Ora Pro Nobis?

The North American Anglican published an article two days ago entitled, "A Reformed Litany of the Saints: For All Saints' Day".  It was penned by The Rev. Ben Jeffries, a priest serving in The Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), both as a pastor and as one of the  designers of the new ACNA Book of Common Prayer (2019) and Assistant to the Custodian of the new prayer book.

The thrust of Fr. Jeffries' article is that the responses "ora pro nobis" ("pray for us") in the Litany of the Saints is violative of Article XXII of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, which states in pertinent part, "The Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God."  Accordingly, the response "Ora Pro Nobis" should be replaced with the response "Glory to God!"  Fr. Jeffries' argument is essentially an Anglo-Calvinist one, hence article's title, "A Reformed Litany. . . ."

Anglo-Catholic responses to the article on Facebook and elsewhere were swift and many, but this article from The Rev. Wesley Walker, "Ora Pro Nobis: A Response to Rev. Ben Jefferies' 'Reformed Litany of the Saints" is a tour de force.  Don't miss it.   Fr. Walker is a priest in the Anglican Province in America, the blogger at Earth and Altar: Catholic Ressourcement for Anglicans, and owner/operator of the new Anglican podcast The Sacramentalists.