A brief history of the Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer was originally published in 1549; it was largely the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and was a product of the reformation that was then taking place in England. In the middle ages, services were in Latin, and required a collection of books, including the Missal (for the Mass) and Breviary (for the daily round of Prayer) as well as books for Pastoral Services like Baptisms and Weddings. These in turn required whole books of complex instructions. The spirit of the reformation that was sweeping Europe pushed towards a more simple for of liturgy, and for services and the Bible to be in a language that the people could understand.

Cranmer and his colleagues drew on many sources, including the old Latin Sarum Use service books, as well as some liturgical experiments that were happening in parts of Catholic Europe. He also looked back to the early Church for inspiration.

The result was a single book that contained all the services that would be necessary for the life of a parish church. It vastly reduced the number of saints days and services associated with them and the church year. Most importantly services would, from then on, be conducted in English.

When it appeared it was by no means simply accepted. There were actually riots in the West Country and many parishioners deeply mourned the pace at which reform was occurring. Nevertheless, the Book was imposed, and went through a second, more radical, edition in 1552, although with the accession of Mary I, that was short-lived. With the accession of Elizabeth I, the book was revived with a few but significant modifications aimed at reassuring the traditionalists.

This Book was that of Charles I, and in the 17th century as the Church of England continued to forge an identity, some of the rituals that had been lost were revived. This was again not universally accepted and indeed with the publication in 1637 of a Scottish Prayer Book that closely resembled that of 1549 the pressure burst and eventually led to the Civil War and the abolition of the Prayer Book and monarchy altogether.

From 1645, clergy were forbidden to use the Prayer Book, a Directory for Worship having been published instead. This was not a liturgy but literally a set of instructions on how to perform services based on passages of scripture and extemporary prayer. Not all clergy welcomed this. Even in puritan London there were dissenters; notably the Rector of St James who refused to abandon the well loved liturgy. When he was deposed for this in 1647, his parishioners continued to pay him a pension. Even then, St James valued the Book of Common Prayer!

When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 the old Prayer Book was revived, but it was considered that again revision was needed. Eventually, after much discussion, a new edition was published in 1662. It was, like much of Anglican politic, very much a compromise, and one that some of the more radical puritan clergy could not accept. They broke away becoming the first Non-Conformists.

But it was the 1662 Prayer Book that would remain the official liturgy of the Church of England until the late 20th century. Attempts to revise it in 1689 and 1928 ended in failure, although in the latter case several of the proposed changes did end up being incorporated into the worship in many churches, including St James.

With the rise of more modern liturgies after the Second World War some believed that the Prayer Book was in terminal decline. However, there has been something of a revival, and Prayer Book services are increasingly popular, not least amongst younger people. Along with the Authorised Version of the Bible (King James Version) and the works of Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer is one of the greatest works of English literature; it has been taken around the world and has been translated into numerous languages.

And with the exception of those 13 years, St James Garlickhythe has basically known no other liturgy.