Kelley Mooney Chorale Voce dell'Anima Monette Gould, director
Hallelujah
(L. Cohen/K. Mooney)
Welcome! Let us pray. We're glad to have you with us.
Please click on today's date from the buttons on the left for Morning and Evening Prayer. Evening Prayer, including Gospel, is printed right below Morning Prayer on the same page.
For Noonday and Latenight (compline), hover over the main buttons at left. Every day also has prayers for special intentions; just hover your mouse to see them. Please bookmark our site from this page.
Site News: Our Site Rebuilding Project Has Begun!
Today, August 18, 2010, I have renewed our site's webhosting contract for another year with the current provider. There will be no immediate changes.
However, I have also begun building a better site with a different provider. I've already been able to export some of our content (Prayer List, FAQ and some of the Alcoholics & Addicts resources) to the new site, without removing it here. When the project is done we'll be moving into a new and better building, with greatly improved software.
Our address will remain the same.
Our current site here is essentially unchanged from when I first built it almost six years ago today. The software is what it's always been, with one or two tweaks. Our service provider doesn't even bother to incorporate new features. But technology is always on the move, so this becomes an intolerable situation. In order to make the prayers available on handheld devices, and to receive comments directly on the prayers of the day, I've had to duplicate this work on a blog, which is inefficient and duplicative. Now we also have a Facebook group, so I end up posting the services six times a day in three locations.
That's crazy, and it would lead to burnout. Yet I have no intention of ceasing this work as long as my fingers are strong enough to work a keyboard. I'm not going anywhere!
Together we have done some marvelous things in this place; almost one million page-views, meaning we have prayed to God a million times here! I'm shocked, and grinning ear to ear.
But we've also got to make our prayers as accessible to others as possible. That's why I'm building the new site with more features, including blogging software available for you to use if you're so moved, and social networking capability.
Now don't worry, because we're not there yet. No one will ever be required to use the new features once they become available. You'll be able to visit this same address and have the same quiet experience as always.
But those who want to do more will be able to.
Besides increasing access across a variety of electronic devices - an important aspect of the Great Commission of evangelism - the net result of our new building will be a greatly enhanced sense of community.
I will no longer be the hub to whom all our members must be connected. You'll be able, if you choose, to connect with each other. I'm excited about this, because we have great people here; and I think you all should get to know each other.
We come from all 50 U.S. states and 100 different countries. But we have faith in Jesus Christ in common, and we all speak the same language, regardless of our denominational background. Most of us are Episcopalians/Anglicans, but many others come from other church traditions. That is a strength of this congregation.
Do you know we have a very faithful person who comes from Trinidad and Tobago? We get soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan too; people from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Vietnam, Europe, Africa and North, Central and South America. I want you to meet each other, if you care to participate.
In the meantime nothing will change, but you know what I'm up to. Within a year, maybe less, we'll move into our new building. The altar will still be where you expect it. The art and icons will travel with us. But it's going to be a much better space.
I will keep you posted on my progress, and give you plenty of notice when the big move occurs. I am not phasing out Old Coke to introduce New Coke. We'll have the same Prayer Book, Psalms, Lessons and prayers as always.
But for the first time we'll be able to host a parish coffee hour, too.
Thank you for praying with me and with us these last six years. May God's name be forever praised among us.
Josh Thomas Founder & Lay Vicar August 18, 2010
UPDATE: 700 members already! Join the Daily Office group on Facebook!
You'll receive a link to our latest service, a thumbnail of the picture of the day as well as site news and events. Disciples - Catholics - Pentecostals - Baptists - UCC - MCC - ELCA -everyone is welcome! Spread the Word!
Please use our backup blog if at any time this site is not updated.
A wealth of information and resources about the liturgy of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, compiled by Fr. Bosco Peters, is one fish-click away.
Church of the Advent of Christ the King, San Francisco
On December 1, 2006, in response to a request that we make the Daily Office available by RSS
feed for reading on hand-held devices—which is impossible here on our main site—we created a Daily
Office blog on wordpress.com. A link to it is here.
Three years later, we have counted more than 1,000,000 total page-views, here and on our blogs.
The Daily Office blog contains the exact wording from this site for Morning and
Evening Prayer; we simply copy it.
Some portion of these hits come from tech-savvy Episcopalians who learned about the blog here, and may use both sites depending on convenience. But a majority of blog visitors are web-surfers who have never seen this site—and probably aren't Episcopalians at all.
Thus we are achieving the evangelical goal we set from the beginning, to make the Word known outside the fold.
Who knows what conversion may come from exposure to the Book of Common Prayer? Cranmer's Book is our biggest evangelical tool.
Our blog has many features this site can't offer; besides the feed for hand-held readers, every service is archived. Someone looking for a prayer for Memorial Day, or a picture of St. Swithin's in the Swamp, can find it in the Episcopal Daily Office, because Google and other search engines all grab from the blogs.
Maybe that site visitor will stick around long enough to read the whole thing.
Our purpose never was simply to nurture those of you who already know and value the Daily Office as an important, nourishing structure for your prayer life. It's always been two-fold; we want to introduce people to the Gospel as we know it.
After all, every service here ends with a Prayer for Mission. Your prayers are getting results.
Now we we want to remind you of some features of the blog you can take advantage of.
The Comments section is the perfect place for your prayer requests and
thanksgivings. Does someone you know need healing?
How about you? Has something good happened in your life lately so that
you're feeling close to God? Tell us, maybe that will stimulate a
response that extends the grace. Other members will be able to view
your prayer and pray along with you the minute you post.
Another opportunity on the blog is the chance to ask questions about or comment on the lessons
for the day. Everyone has had the experience of reading or hearing a
passage of Scripture and thinking, "What was THAT about?" But of
course, at public worship, the Church never stops its service to allow
such discussion. Maybe the preacher (if there is one) will illuminate
it during the sermon, or maybe not. Yet there is great value to each of
us in being able to identify what our reactions to Scripture really
are: "Ooh, I love that!" "Ooh, I don't get that at all." "I'm not sure
I agree with that." Or even "I wish I could live up to that."
So we suggest that when you're so moved, you'll take a minute to record your reactions (you can be anonymous
if you like) on the blog. If there is something you don't understand,
chances are you're not the only one; chances are also that another
member can start to clear things up, or suggest an alternate view, or
otherwise say something helpful, if only "You know, I've wondered about
that too."
Have you read a good spiritual book lately? Clue the rest of us in. Use the Comments for any good purpose—including feedback about everything we do here.
Once, a priest asked why we don't print the collects from Lesser Feasts and Fasts on minor saints' days. It's a great question; our first answer was that we think there's more spiritual value and universality in the Prayer Book collects than in a special prayer for St. Cecilia; however great she was, a brief and cryptic retelling of why she is considered a saint is less useful to inquirers and believers alike. Are these sites for people inside the Church or outside the Church? The answer is both, of course—and we're reaching them.
But thank God for that question; on second thought we decided the priest was right, we should feature the saints (that is, our role models). Now we're printing and podcasting St. Cecilia's prayer too, because a member asked us to.
Combined, these
sites offer most of what can be done online, without sacraments, to nurture all souls as
persons and an online community.
Thanks to you, our combined attendance is over one million. Never in our wildest imaginings did we ever expect to reach so many people.
Meanwhile please, do go to your local church to participate in prayer and sacraments. Computer-only doesn't fully satisfy. We need real hugs, real community, real Body and Blood, the taste of bread and wine. We need people to mourn and celebrate with.
That's called church.
As Jesus healed the sick, our God is one who actually touches us in our bodies through the ministrations of others. Don't go without; get thee to church, then pray without ceasing.
Love,
Josh Thomas Founder
Questions, comments, reactions? Visit the blog or write us an e-mail here.
To ask a question or leave a comment about the lessons, click here.
To learn more about the Episcopal Church, click here.
