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Grace and Peace,
It is no secret that I enjoy books. This is part occupational hazard, and part joy. While my office shelves are full of Bibles (over two dozen), and books on theology, at home the selves are overflowing with books covering topics of personal interest, from gardening to photography and many topics in between.
In the spring of 2020, the Diocese sent an email to all congregations mandating that all prayer books, Bibles, and hymnals be removed from the church; this was an early response to the pandemic when knowledge of how COVID-19 was transmitted remained unknown. Jorge and I spent several hours removing every book from the sanctuary, placing them in boxes, sealing the boxes, and storing them upstairs in a closet.
It was a time when the reality of the newly emerging pandemic truly hit home. It was several years before the pain of that moment was overshadowed by the joy of replacing every Book of Common Prayer and hymnal back in the pew racks. Soon, those books would be joined by the presence of a Bible; and even now we are exploring options for expanding our selection of hymnals in the pews.
Yes, I have a Kindle, it is my son’s old one, and I do use it occasionally, but nothing replaces the feel of a book in hand.
Prior to the pandemic we were reducing the number of pages in our Sunday service bulletin and promoting the use of the BCP and hymnal, then we were told to not touch those books. Now we revisit our efforts to reduce our service bulletin size and encourage everyone to pick up the BCP (the red book) and the Hymnal 1982 (the blue book). You might notice that the BCP naturally falls open to page 355, this comes from years of worship beginning on that page, years of prayers, and generations of use.
People have lost their lives for the Book of Common Prayer, a history lesson for another day, rejoice in being able to pray with the powerful words contained on those pages. Take solace in knowing that as you pray with the BCP, countless others have prayed from those same pages; some prayed in times of joy, some prayed in times of sorrow, all prayed to the glory of God.
Environmental stewardship is very important, so we continue our experiments in reducing the service bulletin size, and we appreciate your participation as you learn the joys of juggling the bulletin, hymnal, and BCP; you might find that by partnering with a family member or friend, it is easier to balance all the books. So while creation care is the goal, it may be that worshiping in community is the lesson learned.
Peace,
Henry+
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