To All Active Lay and Ordained Members of the ACNA, 

Periodically, the Provincial Office of the ACNA sends out a Provincial Notification to solicit your thoughts and feedback on key policies, resources, canonical, or other ecclesiastical matters that may concern you or your local parish. 

As part of our shared Anglican commitment to uphold the principle, “what affects all is decided by all”, the spirit of these notifications is to welcome your prayerful insight and wisdom on resources and decisions that affect our common life together. This communication is to notify you of a new proposed liturgical resource, The Book of Occasional Offices, and to solicit your feedback over the next 12 months to strengthen and improve this as a resource for our province. Use this form to submit your thoughts and experience.

Additional information about the Book of Occasional Offices is noted below with a link about how to offer your feedback. We consider it a privilege to hear from you. 

Additionally, if you have any general questions, concerns, or need additional guidance about how to contribute your voice to this process, please do not hesitate to reach out to members of our Provincial staff at communications@acna.org. 

Finally, please freely share and/or forward this note to anyone in your diocese, parish, or other Anglican networks that you believe may have an interest in this resource.

What is the Book of Occasional Offices?

The Book of Occasional Offices is a supplement to the 2019 Book of Common Prayer to provide additional liturgies that express the heart of Anglican worship in new or different ways for parishes and for individuals. It is designed for use in the daily life of parishes throughout the province and includes new liturgies for such occasions as the Recognition of Graduates, Stations of the Cross, Dedication of Church Furnishings and Ornaments, The Visitation of Prisoners, and more.  

How are liturgies like this developed within the ACNA? 

A small group of bishops and other clergy together work year-round on the Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force to continually strengthen and refine Anglican liturgies for a variety of uses. When new resources are developed, such as the 2019 Book of Common Prayer or this new Book of Occasional Offices, the task force facilitates a robust review process as follows: 

• Step 1: Digitally publish new liturgical content online to ensure it is widely accessible to all  ACNA members and clergy; 
• Step 2: Publicly Announce the resource to solicit interest and engagement in new forms of worship; 
• Step 3: Invite and Solicit Feedback from all active members and clergy to put the new liturgies into practice over the span of an entire 12-month liturgical year and provide feedback about what works well and what might benefit from further revision or improvement. 
• Step 4: Incorporate suggestions and revisions into a final edition 
• Step 5: Publish a final hard-copy and digital publication of the resource. 

 

Sounds great, how can I help? 

The ACNA would love to have you utilize these additional liturgies, prayers, and resources in the life of the church throughout the coming year, beginning on Pentecost Sunday on June 8, 2025. Within the Book of Occasional Offices there are several texts that relate to holidays in the life of the church. Specifically, we invite you to: 

• Consider using these liturgies to supplement or replace the existing liturgies from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer.

• Pray that God will interact with you and your congregation in new ways as you use these resources, that God will speak his truth and love over his people as they engage with him in new conversations.
• Have conversations as a parish about how these liturgies allowed you to experience God in new and different ways.

 

What kind of feedback is most helpful? 

As you try these new liturgies in your local context, please be mindful of some specific ways the ACNA might benefit from your experience: 

• Recommend improvements, changes, or refinements to the language or grammar being used. 
• Recommend theological improvements, changes, or refinements. 
• Share circumstances or events in which you or your community were blessed by these new liturgies to lend insight into how you found them to be useful. 
• Share circumstances or events in which you or your community encountered frustrations or challenges with these new liturgies to lend insight into how they can be refined  to be more useful.  

 

How do I submit feedback? Is there a deadline? 

The review process for the Book of Occasional Offices will last for one full liturgical year (~12 months) dating from the celebration of Pentecost on June 8, 2025 and running up to the celebration of Pentecost, May 24, 2026.  Through various seasons of the Church year, we will continue to send notices out to encourage you to use these prayers and provide feedback. To submit your thoughts and feedback complete this form or send an email directly to: liturgytaskforce@anglicanchurch.net

 

If you have additional questions, have a specific request, or need any assistance, please contact Deacon Jabob Hootman from the Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force at hootmanj1549@gmail.com or Kate Harris, ACNA Director of Outreach and Development at kharris@acna.org or phone/text 703-740-6736.