An Invitation to Evening Prayer
The Daily Office of Evening Prayer at St. Anne’s was started the Reverend Janice Gordon in 1987 and has had a faithful cadre of leaders who support the service ever since. I first started attending St. Anne’s when I moved to Annapolis 10 years later and served regularly at the 11:15 a. m. Rite One service. When that service was eliminated circa 2003, preferring smaller services I started attending Evening Prayer. Jerry Chambers (1945-2020), who referred to himself as the Evening Prayer General Secretary, immediately encouraged me to join as a leader. Jerry worked tirelessly to grow and maintain the service in a way I appreciate only now. Since Jerry has now gone on before us, as we leaders say, Madeleine Hughes (an even longer-tenured leader) and I have taken over his work, drawing up schedules, bringing in new leaders, and encouraging fellowship.
What’s neat about Evening Prayer? It is a short service, lasting only a half-hour or less. It’s a small service, with an average of five people participating each night. Since it is lay led, it’s a great opportunity to practice reading and praying together in the quiet of the church. Sometimes the clergy stop by and join, and he or she gives the blessing. Except when a Eucharist is offered during Lent, the service is held in the chancel, so it is intimate. It’s a great way to end the day. The office has some of the most moving and beautiful prayers in the BCP. The service follows the lectionary, and in addition to a Psalm and two lessons, includes reading the commemoration from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (if there is one for that day) so participants are always learning something new. Frequently tourists stop by and are encouraged to join us in the chancel, and even take a reading if so inclined. A couple of weeks ago a fellow from England joined us and being familiar with the service, read robustly. The service has always attracted students from St. John’s College. It is astonishing to think those I prayed with when I first started are older now than I was then. St. Anne’s stays the same though; it looks the same and feels the same. There is great continuity there.
The pandemic changed the service a little. We grew into the hybrid service we have today, with an online service each night, and services in the church three days a week instead of six. The Rev. Gordon now joins from Florida online. Social distancing saw us populating both sides of the chancel, a practice that happily continues and we say the Psalms antiphonally across the chancel.
An important part of the service is the prayers of the people. We pray for those on the prayer list, and for those on our own prayer lists. Leaders often choose to pray from the Prayers and Thanksgivings that start on page 814 in the BCP. We pray for our world, for our country, and for those who serve our country. We pray for those who have died, especially the Evening Prayer leaders gone on before us. We pray the prayers left by visitors left during the day at the litany desk, who leave St. Anne’s that day, perhaps forever, knowing their prayers will be offered that night.
Evening Prayer always welcomes new leaders or just participants, so if it sounds intriguing, I hope you will stop by some night, at church or virtually, and join us.
Daniel Sams, Evening Prayer Lay Leader