350th Anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer

August 23, 2012 By 2 Comments

My students and I are halfway through a week of mission at an Anglican Church in Brisbane (St. Stephen’s Cooparoo) and we learnt that this year marks the 350th annivesary of the Book of Common Prayer. There is a whole webpage dedicated to celebrating the event (here) and you can learn more about the BCP here and also read Gerald Bray’s brief intro.

You might think that the BCP is just an “Anglican” thing. Not so! In F.F. Bruce’s autobiography, and Bruce was a life long Brethren man, I learnt that he kept only two books on his desk at all times. A Greek NT and a copy of the BCP! I’ve also enjoyed using the BCP in my own devotional life and I do so handily now using the BCP app for iPad and iPhone. I also thoroughly recommend David deSilva’s wonderful book, Sacramental Life: Spiritual Devotion Through the Book of Common Prayer, as a companion to the BCP.

The good thing about the BCP is that it teaches you to pray your theology!

Caveat: There are different “prayer books” in the Anglican communion. The BCP has been revised several times in several different places. Generally speaking, be cautious of any prayer book written after 1979!

See also Paul Barnett’s post on the BCP which is very good too.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 2 Comments
  • http://twitter.com/SteveRHolmes Steve Holmes

    I confess I’ve never quite understood the contemporary evangelical love affair with the BCP. When it was first issued in England in 1662, it was judged so bad that about a fifth of the clergy chose to leave the established church rather than use it. Such nonconformity brought state persecution – imprisonment and worse – but about 2000 ministers thought that persecution was a lesser evil than having to pray according to the Prayer Book.

    The language is generally beautiful, certainly, but the theology is too often an incoherent mush, as our forebears well knew.

    (The anniversary of enforced use of the BCP is tomorrow, incidentally – St Bartholomew’s Day.)

  • Rob

    I, too, use different versions of the BCP for devotions (as well as the new CoE Common Worship, Daily Prayer that I also recommend), and absolutely loved David DaSilva’s book, as well. But it should be noted that David’s book is a companion to the the US Episcopal Church’s 1979 Prayer Book. Using it with the other versions is significantly difficult.