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Book of Common Prayer goes high-tech with iPhone application developed in OKC [The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City](Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 06--A new iPhone application has brought the traditional Book of Common Prayer together with today's technology, courtesy of a group from a Nichols Hills church. The new app, iPray, became available in mid-April, much to the delight of the group of people who helped create it. David Hill, CEO of Kimray Inc. and a member of All Souls' Episcopal Church, 6400 N Pennsylvania, came up with the idea for the app as a way to help his children navigate the Book of Common Prayer more easily. The app is available through the iTunes Store for $1.99. Among other things, the app includes: Morning and evening prayers from the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer; Daily Scripture readings from the 1922 lectionary revision of the English Prayer Book; Simple navigation of Scripture readings and the appropriate daily prayers following the liturgical calendar of the church, including feasts and fasts; Christian artwork; An explanation of each liturgical season of the church year. Family prayer tool Hill, 43, of Edmond, said he and his wife, Shannon, over the years have used the prayer book for their family prayer time because they have an appreciation for the traditional text. The Book of Common Prayer, first compiled in 1549, was designed to provide a form of worship that exposed English-speaking Christians to the Bible and its teachings, and to give them forms of worship to express a biblical faith. The liturgical book is used by churches in the Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church USA, the communion's American arm. First authorized for use in the Church of England, it was radically revised in 1552, with subsequent minor revisions in 1559, 1604 and 1662. "It's just a beautiful, incredible book, and in a way, it's been forgotten by modern society," Hill said. "It's great for the Christian faith to be bringing something that is centuries old back into the modern world through an app -- transporting this 1662 document into a modern application." Developing the app Hill said he and his wife, along with All Souls' rector, the Rev. Patrick Bright, and his wife, Rhea, worked for about a year in partnership with the Anglican Foundation at All Souls' and Phase 2 Interactive to develop the app. Bright said he and his wife were especially excited about the idea. Rhea Bright is board secretary for the National Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer. "I thought it was a brilliant idea from the beginning," Patrick Bright said. Bright said making what he called the "mother prayer book" more accessible is in keeping with the text's history. It was an important tool in the Protestant Reformation because its English text made it available to the masses, as opposed to the Latin text that had been integral in the Catholic Church. "It allowed any Christian that could read English the opportunity to enter into 'the sanctification of time,'" Bright said. Bright said the app should appeal to Anglicans all around the world. "It will appeal to anyone who wants to enter structured daily prayer with the liturgical calendar," he said. "I believe strongly in the traditional daily prayers. This is marrying modern technology with ancient and reformed practice so we can enter into a life of prayer that has been sanctified well over 1,000 years." Interactive approach Meanwhile, application developer Colbey Chittenden worked on the app for Phase 2 Interactive, an Oklahoma City-based software development company. Chittenden said the challenge in developing the app was finding a digitized copy of the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer. He said the next step was finding a way to put it together so that it would be easy to navigate on a daily basis. Chittenden said he visited London as he was developing the app and was pleased to see some of the historical places tied to the Church of England and, indirectly, the Book of Common Prayer. He said the visit helped him put into context the historical significance of the book. Hill said the app has been beneficial for him and his family. He said there previously was nothing as interactive as iPray. "Now my wife and all my kids have it on iPhone, and we do our family prayers using the iPad," Hill said. "What a tremendous resource it (Book of Common Prayer) is for the Christian faith, and this is a tremendous aid." ___ To see more of The Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |