A church on the Isle of Wight has seen a marked increase in its congregations since adopting the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) for all of its services.
Mentioned in the Domesday book, the 11th-century church of St Michael the Archangel in Shalfleet is the first church on the Island to join the Prayer Book Society (PBS) as a corporate member.
The church’s decision to join the PBS – which encourages rediscovery and use of the majesty and spiritual depth of the BCP at the heart of the Church of England’s worship – was prompted by churchwarden Nicholas Oulton’s visit to the society’s stand at the national school chaplains conference at Liverpool Hope University.
Mr Oulton was keen for the church to join following his decision to make his publishing company, Gresham Books Ltd, the Isle of Wight’s first commercial corporate member of the society in 2019.
Nicholas says:
“Since St Michael’s took the decision to expand use of the Prayer Book from Matins only to embrace all services the church has seen a significant increase in attendances.
Article continues below this advertisement “The size of our congregations rose from around 12 to around 30 worshippers prior to the Covid lockdown and we are confident that they will return once the pandemic is over. Most of our regular churchgoers are in the 50 to 86 age group and we now welcome friends and visitors who travel to our church from across the Isle of Wight”.
Mr Oulton believes that many are drawn by the nostalgia and beauty of the Prayer Book language as well as its theology:
“Recently this has been captured in a series of videos filmed at the church, shown on YouTube, because we are unable to welcome people into the church at the moment, we have been filming the services and posting them up on YouTube instead”.
