About

Received & Given is a place for essays on Anglican faith, received tradition, sacramental life, and the Church’s witness in the world. The name reflects a basic conviction that Christian faith is not something we invent for ourselves. It is first received: from Scripture, the Creeds, the Church’s worship, the saints who have gone before us, and the particular communities in which we are formed. Yet what is received is never meant to be held as a private possession. It is given again in worship, service, teaching, friendship, repentance, and the ordinary work of Christian faithfulness.

I am Ryan Willers, an Anglican deacon serving in parish and diocesan ministry, as well as a husband, father, and accountant. My own writing tends to return to the places where doctrine, liturgy, vocation, and ordinary life meet. I am especially interested in how Anglican worship and theology can form Christians who are neither nostalgic nor rootless, but who receive the Church’s inheritance with gratitude and offer it with humility in the world God is making new.

This site is intended to hold longer reflections rather than quick reactions. Some essays will be explicitly theological or liturgical. Others may begin from a question about parish life, education, work, family, technology, or public witness. In each case, I hope to ask not only what the Church has received, but how that gift may be given faithfully in a particular time and place.

I also work on a few related projects. Occasional Prayers gathers collects and other prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican tradition, and the broader Church. Ordinarium is a liturgy planning workspace for assembling, ordering, and managing liturgical orders of service.

Received & Given is related to those projects, but distinct from them. Where they are primarily tools for prayer and worship planning, this site is a place for argument, reflection, and occasional testing of ideas. My aim is not to settle every question finally, but to think carefully in public about the life of the Church and the forms of faithfulness entrusted to us.