The Episcopal Church Must Resurrect “God Is Love” From Page 849 Of Its Own Prayer Book

“God is love” is buried on page 849 in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. And those words are absent from any and every single one of the Church’s liturgies, prayer services, you name it

The Episcopal Church must resurrect them into a place where their life-changing, world-shaping light can shine with fullest effect. Right now they are, in effect, under a bucket rather than on a lamp-stand.

The BCP is a jewel—my companion early morning, throughout the day, and right before I turn off the lights and fall asleep—but we have buried its greatest treasure in the Catechism:

“What is the nature of God revealed in Jesus? God is love.”

If only those words were written across the sky across the world every day. Then, perhaps, they would find their way into the hearts of more and more people everywhere.

We can’t write them in the sky but we can resurrect them from the 848 pages and 200,000 words which precede and have the effect of burying them. If we go and tell this truth on a mountain it will be harder for people to keep weaponizing Jesus for personal and political gain.

Personally, I believe they belong in every single liturgy, every daily prayer. They should be our motto, our banner. On the first page of the BCP: “We believe that the nature of God revealed in Jesus is love. God is love.” 

I’ve been an Episcopalian for 57 years, since I was 11, and licensed lay preacher in the Diocese of Southern Virginia since 2005. I know what it could have meant to me as a child had the Church made “God is love” part of its liturgy, if they had told me that truth.

For me, this is deeply personal. I wasn’t on a horse riding to Damascus to persecute Christians. I was driving a VW bug on July 2, 1980, pursued by the ongoing post-traumatic effects of a soul-deep wound from my childhood. On my way home from covering the Buckingham County School Board meeting for The Farmville Herald, there was a burst of light around me in the car and I simultaneously heard a voice tell me, “Be happy” and I was engulfed, embraced, submerged by the most beautifully intense and complete feeling of love. I burst into uncontrollable sobs of deepest joy, shouting “Thank you, God! Thank you, God!” and had to pull off the road because I could no longer drive. It was immediately clear to me what, and who, I was experiencing.

Eventually, I made my way home, love surrounding me. Love inside me. Chapter 17, verse 23 of the Gospel of John come true in my life. I was literally inside LOVE and LOVE was literally inside me. Not a feeling but the thing itself. God as LOVE. The feeling lasted for hours, even as I did the laundry at a laundromat. I stood outside and the whole world was LOVE. I was breathing it. Exhaling it. (I’ve preached on this and written about it in Forward Day By Day).

Through God’s love and grace, I know those words in the BCP are true and when I discovered them on page 849 a month ago, I had to do something about helping my Church lift them up, raise them up, for all to see.  I believe every Protestant denomination must do the same thing. Tell the world that God is love. 

I have felt the Holy Spirit in all of this so strongly. There is a Task Force for Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision in the Episcopal Church, so it feels that the time is now. Please join me and help spread these words as far as you can. I believe that God has others waiting for us to find them, too, and move this forward. We simply want to elevate a few words from our own catechism and tell the hungry world the truth: God is love.

Will you please help? Shout it out loud from your own mountaintop!!

“God is love” is buried on page 849 in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. And those words are absent from any and every single one of the Church’s liturgies, prayer services, you name it
The Episcopal Church must resurrect them into a place where their life-changing, world-shaping light can shine with fullest effect. Right now they are, in effect, under a bucket rather than on a lamp-stand.
The BCP is a jewel—my companion early morning, throughout the day, and right before I turn off the lights and fall asleep—but we have buried its greatest treasure in the Catechism:
“What is the nature of God revealed in Jesus? God is love.”
If only those words were written across the sky across the world every day. Then, perhaps, they would find their way into the hearts of more and more people everywhere.
We can’t write them in the sky but we can resurrect them from the 848 pages and 200,000 words which precede and have the effect of burying them. If we go and tell this truth on a mountain it will be harder for people to keep weaponizing Jesus for personal and political gain.
Personally, I believe they belong in every single liturgy, every daily prayer. They should be our motto, our banner. On the first page of the BCP: “We believe that the nature of God revealed in Jesus is love. God is love.”
I’ve been an Episcopalian for 57 years, since I was 11, and licensed lay preacher in the Diocese of Southern Virginia since 2005. I know what it could have meant to me as a child had the Church made “God is love” part of its liturgy, if they had told me that truth.
For me, this is deeply personal. I wasn’t on a horse riding to Damascus to persecute Christians. I was driving a VW bug on July 2, 1980, pursued by the ongoing post-traumatic effects of a soul-deep wound from my childhood. On my way home from covering the Buckingham County School Board meeting for The Farmville Herald, there was a burst of light around me in the car and I simultaneously heard a voice tell me, “Be happy” and I was engulfed, embraced, submerged by the most beautifully intense and complete feeling of love. I burst into uncontrollable sobs of deepest joy, shouting “Thank you, God! Thank you, God!” and had to pull off the road because I could no longer drive. It was immediately clear to me what, and who, I was experiencing.
Eventually, I made my way home, love surrounding me. Love inside me. Chapter 17, verse 23 of the Gospel of John come true in my life. I was literally inside LOVE and LOVE was literally inside me. Not a feeling but the thing itself. God as LOVE. The feeling lasted for hours, even as I did the laundry at a laundromat. I stood outside and the whole world was LOVE. I was breathing it. Exhaling it. (I’ve preached on this and written about it in Forward Day By Day).
Through God’s love and grace, I know those words in the BCP are true and when I discovered them on page 849 a month ago, I had to do something about helping my Church lift them up, raise them up, for all to see. I believe every Protestant denomination must do the same thing. Tell the world that God is love.
I have felt the Holy Spirit in all of this so strongly. There is a Task Force for Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision in the Episcopal Church, so it feels that the time is now. Please join me and help spread these words as far as you can. I believe that God has others waiting for us to find them, too, and move this forward. We simply want to elevate a few words from our own catechism and tell the hungry world the truth: God is love.
Will you please help? Shout it out loud from your own mountaintop!!