We are so blessed to be able to offer online Compline services on Sundays nights at 8:30, thanks to the gifted prayer leadership of Tom Allen.
We are pleased to announce that this program is expanding! Chelsea Brewer will be leading another service of Complin from the Chapel on Wednesday nights at 8:30, after choir practice. It will also be livestreamed on our parish Facebook page!
Thank you, Chelsea and Tom!
What is Compline? Part of a Deep Prayer Life, the Episcopal Way
In the early medieval church, the practice of monasticism was actually quite attractive to many Christians, especially in Europe and around the Asian and African coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Monks and later nuns who lived in community eventually developed a cycle of prayers throughout the day to help them keep prayer at the center of their daily lives. This practice originated in Judaism.
This cycle of prayer came to be known as “the Liturgy of the Hours.” Laypeople often followed parts of this practice themselves, and those that could read would have beautiful personal prayerbooks, called “Books of Hours” made. You can see a illustrated page from the Book of Hours of Simon de Varie elsewhere in this newsletter.
The monastic regimen was 8 prayer liturgies held every three hours, starting roughly at midnight (read left to right):
Matins (midnight) Lauds (3 am) Prime (6 am/sunrise)
Terce (9 am) Sext (noon) Nones (3 pm)
Vespers (6 pm/sundown) Compline (9 pm/bedtime)
When the Church of England (the Anglican Church) began, a modified and simplified ritual of daily prayer at set times was continued, and continues to this day, but has become much more realistic for people’s busy lives. However, one of the beauties of Anglicanism, of which we are a part, is the making available to EVERYONE brief liturgies that can be prayed and led by ANYONE without the need for clergy throughout the day. So democratic and egalitarian! We call these liturgies, collectively, the Daily Office.
If you look at our current prayer book, you will see The Daily Office at the very front of the Book of Common Prayer, indicating its spiritual importance. The modified offerings are as follows:
Morning Prayer (BCP, p. 75); Noonday Prayer (BCP, p. 103) Evening Prayer (BCP, p. 115) and Compline (BCP, p. 127). Both Noonday Prayer and Compline can be prayed in 10-12 minutes, while Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are just a bit longer at 15-20 minutes each. Noonday prayer and compline do not have a lectionary, so frankly, our online offerings can be prayed or viewed on any day of the week.