We Pray

Common Prayer

As early as the fifth century, the Church proclaimed lex orandi, lex credendi: The law of praying is the law of believing, or more simply put: praying shapes believing. What we pray forms what we believe and who we become. And what we believe is expressed by what we do and say in prayer, worship, and ministry.

In our common life of worship, we, who are many and diverse, come together in Christ through prayer. Along with Holy Scripture, The Book of Common Prayer (or BCP) is the Episcopal Church’s unifying guide for our life in communion. More than a symbol of our unity, it points us from whatever direction we each may have come toward the communal worship of our one God. Moreover, our common life of prayer extends beyond the pews of the church and the covers of The Book of Common Prayer; its pages bid us to seek and serve others, “strive for justice and peace among all people, and [to] respect the dignity of every human being” (BCP 305).