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Sometimes known as Anglican "rosaries," Christian prayer beads, or ecumenical prayer beads, Anglican prayer beads are a loop of strung beads which people use as a focus for prayer.
The Anglican rosary consists of thirty-three beads divided into four groups of seven. This signifies wholeness or completion in the faith, the days of creation, and the seasons of the Church year. These are called "weeks" in contrast to the Catholic rosary which uses five groups of ten beads called "decades."
Between each set of seven is a single bead, usually larger than the others, termed a "cruciform" bead. The four of them form the points of a Cross within the circle of the rosary. Anglican Prayer Bead sets customarily begin with a cross, not a crucifix (cross with "corpus"). There is no set format of prayers.
The beads are made of a variety of materials, including precious stones, wooden beads, dried and painted seeds, coloured glass beads, antique jewelry, or jade. Knots, if any, also vary in size.
External Links
Christian Prayer Beads Central (http://netministries.org/see/charmin/CM07928)--also The Confraternity of the Christian Prayer Beads.
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