''Common Worship'' is the name given to the series of services authorised by the General Synod of the Church of England and launched on the first Sunday of

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

in 2000. It represents the most recent stage of development of the Liturgical Movement within the Church and is the successor to the Alternative Service Book (ASB) of 1980. Like the ASB, it is an alternative to the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer (BCP)'', which remains officially the normative liturgy of the Church of England. It has been published as a series of books, rather than a single volume, offering a wider choice of forms of worship than any of its predecessors. It was drafted by the Church of England's

Liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

Commission; the material was then either authorised by

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly, is the legislative body of the Church ...

(sometimes with amendments) or simply commended for use by the

House of Bishops The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Series

The main ''Common Worship'' book is called ''Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England''. It was published in 2000 alongside ''Common Worship: President's Edition''. These volumes contain the material for Sunday services, but unlike the ASB, contain no readings. The third book to be published (also in 2000), ''Common Worship: Pastoral Services'', provides for the first time a range of healing services, as well as revised provision for weddings and funerals. The former has a completely rewritten preface that no longer describes the threefold purposes of marriage and is much more secular in tone. It includes, for the first time, a congregational response to the declarations by the couple and a long nuptial blessing. The funeral provisions includes material for before and after the service, all completely rewritten. The funeral now includes an optional penitential section, no longer has a required psalm and includes set intercessions. It also allows for a eulogy by one of the mourners, a new departure, at the beginning of the service. Temporary authorised liturgy

In 2005 the fourth book, ''Common Worship: Daily Prayer'', was published. The form and style of daily morning and evening prayer no longer shows the influence of the ''BCP,'' but the work of the English Franciscan community and its book '' Celebrating Common Prayer''. The offices are not dissimilar to those of the Roman Catholic Church. Penitence becomes optional, as does the Creed; the ''

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

'' disappears almost completely, and a Gospel canticle—the ''

Benedictus Benedictus, Latin for "blessed" or "a blessed person", may refer to: Music * "Benedictus" (canticle), also called the "Canticle of Zachary", a canticle in the Gospel of Lukas * Part of the "Sanctus", a hymn and part of the eucharistic prayer in W ...

'' in the morning and the ''

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for "y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary or Canticle of Mary, and in the Byzantine Rite as the Ode of the Theotokos (). Its Western name derives from the incipit of its Latin text. This ...

'' in the evening—follows the reading(s); there is a wide range of intercessions; collects are provided for lesser festivals (unlike in the main book); and there is a

psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...

. Both the book and the new daily lectionary were tried out in parishes before final publication. In 2006, three more volumes, ''Common Worship: Christian Initiation'', ''Common Worship: Ordination Services'' and ''Common Worship: Times and Seasons'', were published. In the first, there is provision for Baptism, Confirmation, and related rites (including Reconciliation). In the second, there are rites for the ordination of deacons, priests and bishops. In the third, there is provision for all the seasons of the church's year, including sections on the Agricultural Year and Embertide. The final book, ''Common Worship: Festivals'', was published in 2008 and provides

propers The proper (Latin: ''proprium'') is a part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the liturgical year, or of a particular saint or significant event. The term is used in contrast to the ...

for all the

Festivals A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

and Lesser Festivals of the Church of England's

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

Lectionaries

As a component of the Liturgical Commission's work in providing an updated liturgy for the Church of England, the Revised Common Lectionary was adapted and published in 2000 as th
Common Worship Lectionary
for Sundays, Principal Feasts and Holy Days, and Festivals. The Common Worship Weekday Lectionary was authorised and published in 2005.

Content and style

''Common Worship'' is published in electronic, as well as paper form, with the intent that congregations can assemble their own orders of service and extend them with prayers and readings.

Appraisal

''Common Worship'' and other liturgical revision efforts in the Church of England have been criticized by proponents of the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer''. In 2004, Prayer Book Society president Patrick Cormack described the preceding 40 years of Church of England revisions as "liturgical anarchy", holding that the new liturgical books had alienated traditionalists and failed to attract young people. Cormack added that "command of modern liturgists over the language does not begin to equal Cranmer's".

References

External links