As a number of people who usually attend Evening Prayer on Wednesday evenings will be traveling or out of town this Wednesday, the decision was made to cancel the Evening Prayer service for November 27. If you know of someone who regularly attends but may not see this message, please reach out to them to let them know.

As a side note, we are not a community of monks, but as a community of worship and prayer, we can take inspiration from some aspects of monastic practice. The Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 50, addresses the situation of community members working at a distance or traveling at the prescribed times of communal worship in the following manner:

Brothers who work so far away that they cannot return to the oratory at the proper time– and the abbot determines that is the case — are to perform the Work of God where they are, and kneel out of reverence for God. So too, those who have been sent on a journey are not to omit the prescribed hours but to observe them as best they can, not neglecting their measure of service.

When we cannot be at communal worship for a justifiable reason, a good practice would be to take a moment at the time of communal prayer and join the community in prayer from a distance. This can be as simple as a moment of silent prayer, the recitation of the Our Father, praying the Rosary, or grabbing a nearby copy of The Book of Common Prayer and praying the daily office prayers.

For all those who are traveling, may God bless your journeys and may you return safely to join your community of worship for Morning Prayer on Sunday!