Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail

Last week my family and I had the blessing of visiting with some old family friends, the Rev. Dr. Doug Nicely and his wife, Vicki (my “adopted Mom”). Doug is Chief Chaplain at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Illinois, former pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Fairview Heights, IL, and is a long-time radio host of KFUO’s “Do You Have a Minute?” and “In His Steps.” Every time that he and I have the opportunity to get together our conversations gravitate towards theology and church life. After our visits I always find my own spirituality deepened and my appreciation for God’s people expanded.

During this past visit Doug and I discussed personal piety and the liturgy. We discovered that each of us have used The Book of Common Prayer to strengthen our daily devotionals. He gave me a book written by his mentor during his days of doctoral study at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Robert E. Webber’s Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail (incidentally, Dr. Webber passed away on April 27^th at age 73).

I began reading Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail last Friday night and finished it the following day. It was simply fascinating. Dr. Webber shares his own spiritual pilgrimage and invited six other evangelicals with similar stories to do the same in this work. Webber was raised as the son of a Baptist minister, graduated from Bob Jones University, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister prior to becoming an Episcopalian. While he was writing this work, Webber interviewed a large number of evangelicals who also chose to become Episcopalian and asked them their primary reason for doing so. Without exception, the reply was, “I wanted to worship God.”

The heart of the book is found in the second chapter as Dr. Webber writes:

First, I am impressed with the fact that worship in the Book of Common Prayer is directed toward God. . . . I have been put off by the narcissism of much contemporary worship. In this setting the orientation of worship appears to center around me, my feelings, and my experience, rather than around God, His person, and His work in Jesus Christ. I am reminded of a prayer written by Hippolytus, a bishop in Rome at the beginning of the third century. In the prayer he says, ‘Having in memory, therefore, His death and resurrection, we offer to Thee the bread and the cup, yielding Thee thanks, because Thou hast counted us worthy to stand before Thee and to minister to Thee.’ The idea that worship is a ministry to God, that He loves to be worshiped, and that He made us to worship Him dominates the worship of the ancient church. It is early Christian conviction drawn from Revelation 4 and 5. . . . Second, I am impressed with the Christ-centered nature of worship in the Book of Common Prayer. The central thrust of worship in the Episcopal tradition, just as it was in the ancient tradition, is to celebrate Jesus Christ as the central cosmic figure of the universe.

Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail might not necessarily lead one to becoming an Anglican, but it will lead one to think more seriously about the reverent and profoundly spiritual nature of liturgical worship.

Thank you, Doug!