The Book of Common Prayer (1662): Selections

Summary

The Book of Common Prayer is the service book of the Church of England, and the 1662 edition is the version that has remained its official standard. It gathers into one volume the services that earlier had required several Latin books: daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, Holy Communion, baptism, confirmation, marriage, the visitation of the sick, burial, the Psalter and the ordination services. Its first versions were issued in 1549 and 1552 under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and his English prose shaped much of the final text. The 1662 revision followed the Restoration of Charles II and the collapse of Puritan hopes for a more thoroughly reformed church. The Act of Uniformity required all ministers to use it; around two thousand who would not conform left their parishes in what became known as the Great Ejection. This library presents selections. The Preface explains the revision, aiming at a middle way between too much rigidity and too much readiness to change. Concerning the Service of the Church explains Cranmer's goal of reading the whole Bible in an orderly cycle in the common language. Of Ceremonies defends keeping some ceremonies and abolishing others. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, the daily offices, begin with sentences of Scripture, an exhortation, a general confession said by all, and an absolution, then psalms, lessons, canticles such as the Te Deum and the Magnificat, the Creed and collects. The confession's phrase about having 'erred and strayed' like lost sheep, and the evening collect asking God to 'lighten our darkness', are among the best known lines in English prayer. The Athanasian Creed, appointed for certain feasts, closes the selection. The language of the Prayer Book, along with the King James Bible, deeply influenced English literature, and its marriage and burial services gave English many familiar phrases. It is still authorized in the Church of England and used, often in adapted forms, across the Anglican Communion.

Top Lessons

• Worship in a common language

  The book insisted that prayer be in English so that all could understand and join.

• Uniformity and conscience

  The 1662 book was enforced by law, and clergy who refused were ejected.

• Language that lasts

  Many phrases from the Prayer Book entered everyday English.

• For the Christian reader

  Thomas Cranmer's prayers, preserved in the 1662 book, have been prayed daily in English for more than three hundred years, and many phrases have passed into the common language. The Prayer Book weaves Scripture into worship, appointing the Psalms to be read through each month and the Bible through each year. Students can pray Morning or Evening Prayer as a class and notice how much of it is Scripture.

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