The Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer

 

 

 

 

"The full title of the Book of Common Prayer is "The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church." As it sounds, the BCP includes the common liturgies for all the various rites and practices of the church, including the Morning and Evening Offices, the Eucharist, Ministration to the Sick, Reconciliation of a Penitent, and many others." [1]

King Henry VIII

"Although a formal break with the Papacy came about during the time of Henry VIII, the Church of England continued to use liturgies in Latin throughout his reign, just as it always had. However, once Henry died and the young Edward VI attained the throne in 1547, the stage was set for some very significant changes in the religious life of the country. And so a consultation of bishops met and produced the first Book of Common Prayer. It is generally assumed that this book is largely the work of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, but, as no records of the development of the prayer book exist, this cannot be definitively determined."  [2]

 

"The Book of Common Prayer is the foundational prayer book of the Church of England. It was one of the instruments of the Protestant Reformation in England, and was also adapted and revised for use in other churches in the Anglican Communion. It replaced the various Latin rites that had been used in different parts of the country with a single compact volume in English. First produced in 1549, it was drastically revised in 1552 and more subtly changed in 1559 and 1662. A modern liturgical text bearing the BCP name is widely used in the Episcopal Church of America as well as some Methodist churches." [1]

 

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer

"The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) has had an illustrious and checkered career since Archbishop Thomas Cranmer first introduced it to the Church of England back in 1549, almost five hundred years ago. If you've ever pledged to be faithful to someone "till death do us part," mourned to the words "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," or hoped for "peace in our time," you've been shaped by Cranmer's cadences, perhaps without knowing it. Alan Jacobs, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Baylor University and former professor of English at Wheaton College, has given us a lively recounting of the old Anglican prayer book's history in this new "biography," part of Princeton University Press's Lives of Great Religious Books series. Jordan Hylden, a doctoral candidate in theology and ethics at Duke University Divinity School, corresponded with Jacobs about the BCP's global reach and its mixed reception by evangelicals." [3]

 

 

 



 

 

[1] bookofcommonprayer.net. (2015). Welcome to the online BCP. Retrieved from Book of Common Prayer: http://www.bookofcommonprayer.net/

[2] Wohlers, C. (n.d.). The Book of Common Prayer - 1549. Retrieved from The Book of Common Prayer: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1549/BCP_1549.htm

 [3] Jacobs, A. (2014, April 7). The Book of Common Prayer Is Still a Big Deal. Retrieved from Christianity Today: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/march-web-only/book-of-common-prayer-is-still-big-deal.html