Commontide
Proper 8
Liturgical Color: Green
The 3rd Sunday after Trinity
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
National Day
Ecumenical Commemoration
Canada Day keeps the anniversary of 1 July 1867, when the British North America Act took effect and three provinces became "One Dominion under the Name of Canada." Anglicans in Canada have provided for the day since 1918, when the first Canadian Book of Common Prayer printed a form of service for it. The observance is civil in origin, and the church's provision for it has changed considerably across four prayer books.
The Dominion of Canada was created on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act united the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into a federal dominion. The holiday was statutorily established as Dominion Day on May 15, 1879, and renamed Canada Day in 1982.
The Anglican Church of Canada began incorporating national commemorations into its liturgical calendar with the 1962 revision of the Canadian Book of Common Prayer, which added twenty-six post-Reformation figures and national observances. The Book of Alternative Services (1985) expanded the calendar further. The theological rationale for including national days in a church calendar follows Pauline tradition: the church prays for civil authorities and gives thanks for the blessings of ordered liberty (1 Timothy 2:1-2; Romans 13:1-7).
The inclusion of Canada Day in an Anglican liturgical calendar reflects the tradition of praying for the nation and its leaders that runs from the earliest Christian centuries through the BCP's Prayers for the Sovereign and all in Civil Authority. The day is not a feast in the theological sense — it carries no proper collect, no assigned readings, and no liturgical color beyond the default. Its function in the calendar is to mark the civil observance and to prompt thanksgiving and intercession for the nation. Churches may celebrate with appropriate hymns (often 'O Canada' as a processional or recessional) and prayers for peace, justice, and the common good. The theological warrant is modest but real: Christians give thanks for the blessings of ordered society, confess the nation's sins and failures (particularly toward Indigenous peoples), and pray for its leaders. The ACNA calendar inherits this observance from the Anglican Church of Canada's tradition.