Preface

One of the treasures of Anglican spirituality has been its authorised Book of Common Prayer, helpful for personal devotion and public liturgical worship. The prayer book of 1662 has served Anglicans well, and for longer than its English authors might have imagined. Now, all over the Anglican world, prayer books more suitable to local and contemporary needs are finding favour.

Though new in language and content, A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa preserves the ethos of Anglican spirituality and incorporates the best liturgical insights modern scholarship provides. It is also more faithful to the earliest liturgical traditions of the Church and allows more flexibility than the book of 1662.

More importantly, A New Zealand Prayer Book has been created in our own Pacific cultural setting, and shaped by our own scholarship. It belongs to our environment and our people.

We are thankful for the many hours of dedicated work done by the Prayer Book Commission since 1965. The result is a lively book, inclusive in language, comprehensive in purpose and rich in content.

I commend A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa as a God-inspired taonga. As we use it in our homes and in the congregations of our churches, we will find the spiritual nourishment we need for our journey in Christ.

The Most Reverend Brian Davis,
Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand,
Wellington

Feast of St Barnabas,
11 June 1989