Adelphoi,
The set prayer within the classic Book of Common Prayer(1662/1928) for the week of 28th September surely is a prayer for all who care for the ECUSA to use.
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
"Keep, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us every by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
The Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18 The Gospel: St Matthew 6:24-34
This is a perfect Prayer to pray daily not only in the week of Trinity XV but right through to - and beyond - the Primates' Meeting in London, October 15-17.
Let us notice here in the first petition a strange, interesting and relevant fact. God the Father is implored to keep his Church (for which his Son shed his precious blood) not with his Fatherly Care, not with his Watchful Providence and not with the guardianship of his holy Archangels and angels [all of which he actually does], but with his Perpetual Mercy.
Perpetual Mercy -- If man (we, all of us) is to be saved and secured from major spiritual and moral injuries with which Satan, the world (zeitgeist) and the flesh threaten him, it can only be by the continual & perpetual exercise of the Father's mercy in the name, for the sake of his Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in and by the Holy Ghost, the Counselor & Comforter. From that heavenly mercy proceed abundant blessings of many and varied kinds, descending upon those who seek the Lord and find him.
Certainly, being a member of the ECUSA at this time seems to bring an extra deluge of temptations, testings, problems and heart-aches for pilgrims who would walk on the narrow way that leads to life. We need mercy not only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but each and every day - and night! Perpetual and nothing less than continuing and continual! "Every hour I need thee!" The Bishops who call themselves orthodox especially need this Mercy so that they can be truly orthodox in worship, doctrine, and discipline and be true Shepherds.
Let us also recognize, as does the Collect, that considered as moral and spiritual beings who stand before God, the all-holy, the all- seeing and the all- knowing One, we are not only mortal but also frail, weak and sinful. We possess the ancient disease of inbred, original sin and because of it we cannot, in and of ourselves, truly help ourselves into the way and enjoyment of God's salvation. We have to be lifted by grace-filled hands into the Ark of Salvation. (This Collect stands as a defiant statement against Pelagianism, a doctrine loved and favored within the present ECUSA.)
To state this truth of original sin - so clear in the Bible and in the content of the classic editions of The Book of Common Prayer - and to confess it and its implications before God is wholly to depart from the mindset and spirituality of the present ECUSA, where man is hardly the guilty sinner upon whom the wrath of God falls. Rather he/she is usually the autonomous being engaged in self-fulfillment and asking God to accompany her/him on this journey!
Thus we pray again in this Prayer for help, the presence of the Holy Ghost indwelling our souls so that he elevates our affections, inspires our thinking and energizes our wills in order to guide us away from that which will harm us and towards that which will protect and bless us. Many things that exist will harm us, even things which in and of themselves may be good, but for you or for me they are the frequent cause of temptation and sin. Happily, there are many things in God's creation, and especially in the provisions of the new covenant/creation, that are for the cleansing, renewing, inspiring and saving of our souls and bodies.
Within the present life of the ECUSA in its "National Church" organization, its dioceses and parishes, there are many things that are hurtful in the sense that they have the potential to be the means of causing persons/souls to abandon the Faith and their Lord and to become apostate. Also, thanks be to God, there are - though in short supply - means of grace available (in persons and sacraments) to those who seek, knock and look for the healing and salvation of their souls.
This Prayer and all such fervent, effectual prayer is offered to the Father through the One Mediator, the Son, and with the Holy Ghost by the people of God, who know that the only merits that heaven knows are those of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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