Common Worship: Main Volume

Common Worship

by The Church of England (Editor)

The Common Worship Main Volume is the primary worship and service book for the Church of England.

Genres: Christian, Reference, Nonfiction, Prayer

864 pages, Hardcover

First published November 9, 2000

About the author

The roots of the Church of England go back to the time of the Roman Empire when Christianity entered the Roman province of Britain. Through the influences of St Alban, St Illtud, St Ninian, St Patrick and, later, St Augustine, St Aidan and St Cuthbert, the Church of England developed, acknowledging the authority of the Pope until the Reformation in the 16th century.

The religious settlement that eventually emerged in the reign of Elizabeth I gave the Church of England the distinctive identity that it has retained to this day. It resulted in a Church that consciously retained a large amount of continuity with the Church of the Patristic and Medieval periods in terms of its use of the catholic creeds, its pattern of ministry, its buildings and aspects of its liturgy, but which also embodied Protestant insights in its theology and in the overall shape of its liturgical practice. The way that this is often expressed is by saying that the Church of England is both 'catholic and reformed.'

The changes that have taken place in the Church of England over the centuries have been many and various. What has remained constant, however, has been the Church's commitment to the faith 'uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds,' its maintenance of the traditional three fold order of ministry, and its determination to bring the grace of God to the whole nation through word and sacrament in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reviews

[Thomas Nussbaum-Richman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This liturgical volume is reasonably good overall, but I seriously feel lacks the soul of Anglican worship which the Book of Common Prayer by contrast does possess. Firstly, it feels in places totally out of continuity with that tradition, despite efforts to honour that — but even these seem to have ended up ignored by most who use this book. Secondly is the fact that it is not just this volume - there are myriad other publications of “Common Worship” which make lay devotion much more difficult than it does easy - a parishioner is forced to be totally reliant on the priest in devotional practices, because Common Worship with its many volumes becomes inaccessible in complexity and cost, which is precisely what the Book of Common Prayer was trying to combat when Cranmer was originally compiling it.

The Main Volume of Common Worship is not too bad as a standalone volume, but when the Book of Common Prayer still exists and is honestly superior, I see no reason not to use that instead.