Prayer

         "Prayer is the intentional opening of human lives to, the alignment of human wills with, and the direction of human desiring toward, the cosmic Love that is deepest and highest in the world. ... Public prayer or church worship is the way in which we unite with others in expressing dependency on this Love, opening ourselves to it and willing cooperation with it, as fellow workers with God.

Dr. Pittenger (1905-1997) in later years
Illustration by Jack Bowles

Private prayer is the way we do this in our own particular ways." [from the late Anglican theologian Dr. W. Norman Pittenger (of the General Theological Seminary faculty and of Cambridge University) in Praying Today, p. 27.] The Book of Common Prayer is rich in its varieties of public and private prayer; Dr. Pittenger commented that if one had only the Prayer Book and the Bible, one would have a deep and complete life of prayer.

         See also "Privacy and Public Prayer, " "Rubrics and Length of Services," "Appropriate and Inappropriate Prayer," "Gifts," and "Pastoral Prayer: Sacred or Profane" in various subsites.