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For All the Saints: A Resource for the Commemorations of the Calendar: Full Biography Version, Volume 1
Order from the General Synod Office, PO Box 87188 Meadowbank, AUCKLAND 1742 or gensec@anglicanchurch.org.nz
497 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2015
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January 1, 2026
A supplementary prayer book of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia with liturgy for the commemorations of various key figures in the faith on their appointed days of remembrance, with some extra sundry stuff as well (eg a Waitangi Day liturgy, or a liturgy for Sea Sunday); a project overseen by Rev Dr Ken Booth.
I used it as a devotional for the year - an earlier comb-bound single volume edition. Not every day has a liturgy, and I liked the flow and variance of that.
Each commemoration starts with an overview of the person, providing excellent and informative background and context. Then a sentence and collect, followed by two readings from the Psalms, an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading and a Gospel reading, all themed to the life and character of the person being commemorated. Then a closing sentence. Initially I skipped the Bible readings, until I started doing them for Lent, and then carried them on for the rest of the year. I found it was a good way to engage with scripture.
This isn't about commemoration for its own sake (or veneration, and certainly not worship of the saints) - it's about engaging with the lives of those who came before, hearing of their strengths and work, giving thanks and perhaps being inspired. Being human lives and human institutions, there are inevitably problematic things in the subtexts, but I think while acknowledging these things, there is space for consideration of the gifts available, and even for allowing that these people can be role models in certain ways.
So then, this diverse array of people, spanning times and history, localities, and even various streams of Christianity.
The nature of the thing is that you can have, for example, Henry Williams, the 19th century CMS missionary who was so instrumental in the dynamics of the Treaty of Waitangi, right next door to the 9th century bishop and advisor to the throne of Wessex, St Swithun.
Then there are fascinating little snippets of history. Like the fact that a guy named Theodore, who was born in Tarsus (now in central-south Türkiye, St Paul's hometown) to a Greek family, became a monk, and was living in Italy, when he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 669. (Take that, English nationalists, haha.)
At the beginning of August I thought to start making a list of the ones I enjoyed most - either because of the person (or at least the picture of the person presented) and/or the readings: Chad, Clare of Assisi, Florence Nightingale, Aidan, Albert Schweitzer, Hildegard of Bingen, Churchill Julius, Marie-Joseph Aubert, Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth Fry, the Archangel Raphael (!), Alfred the Great, Te Whiti o Rongomai, Hilda, Hugh of Lincoln, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Octavius Hadfield, Marianne Williams and Josephine Butler.
I also remember really enjoying the liturgy for Mary Magdalene. And now, flicking back through those whose days of commemoration are earlier in the year, I'll add (there will be some I've missed that I might have included): Seraphim of Sarov, Brigid of Ireland, George Herbert, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Toyohiko Kagawa, Heni Te Kiri Karamu, Julian of Norwich, Ngakuku, Tamihana Te Rauparaha, Mother Edith, Venerable Bede, Evelyn Underhill, Henare Wiremu Taratoa, Wiremu Tamihana and William Wilberforce.
It would appear that there's a leaning in my personal list towards contemplative figures and those involved in social action. Providing a framing, I suppose, of Love of God, love of neighbour.
I'm also interested in the working notion that, counter to the simplistic / one dimensional idea that Christianity was merely a tool for colonial oppression (although it has at times been used as such, and the Anglican tradition must take account of complicity in this), the gospel in its truest form becomes 'indigenised' (actually I see this as an aspect of incarnational theology). In such cases, the gospel can then work against colonial oppression - either by resisting it and/or modelling a truer form of the gospel (and/or theological concepts) back to the oppressor. In the above lists, Te Whiti o Rongomai (Parihaka), Heni Te Kiri Karamu and Henare Wiremu Taratoa (Gate Pā), and Wiremu Tamihana ('the king-maker') are a few examples.
The people listed above were the ones for me, but there really is something for everyone. This is one of the things I like about Anglicanism, on a good day. It's been described as a 'wide tent'.
The Māori presence in the book is also indicative of something excellent (again, on a good day) about the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand. A good number of the liturgies in the book contain Te Reo. A friend of mine who has recently come into the Anglican Church and become a vicar (he was previously a pastor in another tradition) once described it to me as the most New Zealand of all the denominations. This, despite the word 'Anglican' (English) in its name. Anglicanism has very close ties with NZ history (in various ways, both positive and not) and through it all it has become something distinctly of this land, albeit with an international lineage.
The 'cloud of witnesses' in this book demonstrates a local, global, theological, historical, breadth and depth. A cloud in which we can participate, through liturgical sacramental observance, remembrance, contemplation and action.
I used it as a devotional for the year - an earlier comb-bound single volume edition. Not every day has a liturgy, and I liked the flow and variance of that.
Each commemoration starts with an overview of the person, providing excellent and informative background and context. Then a sentence and collect, followed by two readings from the Psalms, an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading and a Gospel reading, all themed to the life and character of the person being commemorated. Then a closing sentence. Initially I skipped the Bible readings, until I started doing them for Lent, and then carried them on for the rest of the year. I found it was a good way to engage with scripture.
This isn't about commemoration for its own sake (or veneration, and certainly not worship of the saints) - it's about engaging with the lives of those who came before, hearing of their strengths and work, giving thanks and perhaps being inspired. Being human lives and human institutions, there are inevitably problematic things in the subtexts, but I think while acknowledging these things, there is space for consideration of the gifts available, and even for allowing that these people can be role models in certain ways.
So then, this diverse array of people, spanning times and history, localities, and even various streams of Christianity.
The nature of the thing is that you can have, for example, Henry Williams, the 19th century CMS missionary who was so instrumental in the dynamics of the Treaty of Waitangi, right next door to the 9th century bishop and advisor to the throne of Wessex, St Swithun.
Then there are fascinating little snippets of history. Like the fact that a guy named Theodore, who was born in Tarsus (now in central-south Türkiye, St Paul's hometown) to a Greek family, became a monk, and was living in Italy, when he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 669. (Take that, English nationalists, haha.)
At the beginning of August I thought to start making a list of the ones I enjoyed most - either because of the person (or at least the picture of the person presented) and/or the readings: Chad, Clare of Assisi, Florence Nightingale, Aidan, Albert Schweitzer, Hildegard of Bingen, Churchill Julius, Marie-Joseph Aubert, Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth Fry, the Archangel Raphael (!), Alfred the Great, Te Whiti o Rongomai, Hilda, Hugh of Lincoln, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Octavius Hadfield, Marianne Williams and Josephine Butler.
I also remember really enjoying the liturgy for Mary Magdalene. And now, flicking back through those whose days of commemoration are earlier in the year, I'll add (there will be some I've missed that I might have included): Seraphim of Sarov, Brigid of Ireland, George Herbert, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Toyohiko Kagawa, Heni Te Kiri Karamu, Julian of Norwich, Ngakuku, Tamihana Te Rauparaha, Mother Edith, Venerable Bede, Evelyn Underhill, Henare Wiremu Taratoa, Wiremu Tamihana and William Wilberforce.
It would appear that there's a leaning in my personal list towards contemplative figures and those involved in social action. Providing a framing, I suppose, of Love of God, love of neighbour.
I'm also interested in the working notion that, counter to the simplistic / one dimensional idea that Christianity was merely a tool for colonial oppression (although it has at times been used as such, and the Anglican tradition must take account of complicity in this), the gospel in its truest form becomes 'indigenised' (actually I see this as an aspect of incarnational theology). In such cases, the gospel can then work against colonial oppression - either by resisting it and/or modelling a truer form of the gospel (and/or theological concepts) back to the oppressor. In the above lists, Te Whiti o Rongomai (Parihaka), Heni Te Kiri Karamu and Henare Wiremu Taratoa (Gate Pā), and Wiremu Tamihana ('the king-maker') are a few examples.
The people listed above were the ones for me, but there really is something for everyone. This is one of the things I like about Anglicanism, on a good day. It's been described as a 'wide tent'.
The Māori presence in the book is also indicative of something excellent (again, on a good day) about the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand. A good number of the liturgies in the book contain Te Reo. A friend of mine who has recently come into the Anglican Church and become a vicar (he was previously a pastor in another tradition) once described it to me as the most New Zealand of all the denominations. This, despite the word 'Anglican' (English) in its name. Anglicanism has very close ties with NZ history (in various ways, both positive and not) and through it all it has become something distinctly of this land, albeit with an international lineage.
The 'cloud of witnesses' in this book demonstrates a local, global, theological, historical, breadth and depth. A cloud in which we can participate, through liturgical sacramental observance, remembrance, contemplation and action.
Displaying 1 of 1 review