127 BCP

Yesterday, I had the privilege of teaching a segment of our parish's Foundations of the Faith course. The topic: The Book of Common Prayer. I knew I'd have 90 minutes, and even starting out with some church history, I figured we had plenty of time. I thought we might even be done early. I was on fast-forward anyway, having made a mad dash from celebrating Holy Eucharist to the intensive care unit at the hospital to visit a parishioner, and arriving back at church in time to gather books and notes.

It's been years since I talked for two hours straight, but that's what I did -- glancing at the clock when our "walk through the prayer book" had made it as far as the liturgy for Holy Baptism. I had only 20 minutes remaining...we went faster...but I love the liturgies and prayers, the language, and the Really Cool Stuff in the back section so much that the time flew by. At the hour we were to finish, I apologized for going over the agreed upon time, and told them that if they needed to go, that was just fine. But they all stayed another half an hour, and had lots of good questions.

We read a collect from An Order for Compline before we left, which reminds me that many years ago, when vanity license plates seemed to be everywhere, I dreamed of having one that said, "127 BCP." That's the page to which my prayer book opens naturally. I never gave in to the silly impulse to order a vanity plate -- but wouldn't it be fun to ride around with a page from The Book of Common Prayer advertized on your car?