Masterpiece Prayers
The Pentecostal Christian movement in which I was raised seemed to place a premium on spontaneity in worship and in prayer, as opposed to set prayers and forms—more like contemporary jazz, less like a Baroque oratorio. Our God was in the moment, present, praying with us now just as he did in the early Church. So why did I find myself praying a prepared text from 1662 in January 2021?
Maybe because the Anglican Book of Common Prayer of that year has a prayer with the heading, For Restoring Publick Peace at Home. The words were strangely appropriate here in America, following the violence of January 6 and after months of political rancor and violent protests nationwide, in which many lost property, livelihoods, and even their lives. As I write in this winter of our raucous discontent, I take comfort in that 1662 prayer, which reads, in part, like this:
O Eternal God, our heavenly Father, who alone makest men to be of one mind in a house, and stillest the outrage of a violent and unruly people: We bless thy holy Name, that it hath pleased thee to appease the seditious tumults which have been lately raised up amongst us. . . .
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Lance Nixon is a freelance writer based in Pierre, South Dakota, where he attends virtual services of New Life Assembly of God Church and also visits Trinity Episcopal Church virtually. He is also a fiction writer, and his latest stories about the Great Plains appeared in the November 2020 and November 2019 issues of Gray's Sporting Journal.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on Protestant from the online archives
30.5—Sept/Oct 2017
The Critical History Before, During & After Martin Luther by James Hitchcock
20.4—May 2007
A Short & Surprising History of Protestantism & Contraception by Allan C. Carlson
more from the online archives
32.4—July/August 2019
on Probability, Death & the Existence of God by Graeme Hunter
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
