Two or Three

For the past six Lents, every morning 6:30 a.m. (from the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, until the Saturday before Palm Sunday) for six days a week, the Morning Prayer has been read at Trinity Church. Now, this shouldn't seem a cause for celebration -- after all, the "Daily Office" is a part of the Anglican heritage dating back centuries. To this day, Church of England clergy commit to praying Morning and Evening Prayer EVERY DAY as a part of the fulfillment of their ordination vows. For much of the history of the Episocopal Church, Morning Prayer was the form of weekly corporate worship for most Sundays of the year.

But these days -- given everyone's schedules, the press of families and jobs -- it's more and more difficult to make time for corporate worship. And in an increasingly, "Eucharistically-centered" denomination, many people have the opinion if the Holy Meal isn't served, then somehow worship hasn't happened. That's what has made these mornings of prayer so meaningful to me. Worship HAS happened -- reciting the psalms, the prayers of the Church, reflecting upon the reading assigned for the day. Taking time to share thoughts or questions about that reading, offering up our individual petitions and thanksgivings. This is worship in its most essential form.

Do we need to come to a building to pray Morning Prayer? Absolutely not. However, as I have sat in the Trinity Church chapel and prayed along with my friends, there was a "quiet confidence" of being connected with the Anglicans around the world who treasure this ordered way of worship and who had prayed, were praying or would be praying these (or similar) words throughout the day. Millions upon millions of Anglicans gathered together -- two or three at a time.