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Book of Common Prayer

noun

the service book of the Church of England, essentially adopted but changed in details by other churches of the Anglican communion.

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RELATED WORDS

canon, breviary, lectionary, psalmbook, psalter, scripture
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for book of common prayer

Book of Common Prayer

noun

the official book of church services of the Church of England, until 1980, when the Alternative Service Book was sanctioned
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Culture definitions for book of common prayer

Book of Common Prayer

The book used in worship by the Anglican Communion. Its early versions, from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were widely admired for the dignity and beauty of their language.

Note

The Book of Common Prayer has had a strong effect on literature in English through such expressions as “Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace,” and “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.”

Book of Common Prayer

The book used in worship by the Anglican Communion; it has had several revisions since the Reformation, and different versions exist for different countries.

Note

The Book of Common Prayer, widely admired for the dignity and beauty of its language, has had a strong effect on the worship of Protestants outside the Anglican Communion, many of whom have borrowed its expressions. Most traditional Protestant wedding ceremonies, for example, follow the pattern of the Book of Common Prayer very closely.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.