Religious Education and Me

Yesterday I read an article in the latest New Yorker about the Book of Common Prayer, now 350 years old.

I call myself a lapsed Episcopalian, but the quotations from the Book of Common prayer were so familiar to me from my childhood that  I found I could finish off phrases automatically. 

"We have erred and strayed form they ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts..."   Even if I don't subscribe to the beliefs, the writing is beautiful, the product of Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533-1556.  He did a nice job.

At a reception following my confirmation in the Episcopal Church, 1963. My friend Ann, also newly confirmed, is about to cut the cake.

 

 

I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church when I was 13, and I went to months of Saturday classes beforehand  to learn about Christianity, but I know almost  nothing about it.  I've never understood what the Holy Ghost is, and until yesterday, I didn't have the slightest grasp of the difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, beyond the existence of the Pope.  According to the New Yorker article,  the Book of Common Prayer was written at the time King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church.  It is a Protestant document, written in English to be accessible to the layperson.

How could I live to be this age and not know this?  Or more about the religion I was raised in or about Roman Catholicism, one of the great religions, with millions of followers, the iconography of which appears in thousands of great paintings, some of which I've studied?  My ignorance speaks to laziness, I hope not to disrespect.

I logged on to Wikipedia.

Here's what I've learned so far: (I know I have Catholic readers, and I welcome corrections because I don't have all that much faith in Wikipedia.)

Roman Catholics venerate saints, especially the Virgin Mary, and believe saints can pray for them directly to God. Hence feast days, prayer cards, and processions to shrines.   Protestants believe people can achieve grace through faith alone, not by earning it,   Roman Catholics have a "magisterium" (which means "teaching") which lays out beliefs that aren't in the Holy Scripture, tradition codified by bishops and the Pope.  Whereas Protestants view Holy Communion as a metaphorical enactment of the Last Supper, Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine become the "real presence" of the body and blood of Christ.

This morning I badgered Jerry into helping me unearth my trunk down in the basement, and I dug out my own Book of Common Prayer, given to me by my godmother when I was 10. It's a dignified document, lyrical, emotional, humbling, profound.  I may not believe it, but I need to know about it.






My own copy of the Book of Common Prayer