes from the Greek word for ‘overseer’. So a bishop is a senior Christian minister authorised to have oversight for God’s people. As well as duties given to deacons and priests, bishops confirm and ordain.

Episcopal

‘Episcopal’ refers to the role or ministry of a bishop. So an episcopal church is one in which oversight is entrusted to a bishop. Like many others, the Church in Wales is an episcopal church.

Lent

Lent is the six-week period leading up to Easter. It is a particular time to confess sin and to seek personal and collective renewal (a ‘springtime of the spirit’). Lent has a special focus on Jesus’s journey to the cross and prepares the Church to celebrate his resurrection.

Liturgy

Liturgy is a set form of words and action used for worship. In the Church in Wales (and many other churches) these forms follow the same pattern from one congregation to another. Most Anglican liturgies look back in some way to the Book of Common Prayer.

Prayer

Prayer sustains our human relationship with God and may involve words (formal or informal) or be silent. Prayer can involve adoration (‘I love you’), confession (‘sorry’), thanksgiving and supplication (‘please’).

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Compline

An Alternative Order: The Office of Compline (1992)

The early Christians took over from the Jews the practice of offering prayer at fixed hours of the day. By the end of the fifth century the work of Saint Benedict had formalised the structure of seven ‘Day Hours’ and a ‘Night Office.’ The last of the ‘Day Hours’ - Compline - was absorbed into Evening Prayer by Archbishop Cranmer, but Anglican spirituality has consistently shown signs of a need for an act of worship before retiring for the night. This need, together with the need for a simple service which might be used in connection with retreats, or courses of sermons in Lent, led to the provision of an order for Compline in the 1928 Prayer Book.

This order for Compline, compiled by Bishop R.D. Silk, uses the traditional material and takes account of developments in the Roman Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.

Download:

Compline (Word)

ref: 1959

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