Discovering "something precious and new"

Two hectic days of a local conference are over and now catching up on the world. First item up was an e-mail from Fr. Daniel to the "St. Bart's Evangelists" list noting and linking an article on David Virtue's website VirtueOnline-News. Now I quit reading VirtueOnline-News and all the other Anglican-related blogs and news sites for Lent last year and never got back into that routine, but from what I recall of David Virtue's postings this was a small but welcome surprise.

He writes in part:

[W]e have a gift that we can give these young men and women across the campuses in the United States, and that is the gift of the orthodox Anglican Faith via the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, that has venerable prayers that can be traced to the 3rd century, but are applicable for today, as well as the Holy Bible. We can begin to turn the tide and win these young people in His Holy Name. I cannot tell you how many times many people when they see and read the prayer book as well as the Bible feel that they have discovered something precious and new, like a fine and beautiful stone.

I can appreciate that. I spent some years of my life (age 16 to 31) away from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. When I re-encountered it at St. Bartholomew's, it was like finding something precious and beautiful, something that had been long lost and almost forgotten.

In the '28 we do have a gift, one that is particularly beautiful, worshipful and (to me extremely) precious, but I will issue a caution, based in part on my experience in January of St. Thomas 5th Ave (New York), a church with a most awe-inspiring liturgy: A beautiful liturgy will attract some folks but our Anglican evangelism cannot rely on that, beginning or especially end. Mostly one will get spectators -- not saved souls.