“Amen” Answers Any Anglican in Australia.

Well, hopefully. We Anglicans are a diverse bunch.

When I was asked to draft a simple prayer that could represent Anglican Schools Australia as an organisation, I had one major aim. That aim was for anyone associated with one or more Anglican school anywhere in Australia to be able to respond to the prayer with a solid “Amen.”

I included the following ingredients in my recipe for such a prayer:

• the divine attribute of grace
• thankfulness for one another
• an openness to blessing
• a balance between the individual and the collective
• the Core Purpose of Anglican Schools Australia
• the Core Values of Anglican Schools Australia
• the eternal nature of God as Holy Trinity
• the notion of all human beings as image bearers of God
• invoking Jesus’ name as we have been called to do

A broader objective was to make the prayer specific enough to fully represent the ethos and aims of Anglican Schools Australia, yet general enough to be prayed on any occasion. A prayer that can be said to open a meeting or conclude a liturgy, one that can be prayed individually or collectively, or used in private devotion, is a versatile prayer.

Here is the finished product:

Gracious God,

we thank you for Anglican Schools Australia

and ask your blessing on each member school.

Together, may we fulfil our core purpose:

to serve, support, and connect Anglican schools

in living their Anglican Identity.

We pray that all member schools are known

by the core values of service, integrity, and inclusion;

service modelled after the life and ministry of Jesus;

integrity where belief and action align through the Spirit;

and inclusion that embraces all people as image bearers of God.

We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

At some stage this prayer for Anglican Schools Australia may find its way onto the ASA website as a resource for the organisation. If it does, it will be because any Anglican in Australia can say “Amen” to it. For that is surely the mark of a prayer fit for much praying.

Editors note – just to add the prayer has indeed found its way onto the ASA website and can be found at the following link Anglican Schools Australia Prayer – Anglican Schools Australia