Communion goes online with calendar

The wheels are falling off the printed version of the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, but the Anglican Communion office in London is hoping that a new electronic version of the world prayer calendar will avoid embarrassing errors.

In the 2004-2005 print edition, “the list of the (38) primates alone had 12 errors,” said Canon James Rosenthal, director of communications.

The 159-page booklet lists one Anglican diocese per date, from Aba in Nigeria on Jan. 2 to Zululand in southern Africa on Dec. 24. Diocesan bishops are also named. In order to remind Anglicans that all are members of the body of Christ, worship services provide space for a mention from the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, generally during the prayers of the people section.

The booklet has been produced annually but inevitably deaths, retirements, transfers and even new dioceses in growing areas (like Nigeria) have made some information out of date.

The Anglican Cycle of Prayer has been available on the Anglican Communion Web site (anglicancommunion.org) since January. In the first month, there were more downloads of information (about 5,800) than there have been purchases of the booklet, said Mr. Rosenthal.

The printed version will not disappear, he said. The updated cycle will appear every six months in Anglican World magazine and a print copy will be available on request. Updating electronically will also be more cost-effective, since the communion office has in the past paid to send out about 2,000 copies of the booklet to bishops and leaders worldwide.

Meanwhile, Praying with our Partners, the Canadian supplement to the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, was recently mailed out to all parishes in Canada. The smaller booklet, which is produced three times a year by General Synod, is in its fifth year of circulation. It is provided at no charge to all Anglican churches in Canada.

Updated annually and made available on the General Synod Web site (generalsynod/anglican.ca), Praying with our Partners provides background information about the Anglican Church of Canada’s international relationships with the provinces and national churches of the Anglican Communion and its aboriginal and ecumenical partnerships in Canada and beyond.