Book of Common Prayer (1979)

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer embodies the liturgical and sacramental thinking of the mid-1970s. To say that things have changed — in the world and in the church — might well be the understatement of the year.

The unity of common prayer is only a projection that denies that we are, in fact, a divided church.

Why do we presume that our common rites are just not “with it” enough for contemporary services? Why use another prayer book?

In 1997, Neil Alexander said that "it is not a perfect book and could stand some general improvement in some fairly critical places. But I believe ..."

Yesterday, the bishops voted to implement in church canon law and in trial-run liturgies the situation that obtained in this country before last Friday. That is, there will be a majority of dioceses that perform same-sex marriages, and a minority that will not.

God wants to transform me and use the transformed me to transform his world. But how?

Urban T. Holmes claimed that those who resisted the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, as well as the charismatic renewal movement, reflected “a nostalgia for a classical theology which many theologians know has not been viable for almost two hundred years." But is that what the BCP represents?

By Steve Waring • “A great many people do not understand the connection between baptism and the teaching of the faith.”

“No single prayer or statement can convey the entirety of the Christian faith.”

The Rev. Canon Leonel L. Mitchell, one of the scholars responsible for the Book of Common Prayer (1979), died May 23 in South Bend, Indiana. The veteran liturgist and theologian was 81.