The book of common prayer: a guide

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
David Jasper
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This book surveys the contents and the history of the Book of Common Prayer, a sacred text which has been a foundational document of the Church of England and the other churches in the worldwide community of Anglican Christianity. The Prayer Book is primarily a liturgical text—a set of scripts for enacting events of corporate worship. As such it is at once a standard of theological doctrine and an expression of spirituality. The first part of this survey begins with an examination of one Prayer Book liturgy, known as Divine Service, in some detail. Also discussed are the rites for weddings, ordinations, and funerals and for the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. The second part considers the original version of the Book of Common Prayer in the context of the sixteenth-century Reformation, then as revised and built into the Elizabethan settlement of religion in England. Later chapters discuss the reception, revision, rejection, and restoration of the Prayer Book during its first hundred years. The establishment of the text in its classical form in 1662 was followed by a “golden age” in the eighteenth century, which included the emergence of a modified version in the United States. The narrative concludes with a chapter on the displacement of the Book of Common Prayer as a norm of Anglican identity. Two specialized chapters concentrate on the Prayer Book as a visible artifact and as a text set to music.

The Historical Background of the English Lectionary of 1955

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G. Willis
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

The preface to the Book of Common Prayer, entitled Concerning the Service of the Church since 1662, but before that simply The Preface, was derived substantially from the preface to the revised Breviary of Quiñones, which was one of the sources for the revised daily offices of the Church of England. It appeals from what it considers the corruptions of the medieval office to the ‘godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers’. This order, it says, was devised for the systematic reading of holy scripture in the offices of the Church, and it was the intention of the compilers of the English Prayer Book to restore such a regular order of reading for the instruction of the people. It represented a revolt against three features of the lessons in the medieval breviary: first, against the frequent interruptions of the reading of scripture in course by the occurrence of feasts with proper lessons; secondly, the lack of completeness and continuity in the lessons themselves; and thirdly, the use of non-biblical material in the lessons. Even if the daily office of the breviary, which is based on the ecclesiastical year, were not interrupted by any immoveable feasts having proper lessons, it would still not provide for the reading of the whole of scripture, as its lessons are too short, and also the variable lessons are confined to the night office.

A Neglected Principle of Liturgical Revision

1920 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-401
Author(s):  
Robert Pierce Casey
Keyword(s):  
Joint Commission ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Joint Commission

The Second Report of the Joint Commission on the Book of Common Prayer is an interesting document, not only for the history of liturgy in the American Church but also in showing, perhaps more by implication than by direct statement, the lines along which thought in the Episcopal Church is at present moving.

The 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church and the Liturgy: New Wine in Old Wineskins?

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-701
Author(s):  
Bryan Cones
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Liturgical Reform ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

The 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church generated a significant number of resolutions related to the church's liturgy, most of which passed both Houses, including resolutions authorizing preparation of the revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal 1982. A review of the resolutions related to liturgy and music, however, raises fundamental questions about the kind of liturgical reform the church may undertake and how it may integrate growing appreciation for linguistic and cultural diversity in the church, including the insights of feminist, postcolonial, and LGBTQ theological reflection and those produced by theologians of color. This essay argues that serious engagement with these questions suggests a completely reimagined liturgical “center of gravity” that integrates the insights of liturgical scholarship and practice since the authorization of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal 1982, while providing the flexibility to respond to the church's current diverse contexts.

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