Book of Common Prayer

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Common Prayer, The Book of. The official service-book of the C of E containing the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, the forms for the administration of the Sacraments and other rites, the Psalter, and (since 1552) the Ordinal. The book was compiled because of the desire of T. Cranmer and others to reform, simplify, and condense the Latin services of the medieval Church and to produce in English a simple, convenient, and comprehensive volume as an authoritative guide for priest and people.

The First BCP was issued in 1549 and its use ordered by the first Act of Uniformity. In doctrine and ritual it was a compromise between the old and new schools and pleased neither. Revision in the light of Protestant criticism led to the issue of the Second BCP in 1552. After the reign of Mary, this was reissued, with a few alterations, as the Elizabethan BCP of 1559. Under the Commonwealth, the BCP was officially superseded by the Directory of Public Worship (1645), but after the Restoration, the 1662 Act of Uniformity authorized a BCP revised by Convocation. The most important change was the introduction of the AV for the Epistles and Gospels. This 1662 Book remained almost unchanged until modern times. However, in the face of ritual controversies in the late-19th cent., a new Book (whose use was to be wholly permissive) was drawn up and passed by the Convocations and Church Assembly but rejected by the House of Commons in 1927 and again, after some amendments, in 1928. In 1955 the Abps. of Canterbury and York appointed a Liturgical Commission to prepare a revision which, after a period of authorized experimentation with individual services, led to the acceptance in 1980 of the Alternative Service Book (q.v.).

Outside England the BCP underwent numerous revisions. The Scottish (Episcopalian) Communion Office of 1764 influenced the American BCP of 1789. Elsewhere the English 1662 Book was used until the Church of Ireland, freed by disestablishment from the Act of Uniformity, in 1877 produced its own BCP, a conservative revision in a Protestant direction. In the early 20th cent., revisions of the BCP were issued in Canada (1922), the United States of America (1928), and Scotland (1929). In other parts of the Anglican Communion the BCP or parts of it were generally translated into local languages, though in some areas different forms of the Communion Service appeared in the first half of the 20th cent. Until 1948 Lambeth Conferences viewed the BCP as a bond of the Anglican Communion and it was only after 1958 that encouragement was given to provincial revisions.

In the 1960s modern English was introduced into the Anglican liturgy and new experimental rites addressed God as ‘you’ rather than ‘Thou’. As in the C of E, the revision of individual services was followed by the issue of a single Book; in some provinces its use is mandatory; in others it is an alternative to the BCP, though in practice tending to replace it.

Book of Common Prayer title given to the service book used in the Church of England and in other churches of the Anglican Communion. The first complete English Book of Common Prayer was produced, mainly by Thomas Cranmer, in 1549 under Edward VI. Essentially it was a selection and translation from the breviary and the missal, with some additions from other sources. It was made compulsory by the Act of Uniformity (1549). Revision, undertaken by Cranmer, resulted in the Prayer Book of 1552, which showed the influence of foreign reformers then resident in England, for it made possible a wide diversity of views regarding the Eucharist, all justified by this official service book. The prayer book was in use only about eight months before Queen Mary's repeal legislation restored Roman Catholicism in England. In 1559, under Elizabeth I, the Prayer Book of 1552 was restored in a slightly altered version. From 1645 to 1660, under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, the prayer book was suppressed. In a new revision after the Restoration, it was again declared the only legal service book for use in England by an Act of Uniformity (1662). Alterations in the 1662 revision were largely those making for liturgical improvement. In 1927 a revised form was submitted to Parliament, whose approval was (and is) still required, and passed by the House of Lords but rejected by the Commons; it was resubmitted (with certain modifications) in 1928 and again rejected. Nonetheless, the revised prayer book was quite widely adopted in the Church of England with episcopal approval. This situation was finally legalized by the Prayer Book Measure, passed by Parliament in 1965. In addition to authorizing revisions already in use, the act approved the experimental use of new forms of worship drawn up by a liturgical commission; the Alternative Service Book (ASB) was adopted in 1980 and authorized for use alongside the Book of Common Prayer until the end of 2000. Revision of ASB is underway and under the general title Common Worship some revisions have already been authorized and published. In 1789, when the first General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States met, a revised version of the Book of Common Prayer was adopted; it embodied such changes as were required by the new conditions. In the U.S. Episcopal Church, as in other churches of the Anglican Communion over which the British Parliament has no control, there has been greater freedom in liturgical revision; the last U.S. revision of the Book of Common Prayer was in 1979.

Bibliography: See histories of the prayer book by J. H. Blunt (1868), F. E. Brightman (2d ed. 1921, repr. 1970), J. W. Suter and G. J. Cleaveland, The American Book of Common Prayer (1949); M. H. Shepherd, The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (1950); G. Cuming, A History of Anglican Liturgy (1969, repr. 1980).

Book of Common Prayer. By a proclamation of 23 September 1548, Edward VI set up a commission of twelve bishops and clergy to oversee the preparation of ‘one uniform order [of service] throughout the kingdom’. This ‘Windsor Commission’ (so-called from its meeting-place) seems to have refined and emended a draft prayer book prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, for the bench of bishops approved its work only a month later. The Act of Uniformity (March 1549) ordered the exclusive use of the new Book of Common Prayer from Whitsunday (9 June) that year. The Prayer Book contained morning and evening offices, and forms for the administration of the sacraments (e.g. baptism and the eucharist) as well as the psalter. It was a response to the desire of Cranmer and other reformers for a single, convenient provision for the public worship of the church in the vernacular. It drew heavily upon the work of the continental reformers as well as upon existing Latin service books.

After 1549, reformed ideas, particularly from Germany and Switzerland, rapidly gained ground among English scholars, and these were reflected in the Second Prayer Book, issued in 1552. This book was probably little used, as the accession of Mary I saw a temporary return to the older Latin services.

In 1559 a modified 1552 Prayer Book came into use under Elizabeth I, and this in its turn formed the basis of the 1662 book, which remained the norm of Anglican worship until the 20th cent. Attempts to revise the Prayer Book in 1928 were frustrated by Parliament, but since 1980 there has been an authorized Alternative Service Book in England.

Revd Dr John R. Guy

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, short form BCP. The book used for public worship by Anglican Christians for over 400 years, and regarded as authoritative for doctrine. It originated with the First and Second Prayer Books of King Edward VI (1549, 1552), was mainly compiled by Thomas Cranmer, and drew on Latin, Orthodox, German, and Spanish liturgies. It underwent revisions, notably in 1662 when restored to use after being banned during the Commonwealth, but is recognizably Cranmer's original. A further revision in 1928, though not officially authorized, is in use in some places. BCP is the earliest source for many common words and phrases, such as all one's worldly goods, at death's door, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, land of the living, like lost sheep, tender mercy, to lead a new life. Complex sentence structure with long subordinate clauses is a feature widely assimilated into the language: ‘Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name’ (Collect at commencement of Holy Communion). BCP contains many pairs of synonyms, such as praise and magnify, erred and strayed, prisoners and captives, prepare and make ready, usually one word from Latin, the other Anglo-Saxon, the aim of which was comprehensibility among all levels of society. Because for 400 years a high degree of uniformity in worship was imposed by law, BCP has influenced vocabulary and syntax to an extent comparable to the BIBLE and SHAKESPEARE.

Common Prayer, The Book of, was evolved in the 16th cent. to meet the popular need for aids to devotion and the demand for the use of the vernacular in church services. The reading in churches of a chapter of the Bible in English, and the Litany in English (probably the work of Cranmer), were introduced in 1544, and an English communion service in 1548. About the same time the Primers were revised, and the King's Primer issued in 1545 in the interest of uniformity; it included the English Litany. Cranmer and a commission each drafted a scheme for a prayer book, and these were discussed in Edward VI's reign, leading to the successive issue of the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552. In the latter the form of the Book of Common Prayer was practically settled, though a revision was made under Elizabeth (1559), minor changes under James I, and the final text is that of 1662. As it stands the Prayer Book represents largely the work of Cranmer; N. Ridley may perhaps claim some share.

Alternative forms of service in contemporary language were published in 1980 and recommended for general use in church services in preference to the 1662 Prayer Book. This gave rise to vigorous argument as to the respective merits of attempting to improve the congregation's understanding of the liturgy and of preserving its traditions and literary qualities.

Common Prayer, Book of, the authoritative text for the liturgy of the Church of Ireland, containing services for morning and evening prayer, holy communion, baptism, confirmation, marriage, burial, and ordination, together with (usually) the Thirty‐Nine Articles. It was first used in the reign of Edward VI, when Cranmer's English Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552 were imposed on Ireland by royal authority, but it was not till 1560 that the Irish Act of Uniformity established the revised Elizabethan English Prayer Book as the statutory norm. An Irish translation by William Daniel was printed in Dublin in 1608. The Irish Act of Uniformity of 1666 adopted the changes made to the English Prayer Book in 1662. With disestablishment in 1870 responsibility for the liturgy of the Church of Ireland passed to the General Synod, which in 1878 authorized a revised Book of Common Prayer. Further revisions were published in 1926 and 1933. In 1984 a completely new liturgy was issued—the Alternative Prayer Book—which has since become standard in the Church of Ireland.

Alan Ford

Book of Common Prayer By a proclamation of 23 September 1548, Edward VI set up a commission to overSee the preparation of ‘one uniform order [of service] throughout the kingdom’. The Act of Uniformity March 1549) ordered the exclusive use of the new Book of Common Prayer. The Prayer Book contained morning and evening offices, and forms for the administration of the sacraments (e.g. baptism and the eucharist) as well as the psalter.

After 1549, reformed ideas, particularly from Germany and Switzerland, rapidly gained ground among English scholars, and were reflected in the Second Prayer Book, issued in 1552. This book was little used, as the accession of Mary I saw a temporary return to the older Latin services. In 1559 a modified 1552 Prayer Book came into use under Elizabeth I, and this formed the basis of the 1662 book, which remained the norm of Anglican worship until the 20th cent.

Common Prayer, Book of Official liturgy of the Church of England. Originally prepared as a reformed version of the old Roman Catholic liturgy for Henry VIII by Thomas Cranmer in 1549. Three years later it underwent revision under the Protestant government of Edward VI. The final version (1559), a combination of the two, was produced by Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. The Prayer Book was further revised in 1662 after the Restoration of Charles II.

Book of Common Prayer (often BCP). The major prayer book of the Anglican Church, and official service book of the Church of England. Its centrality and continuing use is advocated by the Prayer Book Society.

Book of Common Prayer see Book of Common Prayer .

Common Prayer, Book of: see Book of Common Prayer.

Book of Common Prayer See Common Prayer