Margaret Johnson (ed): "Thomas Cranmer: 500th Anniversary of His Birth,"...


Chapter 4: Cranmer and the Daily Services—Anthony Gelston, 51-81. The Roman Catholic Oratorian, Louis Bouyer, said in 1956 of the daily offices: “…a Divine Office which is not a devotion of specialists but truly a public Office of the whole Christian people…that the Offices of Morning Prayer and Evensong, as they are performed even today in St. Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, York Minister, or Canterbury Cathedral, are not only one of the most impressive, but also one of the purest forms of Christian common prayer to be found anywhere in the world.”  Cranmer’s governing principles: whole Bible read at least once per year, Psalms monthly, vernacular services, simplified calendar, consonance with Scriptures, and “one use,” doing away with the Sarum, Lincoln and York uses. Three emphases: intended for laity and clergy, intelligent participation and, given the Reformation influence, doctrinal purity. 

As a Reformed man, someone can live with these daily offices throughout the year. We don't worship the service, but God alone.

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