Book of Occasional Services (Reformed Episcopal Church)

Book of Occasional Services (Reformed Episcopal Church)

Book of Occasional Services (Reformed Episcopal Church) is a guide to supplemental rites and services used in the Reformed Episcopal Church for occasions not fully provided for in the Book of Common Prayer.

Overview

Occasional services are liturgical forms appointed for pastoral, devotional, institutional, and seasonal occasions in the life of the church. They serve real moments in parish and household life: prayer at particular hours, admission to office, blessing homes, founding and opening church buildings, Holy Week devotions, Rogation prayers, and other solemn acts.

This AnglicanWiki edition presents the REC services as searchable, copy-and-paste friendly MediaWiki pages. The goal is to preserve the wording of the official texts while making them easier to read, print, and use pastorally.

Relationship to the Book of Common Prayer

The REC Book of Occasional Services is supplemental to the Book of Common Prayer. It does not replace prayer book rites. Instead, it provides forms for occasions where the prayer book does not supply a complete service or where a local church needs an ordered liturgical expression consistent with Anglican doctrine, worship, and pastoral practice.

Use in the Reformed Episcopal Church

These services should be used with attention to REC doctrine, canons, episcopal oversight, and local pastoral circumstances. Some rites require a bishop or priest appointed by a bishop. Others may be used in parish, household, school, or devotional settings according to their rubrics.

Services

Daily Prayer

• Prayers at Mid-Day
• Compline

Membership, Offices, and Ministry

• The Admission of a Communicant Member
• The Setting Apart of Deaconess
• The Installation of a Bishop
• The Admission of a Canon, Archdeacon or Dean
• The Admission of Lay Readers
• The Admission of Lay Ministers and Officers

Marriage, Family, and Household

• The Blessing of Married Persons
• The Adoption of Children
• The Blessing of Houses

Church Buildings and Parish Foundations

• A Litany for the Church
• The Founding of a Church: Breaking Ground
• The Founding of a Church: The Laying of the Cornerstone
• The Opening of a Church
• Form for Declaration of Secularization of a Church

Seasonal and Devotional Services

• Setting up the Christmas Creche
• The Blessing of Palms and Procession
• The Way of the Cross
• Via Dolorosa (Stations)
• Blessing of the Paschal Candle
• Rogation Days
• Litany for the Holy Innocents

Pastoral Blessings

• Blessings for Various Occasions

Source and Prefaces

• Official REC Book of Occasional Services source page
• Prefaces to the Book of Occasional Services

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer
• Reformed Episcopal Church
• Anglican liturgy
• Daily Office
• Holy Week
• Rogation Days