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Some Daily Prayers for Church of England People ? The Definitive Edition

Reviewed by Chris Skilton.

The book is what says on the cover - a short collection of prayers from a variety of sources through the centuries. Harry Ogden was a parish priest for over forty years in some of the most deprived parts of England, and in his preface the former Bishop of Sheffield, Jack Nicholls, writes of him that “to offer the best to God has always been his life’s work”. He is indeed one of those unsung, and by many unknown, heroes of Christian ministry who has exercised that ministry in a quiet and self-effacing way to the glory of God.

The book has a modern catholic Church of England lay person in view as its likely user. It offers and encourages a simple ‘rule of life’ with a simple morning and evening order of prayer (including the daily saying of the Angelus) and a sequence of prayers and readings from Scripture for each day of the week. There are also further sections on “various things to pray and ponder” - joy in God’s creation, the cross, the resurrection, the church, loving God - among them. The tradition for which the book is written is to the fore in sections on preparing to make your confession and devotional prayers before and during the Eucharist.

The book is described as “a perfect Confirmation present” and for a person rooted in this tradition, it would be. I suspect that for those who are not, this book simply isn’t for them. However one should not disparage the aim of the writer - to help equip people with the resources for a prayerfully ordered daily life and for proper preparation for public worship. Other traditions and denominations might ponder how they would do the same.