Nashotah House Theological Seminary and the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Milwaukee, will present “Evensong according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer” Sept. 9.
The service begins with an organ prelude at 3:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception at 5 p.m. It is part of Nashotah House’s year-long series, “Gathering Crumbs Under Thy Table: Commemorating the 350th Anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.”
The award-winning Cathedral Choir will sing the service.
“‘Evensong according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer’ combines the best of the Anglican choral repertoire with the rich verbal legacy of the 1662 Prayer Book,” said Canon Joseph A. Kucharski, canon precentor for the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, choirmaster at the cathedral, professor of church music at Nashotah House, and editor of The Episcopal Musician’s Handbook.
All events are free and include displays of original manuscripts of the Book of Common Prayer and other texts from the Walter S. Underwood Prayer Book Collection, the centerpiece of the Frances Donaldson Library’s rare manuscript collection.
The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., dean and president of Nashotah House, said of the 1662 prayer book: “Its enduring richness and vitality remains fundamental to our Anglican identity, because its prose is thoroughly biblical, its structure gives glory to God, and its theological splendor lies in its affirmation that only through the acknowledgment that God was in Christ reconciling the world can we come to know the grace and peace of God that passes all understanding.”
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
