General Notes relating to the orders of prayer in Common Worship: Daily Prayer will be found here.
1 Required and
optional parts of Morning and Evening Prayer
In order to maintain the integrity of the Order, the following should always
be used, and is marked with a shaded background. All else is optional.
¶ Opening response
¶ A prayer of thanksgiving or a suitable
hymn or an opening canticle
¶ Psalmody
¶ Reading
¶ Gospel Canticle
¶ Intercessions
¶ Collect
¶ Lord’s Prayer
¶ Conclusion
If Morning or Evening Prayer and the Holy Communion are combined, the Prayers
and Conclusion may be omitted from the office.
2 Principal Services
When Morning or Evening Prayer is the principal service on a Sunday, Principal
Feast or other Principal Holy Day, an authorized confession and absolution,
the Apostles’ Creed or another authorized affirmation of faith, and a
sermon must be included. The third Form
of Penitence may not be used on such occasions.
3 Principal Feasts,
other Principal Holy Days and Festivals
On Principal Feasts and other Principal Holy Days the orders of the season are
used, except that on the Annunciation of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary
the Christmas orders are used.
On Festivals, the orders for the period from All Saints’ Day until the
day before the First Sunday of Advent may be used, with the following exceptions:
¶ On the Festivals of Stephen, John and
the Holy Innocents, the Christmas orders are used;
¶ on the Festival of Joseph, the Festival
of the Visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth and the Festival of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the Christmas orders may be used;
¶ on the Festival of the Birth of John
the Baptist, the Advent orders may be used;
¶ on the Festival of Mary Magdalene,
the Easter orders may be used;
¶ on the Festival of the Transfiguration,
the Epiphany orders may be used; and
¶ on Holy Cross Day, the Passiontide
orders may be used.
On Lesser Festivals and Commemorations the orders of the Season or of Ordinary Time, as the case may be, are used.
Collects, canticles and refrains specified for each Holy Day (texts that are proper to the day) can be found here (Temporale and Sanctorale).
4 The Acclamation
of Christ at the Dawning of the Day and The Blessing of Light
The Order for Morning Prayer may begin with an Acclamation
of Christ at the Dawning of the Day, which replaces
the Preparation. The Blessing of Light
may be used in place of the Preparation in the Order for Evening Prayer.
5 The Thanksgiving
Prayer
The Thanksgiving Prayer, beginning ‘Blessed are you …’, may
be varied or improvised when appropriate.
6 Opening Hymn
at Evening Prayer
In the Order for Evening Prayer in the seasons, the hymn suggested may be replaced
by another suitable hymn or omitted.
7 The Psalms
and Scripture Readings
The psalms and Scripture readings appointed for the day are indicated in the
Common Worship Lectionary, published separately. References are given
in the order: book, chapter, verse. The references to the psalms in the Lectionary
are to the Common Worship Psalter. When other versions are used, such
adaptations are made as are necessary. A prayer may be used at the conclusion
of each psalm, in which case it is desirable that ‘Glory to …’
be omitted, and that a period of silence for individual reflection be kept between
the end of the psalm and the prayer.
When the readings for Morning or Evening Prayer are used
in Prayer During the Day, the short reading found in that office may be used
at Morning or Evening Prayer.
When a reading begins with a personal pronoun, the reader may substitute the
appropriate noun or name.
At the conclusion, the reader may say, ‘This is the word of the Lord’;
the reply is, ‘Thanks be to God’.
At Morning Prayer, a psalm of praise may be said at the conclusion of the psalmody,
or, when the canticle immediately follows the psalmody, after that canticle.
The following cycle may be used. (Alleluia is not said in Lent, and these psalms
are not appropriate in Passiontide.)
Sunday 117
Monday 146
Tuesday 147.1-12
Wednesday 147.13-end
Thursday 148
Friday 149
Saturday 150
8 Sermon
A Sermon may be delivered at one of the following points:
¶ between the responsory and the Gospel
Canticle;
¶ before the Prayers;
¶ after the Prayers.
9 Creed
A Creed or authorized Affirmation of Faith may be said after the Gospel Canticle
(or after the sermon, if there is one).
10 Prayers
Petitions of intercession, litanies, thanksgivings and other forms of extempore
prayer may be used at any point in the Prayers. Some forms of prayer are provided.
The tables suggest one way of ensuring
a broad range of prayer over the week or the season. A
General Thanksgiving may also be used. The Litany may
be said instead of the Prayers; it is especially suitable on Ash Wednesday,
on Fridays in Lent and on the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (2 November).
11 The Collect
at Evening Prayer
¶ At Evening Prayer on Saturday the Collect,
canticles and refrains for the Sunday following are used (except where the Saturday
itself is a Principal Feast or Festival, Christmas Eve or Easter Eve).
¶ At Evening Prayer on the day before
a Principal Feast, the Collect, canticles and refrains for the Feast are used.
(Special provision is made for Christmas Eve and Easter Eve.)
¶ At Evening Prayer on the day before
a Festival, the Collect, canticles and refrains for the Festival may be used
at local discretion.
12 The Lord’s
Prayer
Other words to introduce the Lord’s Prayer may be used or the introduction
may be omitted.
13 Thanksgivings
In Morning or Evening Prayer, one of the Thanksgivings, Prayers for the
Unity of the Church or Prayers
at the Foot of the Cross may be used as an alternative
to the Prayers and the Conclusion.When the Thanksgiving for the Word is used,
a Form of Penitence is not included at the beginning of the Order.
14 The Sunday
Gospel
Where desired, the Gospel reading for Sunday may be used on the preceding Saturday
evening, in which case material from the Thanksgiving
for the Mission of the Church or the Vigil
Office may be used.
15 Te Deum,Gloria
in Excelsis and Nunc Dimittis
On Sundays, Principal Feasts and Festivals, the following may be used immediately
before the Conclusion:
¶ Te
Deum (Morning or Evening Prayer)
¶ Gloria
in Excelsis (Morning Prayer)
¶ Nunc
Dimittis (Evening Prayer)
The Te Deum and Gloria in Excelsis are not normally used in Advent and Lent.
16 The Peace
The Order may conclude with the Peace in place of or in addition to the Blessing
or the Grace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you
All and also with you.
These words may be added
Let us offer one another a sign of peace,
God’s seal on our prayers.