The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The first prayer book, published in 1549 in the reign of King Edward VI of England, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The 1549 work was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contains Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, Holy Communion, and occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also sets out in full the "propers" : the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer are specified in tabular format, as are the Psalms and canticles, mostly biblical, to be said or sung between the readings.
Mass is the main Eucharistic liturgical service in many forms of Western Christianity. The term Mass is commonly used in the Catholic Church, Western Rite Orthodoxy, Old Catholicism, and Independent Catholicism. The term is also used in some Lutheran churches, as well as in some Anglican churches, and on rare occasion by other Protestant churches.
A customary is a Christian liturgical book containing the adaptation of a ritual family and rite for a particular context, typically to local ecclesiastical customs and specific church buildings. A customary is generally synonymous to and sometimes constituent of a consuetudinary that contains the totality of the consuetudines—ceremonial forms and regulations—used in the services and community practices of a particular monastery, religious order, or cathedrals. The distinctive qualities of medieval liturgical uses are often described within customaries. In modern contexts, a customary may also be referred to as a custom book.
The Prayer Book Society of Canada (PBSC), founded in 1986, is an organization of Canadian Anglicans encompassing members who are affiliated with both the Anglican Church of Canada and other jurisdictions such as the Anglican Network in Canada and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. The Society promotes “the understanding and use of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) as a spiritual system of nurture for life in Christ” and upholds it as the standard of doctrine and worship for Canadian Anglicans. It primarily supports the use of the 1962 Canadian edition of the BCP, and aims to encourage greater awareness and wider use of it through the publication of liturgical resources in print and online, advocacy to and collaboration with like-minded organizations and the broader church, and the provision of financial aid to theological students and parishes.
The Liturgical Movement was a 19th-century and 20th-century movement of scholarship for the reform of worship. It began in the Catholic Church and spread to many other Christian churches including the Anglican Communion, Lutheran and some other Protestant churches.
Walter Howard Frere was an English Anglican bishop and liturgist. He was a co-founder of the Anglican religious order the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and Bishop of Truro (1923–1935).
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, sometimes known as the Deposited Book, is a liturgical book which was proposed as a revised version of the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Opposing what they saw as an Anglo-Catholic revision that would align the Church of England with the Catholic Church—particularly through expanding the practice of the reserved sacrament—Protestant evangelicals and nonconformists in Parliament put up significant resistance, driving what became known as the Prayer Book Crisis.
Edward Craddock Ratcliff was an English Anglican priest and liturgical scholar. He was Professor of Liturgical Theology at King's College, London (1945–1947), and Ely Professor of Divinity (1947–1958) and Regius Professor of Divinity (1958–1964) at the University of Cambridge.
The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the official primary liturgical book of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. An edition in the same tradition as other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, it contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. It is the fourth major revision of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church, and succeeded the 1928 edition. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has been translated into multiple languages and is considered a representative production of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement.
The 1929 Scottish Prayer Book is an official liturgical book of the Scotland-based Scottish Episcopal Church. The 1929 edition follows from the same tradition of other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, with the unique liturgical tradition of Scottish Anglicanism. It contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. The second major revision of the Book of Common Prayer following the full independence of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the 1929 Scottish Prayer Book succeeded the 1912 edition and was intended to serve alongside the Church of England's 1662 prayer book.
The 1962 Book of Common Prayer is an authorized liturgical book of the Canada-based Anglican Church of Canada. The 1962 prayer book is often also considered the 1959 prayer book, in reference to the year the revision was first approved for an "indefinite period" of use beginning in 1960. The 1962 edition follows from the same tradition of other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally. It contains both the Eucharistic liturgy and Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. The second major revision of the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church of Canada, the 1962 Book of Common Prayer succeeded the 1918 edition, which itself had replaced the Church of England's 1662 prayer book. While supplanted by the 1985 Book of Alternative Services as the Anglican Church of Canada's primary Sunday service book, the 1962 prayer book continues to see usage.
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is an authorised liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican bodies around the world. In continuous print and regular use for over 360 years, the 1662 prayer book is the basis for numerous other editions of the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical texts. Noted for both its devotional and literary quality, the 1662 prayer book has influenced the English language, with its use alongside the King James Version of the Bible contributing to an increase in literacy from the 16th to the 20th century.
The 1604 Book of Common Prayer, often called the Jacobean prayer book or the Hampton Court Book, is the fourth version of the Book of Common Prayer as used by the Church of England. It was introduced during the early English reign of James I as a product of the Hampton Court Conference, a summit between episcopalian, Puritan, and Presbyterian factions. A modest revision of the 1559 prayer book, the Jacobean prayer book became the basis of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, a still-authorized liturgical book within the Church of England and global Anglicanism.
The Edwardine Ordinals are two ordinals primarily written by Thomas Cranmer as influenced by Martin Bucer and first published under Edward VI, the first in 1550 and the second in 1552, for the Church of England. Both liturgical books were intended to replace the ordination liturgies contained within medieval pontificals in use before the English Reformation.
The 1637 Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as the Scottish Prayer Book or Scottish liturgy, was a version of the English Book of Common Prayer revised for use by the Church of Scotland. The 1637 prayer book shared much with the 1549 English prayer book—rather than the later, more reformed English revisions—and contained Laudian liturgical preferences with some concessions to a Scottish and Presbyterian audience. Charles I, as King of Scotland and England had wished to impose the liturgical book to align Scottish worship with that of the Church of England. However, after a coordinated series of protests—including the legendary opposition by Jenny Geddes at St Giles' Cathedral—the 1637 prayer book was rejected.
Free and Candid Disquisitions is a 1749 pamphlet written and compiled by John Jones, a Welsh Church of England clergyman, and published anonymously. The work promoted a set of specific reforms to both the Church of England and its mandated book for liturgical worship, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Through these proposed changes, Jones hoped that the more Protestant independent Dissenters – who had largely broken with the Church of England in 1662 and been legally tolerated since 1689 – could be reintegrated into the church.
William Winstanley Hull (1794–1873) was an English barrister, writer, and hymnographer. Hull wrote in favour of ecclesiastical reforms to the Church of England, particularly its liturgy, in order to permit some Dissenters to reintegrate into the church. Alongside his vicar brother, William Winstanley Hull produced a petition on liturgical reform which was presented to the House of Lords. His effort to locate the original manuscript of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is credited with leading to its discovery by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. Hull's books of hymns, originally published anonymously, were later republished in his name during his lifetime.
Geoffrey John Cuming was a Church of England clergyman, liturgist, and music historian. After being permanently injured during his British Army service prior to the Battle of Arnhem, Cuming was ordained a priest. He authored and edited several nonfiction texts on music and Christianity.
Francis Procter was an English Anglican clergyman and liturgist known for his history of the Book of Common Prayer, the official liturgical book of the Church of England. His A History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices was first published in 1855. A revision of this book first released in 1901 by Walter Frere–known as "Procter and Frere"–became a leading academic history of Anglican liturgy. Procter also produced other works, including an edition of the Sarum breviary first published in 1875. During his career, Procter was a fellow at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and a minister at several English parishes.
A History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices is an 1855 textbook by Francis Procter on the Book of Common Prayer, a series of liturgical books used by the Church of England and other Anglicans in worship. In 1901, Walter Frere published an updated version, entitled A New History of the Book of Common Prayer. Known commonly as Procter and Frere, the book remained a major text in the liturgiological study of the Book of Common Prayer through much of the 20th century. Later works, such as Geoffrey Cuming's 1969 A History of Anglican Liturgy, were written to supersede Procter and Frere as comprehensive studies following the release of further Anglican liturgical texts.
