Inspired by the work of Charles Bartlett and the growth of his family oratory into a lay ministry, my family is beginning a similar exercise here in the River Region. Our new experiment is known as Prattville Anglican Fellowship (https://www.facebook.com/prattvilleanglicanfellowship/).
We are trying to start modestly as a monthly fellowship on a non-traditional day of worship (i.e. avoiding Sundays and Wednesdays) to encourage Christian families of all traditions to discover the rich tools of daily prayer through the Book of Common Prayer and catechesis (learning) the Christian faith. In other words, Christians of all denominations are welcome to attend and learn what C.S. Lewis termed ‘Mere Christianity’ by using the deep resources of traditional Anglicanism. We purposely meet on days outside of Sunday and Wednesday to avoid conflicts with regular worship. Eventually, we would like our monthly meeting to become more regular, perhaps every other week, and even weekly.
Our goal is to serve as an outpost for families to seek spiritual refreshing through liturgical prayer and to be equipped by the prayers to develop their family and individual prayer life. We seek to encourage families to continue the prayer life of our gatherings during the week within their own families so that each cell of the body of Christ is discipled and able to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15). To a certain extent, our fellowship of families can be seen as one version of putting “The Benedict Option” in practice.
The Prattville Anglican Fellowship will focus on family worship through the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and utilizing the resources of the Anglican tradition to catechize families in the faith once delivered unto the saints.
Resources used for catechesis include:
– 1662 & 1928 Book of Common Prayer with The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
– Nowell’s Catechism
– The Book of Homilies
If you are interested in visiting the Fellowship and worshiping with us, please visit our Facebook page and feel free to contact me for more details (https://www.facebook.com/prattvilleanglicanfellowship/).
We see through a mirror darkly 