Book Review of Laurence Hull Stookey, Let the Whole Church Say Amen!: A Guide for Those Who Pray in Public
Let the Whole Church Say Amen!: A Guide for Those Who Pray in Public by Laurence Hull Stookey
(Abingdon Press, 2001). $17.27/165 pages.
The late Methodist liturgical scholar Laurence Hull Stookey was a theologian’s theologian, a liturgist’s liturgist, and a down-to-earth pastor who brought the world of liturgical history and liturgical scholarship for the academy and for God’s people in the pews. His book, “Let the Whole Church Say Amen!” is a workbook I have used in seminary classrooms as a professor, as an erstwhile graduate teaching assistant, and as a congregational pastor. I have led seminars and workshops to encourage and equip laypersons to the craft and art of preparing prayers for public delivery because there are many in our churches, and many seminary students who aren’t sure what and how to say prayers in public. In this accessible volume, Stookey teaches multiple forms of prayer, from the basic collect to thematic prayers to responsorial ones. He invites readers to prayerfully consider syntax, diction, sentence construction – not for wordsmithing sake, but because prayers – in their preparation and delivery – are sacred and the process is sacred. Far too often, I have heard those who tend towards extemporaneous prayers to say, “Well, I want to pray from the heart.” Yet, Jesus himself cared about texts, liturgies, and even the standard prayer he taught in Matthew 6. Stookey’s volume is an invitation to enter the sacred tradition and practice of praying, of being attentive to the gathered assembly, and of partnering with the Spirit of Jesus Christ to enable the people of God in saying with sincerity, integrity, and truth: Amen!
