Simon's Liturgical
Library

WELCOME to my liturgical library, a collection of authorized and other texts used in the Church of England and in the wider Anglican Communion and elsewhere.

Several people have contributed texts to this collection. If you have other material you would like to share then please email me. If the material is already on the WWW then I can link to it; if it is not I may be able to provide space for it. I hope to make this a comprehensive collection of material and links.

Most of these texts are available here, formatted for viewing on the WWW. Some are available as Rich Text Format (or RTF) files, so they should be readable by most word processors on various platforms. A few others are plain text, depending on the source.

• from the Alternative Service Book 1980:
  • a copyright notice. Please read this before downloading any ASB texts.
  • Morning Prayer [RTF]
  • Evening Prayer [RTF]
  • the Eucharist, Rite A [RTF]
  • the Eucharist, Rite A
  • the Eucharist, Rite B (traditional language) [RTF]
  • the Marriage Service [RTF]
  • one of the forms of Confirmation [RTF]

• from the Book of Common Prayer (1662):
  • the complete text of the Book of Common Prayer according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England. Note that within Britain this text is the property of the Crown in perpetuity, and the Crown's rights are controlled by Cambridge University Press. The text linked above is outside the UK.

  • a "large-print" version of Holy Communion [RTF]

• other English material:
  • The Church of England will, if final approval is given by General Synod in 1997, have a new calendar. Keeping the Feast is an on-line version with additional material.
  • The Eucharist is also being revised by the Church of England. Details of the draft service are contained in the report Holy Communion Rites A & B Revised
  • Lent, Holy Week, Easter provides services and prayers for that period. Some of the texts are available on the WWW. Email me for the URL.
  • The Promise of His Glory provides services and prayers for the season from All Saints' Day to Candlemas, and was commended for use in 1991. The draft version is available on the WWW, and differs only in minor details. Email me for the URL.
  • Similarly the draft version of Patterns for Worship is available. Email me for the URL.
  • Six new eucharistic prayers which narrowly failed to gain authorization in February 1996.

• from the Church of Ireland
  • Amongst the Cloud of Irish Witnesses, propers for the commemoration of Irish saints and worthies, commended for publication by the Irish House of Bishops as an unofficial supplement to The Cloud of Witnesses.
  • A Service of the Word-- a Sunday service

• from the Church in Wales
  • Like the other Anglican Churches in the British Isles, the Church in Wales is in the process of authorizing the Revised Common Lectionary. It has also made available for trial use a revised calendar containing many ancient and modern Welsh saints.

• from the Episcopal Church in the USA
  • The Psalter of the ECUSA 1979 Book of Common Prayer, fully formatted for the WWW. Other parts of this BCP are under development.
  • Meanwhile there are several other impressions of the 1979 BCP here and here in RTF and plain text.
  • The American 1928 Book of Common Prayer which is used by one of the continuing Anglican churches in the USA
  • Some texts from various editions of the Book of Common Prayer from 1549.

• other liturgical items
  • Steve Benner is compiling The Anglican Online Hymnal a collection of hymn texts in the public domain.
  • The Revised Common Lectionary with NRSV readings
  • The Common Lectionary with direct links to the readings via the Bible Gateway
  • Some Notes on Liturgical Printing: an article by the famous typographer D B Updike.
  • The Order of Service for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953