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Memorial Day 2014
Episcopalians for Traditional Faith
May 26, 2014
Garden of Flags Symbolizes Hard-Won Liberty, Freedom to Worship as We Believe 
"I thought I was looking at a field of flowers," a friend told me. She had stopped by Boston Common yesterday to see 37,000 American flags stretching across the park. The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund planted the flags near the Soldiers and Sailors Monument to commemorate men and women who have died in the service of our nation. "Each flag represents a brave Massachusetts service member who gave his or her life defending our country since the Revolutionary War," according to the Heroes Fund website. The garden of flags is on view through Memorial Day.
Boston, sometimes known as the "Cradle of Liberty," is the site of King's Chapel, the first Anglican church built in America, in 1689. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, similar to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer we use today, was used in King's Chapel then, and an altered form of it is still used there today by the Unitarian congregation. To learn how Episcopal Bishop Samuel Seabury put his foot down when the Unitarian minister revised the Prayer Book in 1785 to accommodate Unitarian beliefs, go to http://www.kings-chapel.org/history.html
On Easter I attended an Episcopal church, All Saints in Boston's diverse Dorchester neighborhood, where we worshipped as we believe, with the classic traditional 1928 BCP. Youth was well represented in the racially-mixed congregation, putting the lie to the revisionists' boring canard that the traditional liturgy is only for "old white people." The classic 1928 Prayer Book, based on holy scripture, speaks to all people.
Prayer for Memorial Day
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the
living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all thy servants
who have laid down their lives in the service of our country.
Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that
the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
We must turn to the traditional Book of Common Prayer (BCP), adopted as the official liturgy in 1928 by the Episcopal Church, for a prayer that reverently and succinctly blends thanks and petition. No rambling, mawkish blurt barely concealing an agenda, this prayer on page 42 of the 1928 BCP serves us well, as does the entire classic liturgy. And yes, the "archaic" language, as Church revisionists insist on labeling what they don't seem to understand is some of the finest prose ever written in the English language, announces without a doubt that we are communing not with any ordinary being: memorable language for a memorable purpose.
I searched the Episcopal Church website today, but could find no prayer, old or new, for Memorial Day. On a Google online tour I found several impromptu Memorial Day prayers, most written by priests or bishops around the USA, liberally seasoned with "gender-neutral" language, predictably containing the Episcopal word of the century, "justice."
I looked through Rites I and II and finally found a watered-down Memorial Day entry thrown together in 1979. It comes nowhere near the reverent thanks and supplication of its 1928 BCP counterpart. There's not even a mention of our fallen heroes, to whom the day is dedicated. "Ventured much?" What's that supposed to mean? "Day of decision"? "Disciplines?" The last sentence is the only clear statement in this muddle:
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The classic 1928 Book of Common Prayer is not an insignificant screed, a passing fancy. It is the form of worship on which the Church of England, The Episcopal Church in America, and the worldwide Anglican Communion have been built. While lesser rites flutter by on every passing breeze, the classic Book of Common Prayer has been and continues to be an unwavering beacon to the faithful.
Giving up on finding a prayer for our fallen heroes anywhere on the Episcopal Church website, I searched the Event Calendar to see how the Church is observing Memorial Day. I found that it isn't even on the calendar - but Family Veggie and Yoga Night is. This is an example of how the revisionists have infantilized and trivialized our Church.
Wake up, all you Episcopalians, and reclaim your religious heritage! -- JM
Learn More about the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and ETF
Come to the ETF website to learn how you can introduce or reintroduce the 1928 BCP -- our unique American Prayer Book - to your parish. You can order your prayer books and ETF enameled lapel pins on the website's Good Books page, and leave a message on the Email page.
Click on the tabs at the top of each page and browse from page to page to find 1928 churches and to read archived emails, ETF Updates, articles, and opinion pieces by ETF writers and others. Before you leave the website, please consider making a gift to ETF so we can continue to spread the good news about our reverent, traditional prayer book, based on holy scripture. "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
