Wesley's Prayer Book and the First Sunday in Lent

 When Methodism came to America, John Wesley gave to the early American Methodists a very conservative revision of the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer.  One of the changes that Wesley made was a simplifying of the calendar.  This included simply numbering the collects as Sundays "after Christmas," until "The Sunday next before Easter".  The prayers still follow the collects in the 1662 BCP.  Nevertheless, since Easter is a movable feast, this causes a problem.  

If one wants to use Wesley's Prayer Book (viz., The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America), either for the Daily Office or the Sunday service, and one wants to follow the larger calendar, including Lent, one will quickly discover the issue.  By following the prayers until one gets to "The Sunday next before Easter", one will find the collects for Lent to be misplaced (Lent not being a part of Wesley's calendar).  -  It is not that one will not pray the collects for Lent, but they will not fit the Lenten season.

This year is a perfect example.  This coming Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent.  However, if one is simply following Wesley's list of collects, one would pray the collect for The Ninth Sunday after Christmas:

O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust
in any thing that we do; Mercifully grant
that by thy power we may be defended against all
adversity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On the other hand, for those who want to use Wesley's Prayer Book, but also want to observe the Lenten season, the thing to do is to skip ahead and pray the collect for The Eleventh Sunday after Christmas during the First Sunday in Lent and continue on from there.  This will lead right into the Easter season.  The collect for The Eleventh Sunday after Christmas will be readily recognized as the collect for the First Sunday in Lent:

O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days
and forty nights; give us grace to use such
abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the Spi-
rit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righ-
teousness and true holiness, to thy honour and
glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and
the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.
Amen.

It is my hope that this might prove to be helpful to at least some who read this blog and save them from having to discover this for themselves a couple of Sundays into the Lenten season!