The Anglican Rosary

Welcome to the Anglican Rosary Blog August 14, 2008

I didn’t know that Anglicans have a Rosary, I thought only Catholics used a Rosary

This is a common response by people who come across references to Anglican Prayer Beads (Rosaries). In fact the use of Prayer Beads within the Anglican Communion is becoming increasingly popular. A quick search of Google or Yahoo is testament to this. There are numerous sites describing the history and use of Anglican Prayer Beads, as well as places to purchase them. Statistics on our website traffic showed that 28% of visitors have come from search engine links where the query was Anglican Prayer Beads. Our website contains brief notes on the history and use of the Rosary, based on workshops that I have been running since 2003.

The use of prayer beads, or Rosaries, has not been common to Anglican prayer life. Many objections have been raised on apparent ‘Marian’ nature of the Catholic Rosary. However, there is a growing interest in the tradition of using prayer beads as an aid to contemplative prayer.

Anglican Prayer Beads (Rosary) arose out of a contemplative prayer group lead by Rev. Lynn Bauman from the Episcopal church in the United States. Since its inception in the 1980’s it has grown in popularity among those seeking to enrich their prayer life.

As there is no set ‘formulae’ for the Anglican Rosary people can develop prayers for use with the Rosary that reflect their own spiritual journey. The Rosary then becomes simply a tool to aid in prayer life. It becomes a way to deepen one’s prayer life by encouraging not only the mind but the body to participate in prayer. The prayers keep the mind focused and the passing of beads through the fingers keeps the body engaged in prayer also.

So, yes, Anglicans do have prayer beads (a Rosary)

This blog has been established to foster discussion and sharing of ideas and resources on the Anglican Rosary or Anglican Prayer Beads.

At a recent workshop it occured to me that having facilitated numerous workshops on the Anglican Rosary and fielded countless questions, comments and even objections regarding the place of prayer beads in the Anglican Communion, that it was time to begin collecting valuable insights and resources resultant from attendances at workshops, or experiences of using the Anglican Rosary as part of personal or group prayer.

Thus the Anglican Rosary, rediscovering and ancient prayer tradition, blog was conceived. In these pages you will find glimpses of why this phenomenon in the Communion continues to gain momentum. It is envisaged that reader will interact with the material presented here, question, comment and contribute to discussion on the use of prayer beads or Rosaries in the Anglican Communion.   

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