Book of Common Prayer

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Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer, understood as a unifying symbol of Anglican tradition and worship, represents a common core of worship services, patterns, and language that draws on the traditions of early Christianity and holds together diverse perspectives within the U.S. Episcopal Church.

The prayer book traces its history to England, following Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church in 1531. The first English-language version, published in 1549, contained the official prayer services, communion, and sacramental rites of the Church of England. Subsequent revisions reflected struggles among Puritan, Reform, and Catholic factions and the influences they sought to exert on the church, as well as political and religious interests of the throne.

With the U.S. Episcopal Church's emergence following the Revolutionary War, severed from its Church of England roots, an Americanized version of the Book of Common Prayer was adopted in 1789, although with a distinct Scottish influence that reflected the strong ties the new denomination had formed with the Episcopal Church of Scotland. The new prayer book also was influenced by Anglican clergyman John Wesley's revised services for American Methodists, and the revised liturgy adopted by the independent King's Chapel in Boston.

The U.S. Book of Common Prayer underwent revision in 1892 and 1928. Yet the mid-twentieth century's growing interest in ecumenism, liturgy, and early church practices, combined with a decreasing tolerance of archaic worship language rather than contemporary usage, resulted in the most radical revision of the Book of Common Prayer to date. A series of Prayer Book Studies was commissioned in 1949, culminating in final approval of a new prayer book thirty years later. The 1979 revision has been recognized for including both traditional and contemporary worship forms as well as a flexible rite for the worship needs of specific occasions or communities, for placing Holy Communion as the central act of worship, for pastoral sensitivity, and for urging laity to participate actively in corporate worship and ministry. It also reflects diverse ecumenical perspectives, including both Catholic and evangelical influences.

A strong dissenting movement against the 1979 Book of Common Prayer came from the Prayer Book Society, claiming about ten thousand members, which decried both the loss of traditional language and the liberalizing theology underlying the revisions. Criticism also has been leveled by feminists for the prayer book's androcentric wording and imagery, with concern about its power to shape both sacred and secular relationships. Work on a new revision was authorized by the Episcopal Church General Convention in 1994, and reinforced in 1997 by the initiation of a process for authorizing additional worship forms that reflect multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, and multi-generational realities in society.

The Book of Common Prayer has been studied by other religious traditions intrigued by its common liturgical core as well as its flexibility and diversity. Similarities to the United Methodist Book of Worship remain evident. Comparison of the compatibility of the Book of Common Prayer and the Lutheran Book of Worship has been central to the ongoing work of developing intercommunion between those denominations.