The Book of Common Prayer

A Prayerbook for All Christians and All Nations

The Book of Common Prayer (1662) is one of the most beloved liturgical texts in the Christian church, and remains a definitive expression of Anglican identitytoday. It is still widely used around the world, in public worship and private devotion, and is revered for both its linguistic and theological virtues.

But the classic text of the 1662 prayer book presents several difficulties for contemporary users, especially those outside the Church of England. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition gently updates the text for contemporary use while retaining some of the spelling and style of the original seventeenth-century English. In this volume, readers will find:

• state prayers of England have been replaced with prayers that can be used regardless of nation or polity;
• obscure words and phrases have been modestly revised for clarity, while theprayer book’s original cadence, including many of its traditional spellings and expressions, have been intentionally preserved; and
• a selection of treasured prayers from later Anglican tradition has been appended.

The 1662 prayerbook remains a vital resource today, both in the Anglican Communion and for Christians everywhere. Here it is presented for continued use for today's Christians throughout the world.

Samuel L. Bray is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, as well as a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He is coauthor (with John F. Hobbins) of Genesis 1–11: A New OldTranslation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators.

Drew Nathaniel Keane teaches in the Department of English at Georgia Southern University. He formerly served on the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music for the Episcopal Church. He is coauthor (with Samuel D. Fornecker) of a forthcoming commentary on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.