Where to get that free hymnal

While traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, I visited a small ACA parish worshipping out of a rented duplex. Not surprisingly, they used the familiar 1928 BCP and 1940 Hymnal. What was unfamiliar was the stamp on the front:

Operation Pass Along
805 CR 102
Eureka Springs, AR 72632

Sure enough, there’s a website, which notes that 135,000+ books have been forwarded under this ministry since 1972 for just the cost of postage. One would have to guess that the bulk of the shipments have been 1928 BCP and 1940 Hymnals rendered surplus when replaced by their 1979 and 1982 counterparts.

OPA is one to be one of a series of ministries sponsored by the Society for Promoting and Encouraging the Arts and Knowledge. Another ministry is The Anglican Digest, today edited by Rev. Kendall Harmon, director of communications for the TEC diocese of South Carolina — but best known as the creator of the blog named after Titus 1:9.

OPA seems to be one of the few efforts supported by both the Episcopal left and right. Perhaps it’s because reuse is far more environmentally (and economically) sound than recycling. Or perhaps just because it’s the Christian thing to do.