Author Nigel Scotland in his publication entitled “The Supper” depicts The Supper (the Eucharist, Communion, the Lord’s Supper) as containing an evangelistic component as seen in the execution of The Supper in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
In the Forward to the publication Series Editors Mark Burkhill and Gerald Bray say this about the Book of Common Prayer, “Archbishop Cranmer and others involved in the English Reformation knew well that the content and shape of the services set out in the Prayer Book were vital ways of teaching congregations biblical truth and the principles of the Christian gospel.” (pg i)
Here you have the premise of the thesis: that Rev. George Whitefield was raised, exposed to and was an ordained Church of England minister and thereby shaped by the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. For the purpose of the Prayer Book was teach Christians the Bibles and the Gospel.
Burkhill and Bray say further that the basic idea of ‘lex orandi, lex credendi’ (“the law of what is prayed is the law of what is believed”) is brought forth in the Prayer Book for they say that the way we worship God forms the practice of our faith. (i).
Burkhill and Bray reiterate at the conclusion of the forward say that Cranmer’s goal in the Prayer Book was to teach the English people how to live as Christians.
Archbishop Cranmer knew well that commitment to Christ is a two-way relationship in which worshippers draw near to Him and He draws near to them. (pg 9) “In times of worship this plays out in two ways. We come humbly acknowledging our sins before Him, aware that ‘we have erred and strayed from his ways like lost sheep’. But we also come into His presence mindful of who He is: ‘Almight God our Heavenly and most merciful Father’. (9-10)
He is the the ever generous Lord who supplies those things that are necessary ‘as well for the body as the soul’. So we come first and foremost to honor Him as well lift up his name and ‘set forth His most worthy praise’.
Views from an Evangelist 