Hi there, Nice to meet you all! My family and I joined our church about 4 years ago and we love it. I've got two small children and I'd really love to create a home environment where our faith is also celebrated--- celebrating special days and feasts, simple prayers, tradition, etc. My husband and I were both brought up in very secular homes, so this is something that is very new to me and I'm starting, basically, at square one on trying to create these family traditions for our kids. I was pleased to find this board and thought I could learn from you all and ask some of my own questions! Thanks so much!
I love to use Anglican Prayer Beads a bit like Rome Catholic Rosary Beads but less beads on the neckless. There is no right or wrong way to pray you can us the beads to pray concerning a problem. A friend. A worry anything or just say the rosary. My wife is not a Christian neither any of my family or hers l feel like l lead a secret life at times but everyone knows lm Anglo Catholic. Its a taboo subject at the dinner table. Blessings and happiness. In Christ. l hope this is helpful to you in discovering the Rosary it takes time but it gets past down through generations in many families.
Thanks for the welcome, everyone! Spherelink--- I don't home school; I have one in elementary school and my littlest is just a few months old. The issue I keep coming upon is that there doesnt seem to be a lot of information on Anglican family life out there. I love our church and the people there and I really feel at home in that community and within the faith. However, when it comes to trying to figure out ways to involve my kids in our faith at home, I can't seem to find a lot of information. I'll be honest, many of the books and blogs I've found information on the subjects are Catholic. And while they are wonderful, there is a feeling of being slightly "the odd man out" with these resources because they don't utilize The Book of Common Prayer or are written for Anglican/Episcopal families. I've decided the best route is to ask advice from people who grew up in the faith or have been Anglican or Episcopal for longer than I have, and of course my priest (who has been a great help.) I am very much in learning mode! So any resources or advice would be very welcome!
Hi! Welcome. I'm kinda an outsider looking in here, so I can't give you any specifically Anglican resources but if you want I can tell you about some of the general Christian things my parents did with my siblings and I as we were growing up.
Greetings Hally, We became Episcopalians in 1990. And, “transitioning” our family's environment into something with a distinctively Anglican flavor was an enterprise largely implemented by my wife, who is the mistress of our domestic domain. She did have my encouragement, support, and active leadership, but it all came together largely because of her efforts and perseverance. Several things stand out as “programmatic” and, therefore, effective over the long haul to accomplish what you've asked about – the décor of the house and the seasonal rythms of the church calendar. Taking the last one first … We early on made our house reflect Advent as a season of preparation. It helped that at church we avoided “getting into the spirit of Christmas” in the ways that the world around us ws doing that. We didn't play Christmas carols, and with the single exception of the Christmas tree going up on or around December 1, there was no gush of Christmas decorations the same time the tree went up. At church, the altar went “Spartan” (no flowers, purple color) and so did the service (all instrumental and vocal music ceased, services became said only). Advent Compline services were scheduled on Wednesday evenings, where the Scripture lessons were from the OT prophecies of the coming Messiah. At home, we used an Advent calendar when the kids were little. One year early on, after Christmas, Walmart put on sale Christmas dishes at a very low price, and I impulsively snapped up two sets for a song. Twenty years later, we still break them out on December 1 and they're in use until Lent. Our family celebrations (food, food, food!) commenced in earnest on Christmas Eve with a buffet, opening one Christmas present per family member (later a Christmas stocking too), before we all went to Midnight Mass. Christmas Day was a grand family feast (usually after a morning of high-calorie bakery sweets with Christmas gifts) that began in the early afternoon, so everyone could repair to their beds for a Christmas Day nap. Food thereafter through the week involved eating a lot of very tasty leftovers. Christmas decorations did not come down until after Epiphany (January 6). The Christmas dishes (dinner plates, salad plates, cups/saucers, green-stemmed goblets) gave way to Lenten dishes on Ash Wednesday. The first ones were cobalt blue with no decoration on them at all. Dark blue dishes, bowls, mugs, simple clear glass drinking glasses. On Easter, we got out the fine China (white, which we also had used on the Christmas Day Feast), and thereafter we went to a green-themed set of dishes up until Advent. Our kids began to anticipate the change in dishes as the next season approached. My wife began to extend what was going on at the dining table to the rest of the house. As she shopped for home décor items through the year, she assembled a suite of bed linens, bath towel sets, and a variety of home décor items (pictures for the walls, pillows for the couch, small items that could be easily stored and easily brought out of storage) that rotated with the church seasons. The church calendar was not something we noticed only on Sunday mornings; the appearance of our living spaces always reflected the season as well. Even our diet would reflect the season during Lent and Advent, when the menu was always simple foods; nothing elaborate or festive or showy. But, feasts were times for blowouts – things rich and savory. Inside this “environment” implemented by my wife, our Christian education of our children proceeded comfortably. Our kids always knew they were Christians living in a Christian outpost in a largely unchristian or heterochristian world. I don't want to give the idea that things like dishes and home décor are effective all by themselves to accomplish the Christian formation of one's children. But, my wife's efforts – and they amounted to decades of effort on her part! – set a tone, set a seasonal rhythm – inside of which the more explicit activities of parents (teaching, leading prayers, etc.) proceeded in a what that avoids the appearance of “being religious” for a few minutes a day, and then reverting to life as the world supposes life to be.
I don't think anything I could say about my Christmas (or the rest of the liturgical year) could be better than what Fr. Bill wrote. Would like to mention that when my siblings and I were born one of my mother's coworkers gave each of us a copy of The Beginner's Bible, which I strongly recommend. This was the main staple of our bedtime stories for years, and I still get it out occasionally today. Just a few months ago my siblings and I surprised our Sunday school teacher with some of the stories we remembered from it.
Our mother introduced the Advent wreath into our home in the 1960s. Ever afterward it was an indispensable part of our life at that season. Our father (or someone else appointed) would light the candles while saying "Our King and Savior draweth nigh". We would all answer "O come, let us adore him." The father would then say the collect for the current week of Advent, followed by the "cast away" collect for the 1st Sunday. (So in the 1st week there was only one collect.) After sunset on Christmas eve the candle-lighting verse and response would be V. "Unto us a child is born" R. "O come, let us adore him." We would set up the Christmas tree sometime near the end of Advent and decorate it on Christmas Eve. The tree would then stand for all 12 days of Christmas. These were household matters, but Church was integral to our family's practice. Going to the night service on Christmas Eve (once we were all old enough to go to it) was just as exciting as hiking into the woods to select and cut the Christmas tree. The first time I ever heard of Candlemas (February 2nd) was when our mother filled our house with candles on that day. On Easter after church the children had to find their Easter baskets by following a trail of rhymed clues left by one "E.B." or "Sir Long Ears." The trail would lead to the youngest's basket first, and so on up the ranks with us finding the oldest's last. Our Easter presents would often be kites, which we would often go out all together to fly after eating our mother's lavish mid-day Easter meal. The centerpiece of our family dinner-table during Advent would be the Advent wreath. During the 12 days of Christmas it would be the white Christmas candle that had stood in the center of the Advent wreath during Advent. On Easter it would be a decorative dish filled with Easter eggs and other decorations. On Thanksgiving it would be a wicker-work cornucopia arranged so that gourds and grains and nuts seemed to be spilling from its mouth.
Look into Dn. Nicholas Ferrar, his family did a lot of home worship, and catechesis. Our family has a set apart area of our home for prayer. Candle or two, prayerbooks, devotionals...etc.
Reading these wonderful descriptions of Christian "FOBs" (as we called them in the army -- forward operating bases) warms my heart! Are there any others? I have my own little family and am gobbling all this up!
I feel like I'm in the same position - starting to incorporate the Anglican tradition into our home with a budding family (just had our first child). I wonder if anyone has written a blog about this? Even though I'm newer than you, welcome to the forum!