The Book of Common Prayer
United States England Scotland Ireland Wales Canada World

    The Book of Common Prayer
Church of England

 

Common Worship: This replaces the Alternative Service Book; liturgies will be available at this C of E site as they are developed. Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer from Common Worship with with today's readings are also available from the Church of England

Alternative Service Book (ASB): several sections available in RTF format; other Church of England liturgical resources are available here as well.

The Shorter Prayer Book (1946)   new

1928 Proposed Book of Common Prayer. Approved by the Church, but rejected by Parliament.    updated

A Prayer Book Revised, a proposed revision from 1913, said to be by Percy Dearmer, along Anglo-Catholic lines. (from the Internet Archive)   new

Liturgies of the Nonjurors: The Communion office, and descriptions of these 18th-century liturgies.

1689 Proposed Book of Common Prayer: The Liturgy of Comprehension.
 

 

 The Church of England is, of course, the "mother church" of all the churches in the Anglican Communion. We have here the texts (or links to the texts) of all Church of England Books of Common Prayer dating back to the first, in 1549 - plus quite a bit of other related material. Everything is presented here more or less chronologically, starting with the newest.

Links in bold are on this site.

1662 Book of Common Prayer:

1662 Book of Common Prayer
Title page of the 1662 BCP, as currently printed

 

"Griffiths" refers to books listed in David Griffiths' Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer.

1559 Book of Common Prayer
The Elizabethan Book

1552 Book of Common Prayer
The second Prayer Book of Edward VI

Merbeke's Book of Common Prayer Noted (1550)   
The Book of Common Prayer put to music

1549 Book of Common Prayer   
The first Book of Common Prayer

The Order for the Communion 1548 
The first communion service in English.

Exhortation & Litany (1544)
The first liturgy in English

The Sarum Missal: The Communion service commonly used in the English Church before the Book of Common Prayer; in Latin and English.

The Directory for the Public Worship of God, which replaced the Book of Common Prayer between 1645 and 1660, is more of an outline of worship than a fixed liturgy, in keeping with its Puritan background. It is available online, from (not surprisingly) two conservative Presbyterian groups, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Ever wonder what those Homilies referred to in the 39 Aritcles really are? They are actual sermons, which are now online in ZIPped form. They are also available from the Anglican Library.


Title page of the first Book of Common Prayer, 1549

Last Updated: 10 November 2009

Web author: Charles Wohlers U. S. EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaWorld