Prayer and Worship Resources

This page collects links to resources that you might find helpful whilst our regular services in church are put on hold. Many of the pages are updated frequently, so please check for the latest information.

Service booklets

Church of England Daily Eucharistic Lectionary (see Table 6 in the document; 2025/2026 follows the Year 2 pattern from Advent 1)

The Order of Mass, Thursdays at 12.30 pm

In Advent. Short text suitable for printing or downloading to a mobile device.

For other service booklets, please see below.

Resources accessible by telephone

For those unable to access a church service online, please use the Church of England's Daily Hope freephone number, dial 0800 804 8044, for daily hymns, reflections and prayers

On-line resources

Live-stream services The A Church Near You web site can be used to find churches across the country that are advertising live-streamed services.
Oxford Cathedral Livestream events will appear on the cathedral's YouTube channel.
A Candle in the Window, news and views from the parish of Abingdon-on-Thames.
The monthly (except December) Silent Reflections will be in church on the last Tuesday of the month starting at 7.30 pm. Silent Relections materials are available to download:
Faith Forum There were there talks in the Autumn Series which focused on personal Spirituality
- Dr Margaret Adam spoke about Prayer.
- Sr Lizzie Ruth CSMV spoke on Lectio Divina
- Maranda St John Nicolle, World Development Advisor for the Diocese of Oxford, spoke on Putting Faith into Practice (Living the Faith)
Recordings of all the talks in the series and talks from previous series will be/ are available on the parish web site. Summaries of the talks also appear in the monthly parish magazine, A Candle in the Window. The next series will start on Sunday 25 January 2026.
Church of England Daily Prayer
Daily prayer for the current day that page also has links to the CoE Daily Prayer app.
A simple form of Daily Prayer St Peter's Church, Earley, Reading
Walsingham
- Mass will be live-streamed from the Holy House at 7.30 am every Sunday, through Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube. Links to Holy Week and Easter services can be found through that link. There is a daily live stream of Shrine Prayers at 6.00 pm. A guide to Shrine Prayers is available there together with recordings of previous instances.
- See here for details of current services and times.
The Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, live-stream their daily services on YouTube. See the Worship and Live-streaming page on their website for further details, times of services, and service booklets. There is a pattern and rhythm to their worship that some readers might find helpful.

Learning resources

From 4 to 13 December
- Sunday 7 Deceumber is the 2^nd Sunday of Advent. Church of England liturgical resources for Advent are available online. The Lectionary is Year A and the Gospel according to Matthew is the primary gospel read through the year. For an introduction to the Gospel, see the article The Year of Matthew by the Revd Professor John Barton in the parish magazine, A Candle in the Window, issue 9 (2022)
- Thursday 4 December is the commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, deacon, founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637.
  - Friends of Little Gidding, Commemorating Nicholas Ferrar, helping preserve Little Gidding, remembering T S Eliot
  - The Poetry Archive, extract from T S Eliot's poem Four Quartets, including Little Gidding
- Saturday 6 December is the commemoration of Nicholas, bishop of Myra, c.326. St Nicolas' Church in the parish will be keeping their Patronal Festival on Sunday 7 December
- Monday 8 December is the (lesser) festival of The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Church of England's liturgical provision is the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
- Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10, 12, 13 December are Ember Days, traditionally kept in the week before an ordination as days of prayer for those to be made deacon or priest.
- Saturday 13 December Lucy martyr, 304
- Although displaced by the 2^nd Sunday of Advent this year, Sunday 14 December is the commemoration of John of the Cross, poet, teacher of the faith, 1591. InternetArchive recordings of some of the poetry of John of the Cross
Retreats at the Community of St Mary the Virgin, Wantage Details of retreats for 2026 should be available on the Community’s web site soon.
Oxford Diocese
- Bishop Steven issued an announcement on 18 November that he will be retiring next July and will lay down his crozier at the service in Christ Church Cathedral on 31 May 2026. The announcement can be found on the Diocesan web site.
- From the bishops is the title of a new monthly online column from our four bishops. In the latest edition Bishop Gavin's topic is A Season of Hope. 'As you come to Advent, what is the focus of your prayers, your concerns, and what you find yourself asking of God?'
- Diocesan Synod met on Saturday 15 November 2025. The Agenda and papers are available to download.
- Diocesan Synod met on Saturday 14 June 2025. In his address to Synod, Bishop Steven spoke about Digital Discipleship.
  - The agenda and meeting papers are available to download.
  - The text of Bishop Steven's address is available on the Bishop's blog.
  - Bishop Steven's address references Antiqua et Nova Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence , the last Catholic doctrinal note approved by Pope Francis before his death earlier this year.
  - A report of the meeting is available on the diocesan web site.
- Research and insight Statistical resources and commentary contains a variety of resources analysing data collected from the Annual Statistics for Mission and Parish Finance Returns, plus commentary on emerging themes such as attendance at Christmas services. There is also a link to Parish Dashboards which present returns data for each parish in the diocese.
- Diocesan Finance resources. The Parish Finance area of the diocesan web site contains some very useful resources including:
  - Parish Share: allocations to churches and monthly statements of receipts (excluding 1% rebate for payments by direct debit)
  - The Diocesan finance - On the Money web page contains a lot of useful information about diocesan finances, where the money comes from and where it goes to.
General Synod
- General Synod met in York from 11 to 15 July. The Agenda includes several items of financial business including debate on the Church of England’s recently announced £1.6 billion three-year national spending plans and a request for Synod to approve proposals to increase clergy pensions. Significant time will be set aside for the final stages of the legislation to set up the National Redress Scheme for victims and survivors of Church-related abuse. Synod papers also include a reflection by the Church of England’s Bishop to the Forces, The Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, on how parishes can support members of the armed forces and their families in their communities and addressing questions of how the Church can serve its mission in times of conflict (paper GS Misc 1428). Papers for the meeting are available to download Video recordings of Synod sessions are available on the YouTube channel. Daily press releases of the proceedings of synod are also available on-line.
- February 2025 General Synod met in London from Monday 10 February 2025 to Friday 14 February. The agenda and meeting papers are available online. Links to session live-stream recordings are also available. An outline of business is also available via this link.
CSMV Our Life Sr Lizzie Ruth CSMV has posted three videos on the Community’s YouTube channel, about the life and work of the community, entitled A Week in Our Life, Our Spirituality and Prayer Life, and Our Ministry. The third video “follows on from the previous one about the Sisters’ spirituality and prayer life, and seeks to give an overview of the CSMV Sisters’ ministry past and present. It includes a tour of St Mary’s Convent and interviews with the Sisters.”
Videos from the Community of the Resurrection
- Community of the Resurrection YouTube channel
- Fr Nicolas and Fr Charlie held an online zoom seminar, which covered monastic life, and the rule of St Benedict. They were joined online by a group of students in Australia. The video is now available on the Community's You Tube channel.
- National Libraries Week 2 - 8 October 2023 For the Community of the Resurrection (Mirfield) this is an opportunity to focus on the Community’s own unique library (60,000 volumes). They have made a new series of videos that feature ‘Brethren’s Books’ that will be posted every Wednesday over the next few weeks on their YouTube channel.
  - Fr Nicolas and Fr Charlie, in conversation Fr Nicolas is currently Library Brother and Fr Charlie assists in the library.
  - Fr George on Dante's Divine Commedy Fr George is precentor and sacristan and a former Library Brother.
  - Br Marc takes us back to Ancient Greece.
  - Fr George with another favourite read.
  - Fr Oswin chooses Robert Louis Stevenson. Fr Oswin is the Superior of the Community.
  - Br Marc reading from the epic ballad, ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner ’.
  - Br Jude chooses a passage from the timeless ‘Chronicles of Narnia’.
Visual Commentary on Scripture (VCS) is a resource provided by Kings College London “that provides theological commentary on the Bible in dialogue with works of art. It helps its users to (re)discover the Bible in new ways through the illuminating interaction of artworks, scriptural texts, and commissioned commentaries.”
The Church of England published Statistics for Mission 2021 on 7 December 2022.
Environment and Climate Change The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, of which Bishop Steven is a member, published a report last week (In our hands: behaviour change for climate and environmental goals) which warns that the Government's current approach to enabling behaviour change is seriously inadequate and will result in the UK failing to meet its net zero and environment targets. The report is available to download.
The Lambeth Conference ran from 26 July to 8 August 2022.
- Reflections on Lambeth Bishops Steven, Gavin and Olivia share their experiences of the 2022 Lambeth Conference. Bishop Steven summarises the science and faith thread, Bishop Olivia focuses on the environmental conversations, and Bishop Gavin considers the joys and challenges of the diverse global Anglican family.
- The conference web site
- The official Prayer Guide
- Live Stream Programme
- Today at the Lambeth Conference, highlights of each day of the conference, see the pull-down menu at the conference web site
- (Revised) Lambeth Calls Study Document (note the statement about the draft Call on Human Dignity and the voting procedure released )
- Talking about Faith and Science and The Anglican Communion Science Commission
Mirfield Talks - Festival Day 2022 Festival day this year was on Saturday 9 July. An introductory talk by Frs Charlie nCR and Nicolas CR, is available on the Community's YouTube channel.
- A series of talks given by brethren of the Community of the Resurrection for the last year's Festival Day, 11 July 2021, which focus on the environment and our response to it, is also available on YouTube.
COP 26
- Reflections on COP 26 by Claire Spooner UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) lead for Stakeholder Engagement at COP26
- A Candle in the Window (Parish Magazine) The December issue contains a series of articles reflecting on the outcome of COP 26.
- United Nations Climate Change the UN web site containing links to the conference documents
- Resources from some scientific societies:
  - COP26, climate change and the Royal Society
  - Royal Meterological Society Resources include daily video briefings, briefing papers and podcasts
  - The Royal Society of Chemistry Chemistry and COP26
- Bishop Olivia at COP26 Bishop Olivia, Bishop of Reading, is attending the conference and joining a range of events. Recordings of interviews she has given to local radio stations can be found on the Diocese of Oxford Soundcloud site.
- From the Anglican Communion - Anglican Consultative Council:
  - Voluntary submission to the COP26
  - Climate Resilience and Just Financing - Anglican Leadership for Climate Action and Climate Justice COP26 Policy Position
- Facing up to the spiritual challenge of the environmental crisis, 23 November. The Kellogg College annual Vincent Strudwick lecture on Religion in Public Life will be given by the Rt Revd Olivia Graham, Bishop of Reading, at 5.30pm. This lecture will be online. To receive the link to the event, please book thorough Eventbrite.
- Diocese of Oxford COP26 Engagement Opportunities these include writing to or emailing your MP (for Abingdon this is layla.moran.mp@parliament.uk), or the COP co-president alok.sharma.mp@parliament.uk or the Prime Minister boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk. The COP26 Engagement Opportunities web site has a link to a document produced by the Quakers which is a general guide for contacting MPs. It is important to include your name and address in your email or letter so that your MP knows you live in their constituency.
- A moment of opportunity and truth The powerful and historic joint statement on the environment issued by Archbishop Justin, Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as part of the preparations for COP 26 was followed on 4 October by a gathering of faith leaders from across the world in the Vatican and the release of a new joint statement by all the world's religions: Faith and Science: an appeal for COP 26. The appeal was presented to COP26 President-Designate, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma, and the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Luigi Di Maio.
- Before and during COP26 there was a series of events, both face-to-face and virtual, open to the public.
- The Office for National Statistics Carbon dioxide emissions and woodland coverage where you live (21 October). The levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and woodland coverage vary across the UK.The ONS interactive maps let you see how your area looks, and how it compares with other areas.
- The text of a letter from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, A Joint Message for the Protection of Creation that was published on 7 September 2021
- Responding to the Climate Crisis includes links to recent publications by members of the Anglican Society of St Francis
- Churches Together in Britain and Ireland offer a range of resources to support Climate Sunday.
- Olivia, Bishop of Reading, gave a talk on Climate Sunday in St Mary's Church Greenham. A video of her talk is available on YouTube. Links are provided below to some of the resources Bishop Olivia mentions in her talk.
  - A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues by Martin Hodson and Margot Hodson, published by BRF
  - The Eco Church scheme
  - The Diocese of Oxford's EcoHub which is organised as a collection of zones: the Knowledge Zone for facts on climate change, the Action Zone for advice on making practical change and the Reflection Zone offering theological resources. The specialist Net Zero Zone offers information on the path to net zero.
- Readers might like to read the transcript of Canon Ward's sermon, Service and Sacrifice, preached in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday 25 July 2021.
Mirfield Talks. The Community's YouTube channel includes talks by Fr Nicolas CR and other members of the community.
- Recent talks include:
  1. St Luke's Gospel
  2. Bike ride for Tariro (a fund-raising ride by Fr George CR and companions)
- Older talks include:
  1. The first video in the series is on John Bradburne, who is currently on his way to being beatified and onwards to saint hood with the Catholic Church. Please click here to watch the video. From 1969 to being shot in 1979 John was warden at Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement, in Zimbabwe. See also The John Bradburne Memorial Society
  2. Praying in a technological world
  3. Pope Francis And The Poor
  4. CR Growing in Christ
  5. The Promise of Eternal Life
  6. Fr Nicolas in conversation with Claire Gilbert, talking about her recent experience of cancer and her work as Director of the Westminster Abbey Institute Her recent publications include Letters from Lockdown: Sustaining public service values during the Covid-19 pandemic
  7. Sayings of the Desert Fathers Fr Charlie, novice CR
An on-line labyrinth.
Some Cathedrals offering a range of live-streamed and recorded worship.
- Norwich Our former Team Vicar, Peter Doll, is Canon Librarian of the Cathedral.
- Oxford
- Portsmouth Our former Team Vicar, Fr Paul, was a priest in Portsmouth Diocese before moving to Abingdon
- Winchester
The History of Stations of the Cross A very interesting talk by an American Roman Catholic Franciscan brother. For information about Franciscan brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion see the web site.
Alone Together Reflections from monks and nuns on isolation and distancing, led by Fr Christopher Jamison, OSB.

Service Booklets

Lightly modified versions of the service booklet for the liturgies that would traditionally be used at St Michael's are available to download.