A note to my friends and contacts – from Peter Toon

A note to my e-mail friends and contacts – from Peter Toon

This note is to let you know that the Board of the Prayer Book Society of the USA – meeting on February 8 in St John’s Church, Savannah, in its new facility called Cranmer Hall, and in the room containing the Library of the late Rev’d Dr William Ralston – appointed me as the President for this year 2006. This was suggested by the outgoing President, the Rev’d Fr David Kennedy SSC, and confirmed by all present.

This year the Society has its 35th birthday, being founded by Dr Ralston and others in Tennessee (at Vanderbilt University and the University of the South) in 1971. Happily my daughter, Deborah, attended Vanderbilt and lives in Nashville, working as a lawyer now, and is often present on the campus.

In returning to the USA in April 2005 I planned on working for the Prayer Book Society; but not on being President again, and certainly not in this momentous year for American Anglicanism, when we may see the departure of the ECUSA permanently from the Anglican Communion of Churches, and will continue to experience a major crisis within the Anglican Way. My wife, Vita, rightly fears that she will see too little of me during this period for I will be taken up by travel and writing. Plans for visiting here and there and doing this and that will be on hold for a while!

The present breaking off from the perimeters of the Episcopal Church of a growing number of congregations departing to be linked to overseas Anglican Bishops (creating a veritable alphabet of affiliations) is providing new opportunities for the Society. The trauma of departing often causes a search by those in the exodus for the real meaning of the Anglican Way, its Scriptural base, its attachment to the Fathers of the Church, its Formularies, its liturgy, music and poetry, its piety and devotion, and so on. Never before, I guess, has the Society been so sought out, consulted and asked to advise by those wanting to know more of the riches of Reformed Catholicism.

May I make bold to ask for your prayers for the Society and for me, that we may be given the strength and wisdom to make a positive contribution to the healing of the wounds of Anglicans/Episcopalians in the US and to the enrichment of the Anglican Way in North America. The Board approved a series of imaginative and bold projects for this year of crisis and it is our hope and prayer that in doing them in a timely and good way we shall serve Christ and the kingdom of God.

Three more things… First, I am available as an emissary of the Prayer Book Society to visit churches to give talks, sermons, conduct retreats, and engage in debate and dialogue. Please send me an email if you desire to invite me and suggest dates. Secondly, in your charity I ask you to give a donation to the Society to encourage the Board in its work and to help pay for the work that we do and plan to do. Finally, do not forget or hesitate to buy a copy of the new leather bound edition of the Altar Book for the BCP (1928). It is a first class product and will make a fine coffee table book as well as an altar book. Why not buy one in memory of a loved one for your church? Please call the toll free number to ask for prices.

The Prayer Book Society
P. O. Box 35220
Philadelphia, Pa. 19128-0220
1-800-727-1928
www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 and www.anglicanmarketplace.com