July 2025
From the Archbishop
The Most Revd Kay Goldsworthy AO DD, Archbishop
This month marks the 30th anniversary of A Prayer Book for Australia (APBA), authorised by General Synod for use in the Anglican Church of Australia in July 1995. Its introduction was a significant moment of liturgical renewal in the life of our Church.
In 2025 it continues to shape and support the mission and worship of Anglican communities across the country. This anniversary invites us to reflect and celebrate of how APBA has enriched not only the Church’s prayer life, but also our mission of invitation, welcome, and witness.
In the Diocese of Perth the HOPE25 initiative has demonstrated how the gift and grace of corporate prayer contributes directly to the Church’s mission. At its heart, HOPE25 has been a season of invitation. It’s been an opportunity for people in local Anglican communities to intentionally open their doors, hearts, and lives to their neighbourhoods, extending a gracious welcome grounded in the resurrection hope of Christ.
As parishes, schools and agencies planned events, renewed worship practices, and re-engaged with the wider community, APBA wasn’t simply a book of services. It was a companion in mission.
One of the most significant contributions of A Prayer Book for Australia is its accessible, contemporary language. Without losing theological depth or scriptural integrity, APBA offers prayers and liturgies that speak into the world with clarity and grace.
This was evident in HOPE25 as many parishes hosted services specifically intended for newcomers or the curious, people who might not have stepped inside a church for years, or ever. The power of invitation cannot be underestimated, especially in a world where loneliness and isolation abound.
The language of worship matters deeply. The words of prayer are incredibly important in the way they shape our experience of worship. Worship is pastoral care. It is transformative. It is a place of meeting God and each other and comes alive for people in the thoughtful formulation of confession, the nuances of a thanksgiving, the breadth and intimacy of intercession, and of course the powerful presence of Christ’s love in the gift of the Eucharist. These are all part of the space where even people unfamiliar with liturgy meet God, are met by God’s loving welcome and are able to feel at home in the deepest way possible.
Phrases such as ‘Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again’ proclaim the core of Christian faith simply and memorably. In welcoming others into that proclamation, we extend not only an invitation to community, but to transformation.
As churches celebrated Easter, renewed baptismal promises, and shared the Easter Eucharist, the texts of APBA shaped and gave voice to the Church’s proclamation: ‘Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen’.
During HOPE25, parishes designed services around particular themes of hope, healing, justice, and reconciliation, combining APBA texts with local music, art, testimony, and storytelling. Some churches used Prayer at the End of the Day or even Ministry to the Sick from APBA to shape services of remembrance and healing. Others turned to the liturgies of the Word, like Prayer, Praise and Proclamation to craft all-age worship services that were simple yet profound, meeting families and newcomers where they were. Blessing cards were produced and distributed in community gatherings, opening the door to deeper conversations about what it means to be blessed.
In many ways, the APBA’s enduring strength lies in how it has become part of the Anglican Church’s DNA. Its prayers aren’t merely recited. We live them. Just think of the power of the weekly breath that a congregation takes as coming together we say, ‘Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden.’ These familiar cadences provide comfort, yes, but also the confidence to share our faith, to welcome others, and to celebrate the God who meets us in word and sacrament.
Clearly, I’ve been thinking about this 30th anniversary!
I’m celebrating it and giving thanks for the vision, scholarship, and faithfulness of those who crafted APBA, for the communities who have prayed it into life over three decades, for its riches in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
We know that we are facing new challenges and opportunities in the decades ahead. I believe that the prayer book stands as a resource for renewal. Not static, but living; not locked in time, but open to the Spirit’s future.
HOPE25 has shown us that when the Church dares to live its worship out loud - in service, in invitation, in welcome it becomes not just a gathered people, but a sent people. Easter people. Pentecost people. And as we are sent, we go in the power of the Holy Spirit with words that are already forming us: prayers of thanksgiving, confession, and blessing; patterns of sacramental life; rhythms of scripture and song; pilgrims walking together in the hope of Christ.
The Lord be with you.