History of Meditation in Anglican Churches

Meditation Traditions In The Anglican Faith

Anglican Christianity was a new take on an ancient faith, born of the protestant reformation in the 1500s. The history of meditation in Anglican churches dates back to those earliest days and beyond, influencing the modern teachers in the faith today.

The idea of contemplative, silent prayer promotes the experience of seeking God’s presence by emptying ourselves in order to be filled again. This is often practiced in stillness and quiet, on a prayer walk, in art, music, or other creative mediums, or in a prayer labyrinth.

Anglican and Monastic Church Fathers Who Influenced Meditation

St. John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel is the work of St. John of the Cross, a Spanish father of the faith who lived from 1542 to 1591. He taught that total detachment is required for the soul to experience freedom from earthly desires.

St. Teresa of Avila

The nun and reformer, St. Teresa of Avila, lived from 1515 to 1582 and wrote a number of letters and works that extolled the benefits and practices of contemplative prayer and meditation.

Desert Father St. John Cassian

St John Cassian lived in the 5th century, and he is one of the notable Desert Fathers and Mothers. He is the author of a series of Conferences based on the practices and teachings of the monastic leaders of that desert community.

St. Francis de Sales

The Catholic and Anglican churches share many of the same founders of the faith, including St. Francis de Sales, who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He was the Bishop of Geneva and widely revered for his spiritual teachings on the Christian life and Christian prayer.

He produced an extensive work on living in faith, The Devout Life (La vie Dévote, in the original French), which shares how important a love for God is and how one must constantly improve one’s morals with sincere intentions and mindfulness.

In The Devout Life, St. Francis includes a number of meditations with instructions for Christian contemplation and prayer based on God’s Word and other Christian traditions, including the idea of engaging the mind to consider the mysteries of Jesus Christ, the truths in the Holy Bible, or other spiritual realities, like the end of man, sin, creation, etc.[5]

Other themes of his work embrace the idea of exemplifying one’s affections and allowing them to stir an emotional connection with God. He taught that the outcomes of Christian meditation and devotion are enhanced overall well-being, a purified soul, the rooting out of sin, leading us to contrition, and cultivating a greater love of God.[6]

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Meditation Traditions of the Anglican Faith

The spiritual practice of meditation is a personal prayer discipline that enriches the spiritual life and sharpens one’s connection to the divine. In the Anglican faith, these are the most common spiritual exercises tied to meditation:

The Jesus Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.

This is The Jesus Prayer, a rote or memorized prayer for recitation and meditation. It is an established learning method to “pray without ceasing,” as St. Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV). It’s a simple prayer anyone can master, ideal for constant reflection.

Prayer Labyrinths

The idea of a labyrinth and prayer walking through the labyrinth is linked to the fourth-century, medieval idea of pilgrimage.[7] When it became dangerous to travel to Jerusalem, which at the time took months or years, many cathedrals implemented labyrinths to replicate the pilgrimage experience. Today, many Anglican churches uphold this tradition of prayer and meditation with the support of The Anglican Labyrinth Resource Group (ALRG).

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina is translated as “divine reading” and is a contemplative prayer and method of reading the Bible. It dates back to St. Benedict of Nursia, who lived from 480 to 547. The early Christian church implemented this Benedictine form of meditation shortly thereafter, and it is still practiced today in the modern Anglican church.

This spiritual exercise is a common form of meditation that implements scripture and other spiritual texts into prayer through slow, thoughtful consideration and savoring, allowing God to speak through the Living Word. Anglican scholars teach that this type of meditative prayer starts with silence and is less about what we say to God and more about listening and being open to what God has to say to us, leading us to a deeper understanding of Him.[8]

Modern Anglican Meditation Influence: J.I Packer

J.I. Packer (1926-2020), a modern-day Anglican and theologian with many rich spiritual works credited to his name, said this about meditation:[9]

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, thinking over, dwelling on, and applying to oneself the various things one knows about the works and ways and purpose and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of Cloud, by the help of God, as a means of communication with God…

Packer describes meditation as a deliberate, prayerful practice where one focuses on God, who He is, and what He has done in His very presence. This enables one to communicate with and draw closer to God, a truly transformative experience.