Anabaptist Prayer Book

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JM

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http://www.ambs.edu/prayerbookNew: Prayer book for seasons of the church year

Morning and evening guides for praying the Daily Office during special seasons of the church are available. Use the links at the left for each season to find files you can download to use in your prayer time.


Take Our Moments and Our Days:
An Anabaptist Prayer Book


We invite you to share in a form of prayer that originated in the earliest Christian times and has continued through the centuries.
The distinctive Anabaptist flavor of this collection of daily prayers is evident in the predominance of Jesus' voice, the space for communal reflection on scripture, and the specific choices of Bible readings. We offer these services in the hope that you will find in them a way of prayer through which the voice of Jesus will pervade your whole day.
This four-week cycle of prayers is designed for ordinary time. Each week centers around significant Scriptures in the ministry of Jesus: the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, the miracles, and the parables. Except for Sunday morning there are prayers for morning and evening of each day.
"Take our moments and our days; let them flow in ceaseless praise."
You may download these prayers by choosing the prayer book files link at left. Please note that this material is copyrighted by AMBS; you may use it, but please do not alter it without permission or sell it.
We envision small groups or families using these prayers, although they are suitable for individuals as well. You may use any individual service for a specific occasion.
Be sure to look at the preface, introduction and notes on how to use these prayers, following the links at the left.
You may contact the editorial committee at prayerbook@ambs.edu. Eleanor Kreider will receive and respond to your message.
See what others say about this book.
To purchase copies
If you wish to buy a printed copy of these materials, you may order it from one of these sources:
Herald Press
Telephone: 1 800 245-7894
hp@mph.org
616 Walnut Avenue
Scottdale, PA 15683
490 Dutton Drive, Unit C8
Waterloo, ON N2L 6H7
If you are ordering from the U.S., you may purchase copies from the AMBS bookstore:
bookstore@ambs.edu
Rights reserved. Do not copy and/or distribute the prayer book content for sale or profit.
Editorial committee:
Arthur Paul Boers, Barb Nelson Gingerich, Eleanor Kreider, John Rempel, Mary H. Schertz
 

MrJim

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What do you think of it? What do you think of the publisher, are they liberal or more orthodox Anabaptists?

Herald Press would tend to have the whole spectrum available.

A prayer book is an interesting idea--obviously not anything new as our Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican folks can tell us...I'm learning from the Orthodox that praying from a prayerbook is actually a great way to pray-that reading the words do not mean that prayer is turned into a ritual (though it can) but it frees the mind from having to come up with words-and can free the mind from distractions in focusing upon prayer itself.

Just seems kind of...odd I guess. Maybe someone else can add something more here-don't know if there has ever been a prayerbook.

I'll check this with those conservative mennonite outlaws at mennodiscuss on this...
 
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JM

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Herald Press would tend to have the whole spectrum available.

A prayer book is an interesting idea--obviously not anything new as our Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican folks can tell us...I'm learning from the Orthodox that praying from a prayerbook is actually a great way to pray-that reading the words do not mean that prayer is turned into a ritual (though it can) but it frees the mind from having to come up with words-and can free the mind from distractions in focusing upon prayer itself.

Just seems kind of...odd I guess. Maybe someone else can add something more here-don't know if there has ever been a prayerbook.

I'll check this with those conservative mennonite outlaws at mennodiscuss on this...

My first steps in the faith were made in "t"raditional churches being a member of the Anglican Church of Canada, I left for more "t"radition, visiting a few RC parishes and a Greek Orthodox church. I enjoyed the prayer book tradition and have collected a few over the years, my favorite being "The Valley of Vision" [a collection of Puritan prayers] and the Anglican BCP.

This prayer book is on my list to buy but if it's general inclusive, liberal translation of Scripture, or mention "the divine Mother/Father" I don't want to waste my money.

Let me know what you can find.

Peace,

j
 
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ZiSunka

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I've always thought pre-formatted prayers are too artificial, but I do realize that sometimes, a person doesn't know how to express what they want to pray and prayer books can help by allowing a person to read various prayers and find one that is appropriate to the situation.

I buy a lot of HP materials, and I've never found anything unorthodox or un-anabaptist in any of it. In my opinion, they have a very high reputation for spiritual quality in their materials.
 
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Crazy Liz

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Herald Press is one of the standard Anabaptist publishing houses. IIRC, their standard style uses gender-inclusive language for humans and try to avoid pronouns for the Divine, so as not to make their God-language overly masculine, while also remaining true to scripture's imagery. I don't think you'd find the prayer book filled with re-imagining type of prayers, if this is something that bothers you.

Anabaptists traditionally have used more low-church forms (in fact, one could make a convincing argument that Anabaptists and their Moravian and Hussite forbears invented what we now know as low church worship), including more spontaneous prayers and few written prayers other than psalms, the Lord's prayer, and other prayers taken directly from scripture, such as the prayer traditionally said when laying hands on a newly-baptised Mennonite:

[bible]1 thessalonians 5:23-24[/bible]

I would expect an Anabaptist prayer book to draw heavily on prayers actually recorded in scripture. However, Mennonites are becoming more ecumenical. The Mennonite Church USA has adopted, but does not dictate use of, the Common Lectionary for scripture readings throughout the church year, a practice that was unknown when I was growing up. So it does not surprise me to see an Anabaptist prayer book being published by a leading Mennonite publishing house. Not all Mennonites would be comfortable using a prayer book, but having seasons of communal prayer with some structure such as the one described here would not be entirely foreign to Anabaptists today.
 
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