To learn more, please refer to the following resources:

Sue Careless' Discovering Common Prayer

Everyman's History of the Prayer Book, by Percy Dearmer. D. D. (AtJustus.anglican.org)

On-line articles about the Prayer Book

The Canadian (1962) The Prayer Book On-line

The Prayer Book on the internet

The Book of Common Prayer (1962 Canadian Revision) is the official prayer book of the Anglican Church of Canada. Often refered to simply as the Prayer Book, it is the second Canadian edition (the first was adopted in 1918) in a line of Books of Common Prayer, originating in the sixteenth century English Reformation.

The Book of Common Prayer is used across the world in a number of editions (it has been translated into over 150 languages, including Canadian French, Inuktitut, Gwich'in, Mohawk, and Cree editions).

While its use has declined in many places due to the publication of alternative service books (such as the Canadian Book of Alternative Services), the Prayer Book remains an invaluable and definitive source for Anglican liturgy and doctrine.

The Book of Common Prayer is a collection of different types of material (cf. the table of contents, which is on-line along with some of the contents of the Prayer Book). It includes the Offices - services of morning and evening prayer to be said every day - along with tables for reading through the Bible yearly as a part of these services. The Prayer Book also contains the Psalms, as appointed to be read through monthly, also as a part of the offices.

The Prayer Book is also the source for the forms for administering the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Anglican Church: Holy Communion (along with the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels used at Communion and other services), Baptism, Matrimony, and Burials. It also contains the ordination rites of the Anglican Church.

Also found in the Prayer Book are a number of other services and prayers for specific occasions or needs, such as the Litany, the prayers for the sick, and prayers for use at sea.

Finally, the Book of Common Prayer includes official doctrinal positions, such as the Creeds and the 39 Articles of Religion.

While this sampling of contents of the Prayer Book is far from complete, it shows some of the diversity found within its pages, and how it functions as a normative source of Anglican prayer, liturgy, and doctrine.

The Book of Common Prayer is not only of interest for students of Anglicanism, however, since it has played an important role in the life of the English speaking world more generally. Along with the King James Bible and the greatest works of English literature, the Prayer Book has been central in shaping the culture and thought of the English-speaking world.