A Users' Guide for Episcopalians

Other services in the Book of Common Prayer you may not be familiar with:

• Morning and Evening Prayer: Before the late 1970’s many churches had Morning Prayer as their primary Sunday service; the Eucharist was celebrated either at an earlier time or even only once a month.
• Evening Prayer is often called Evensong and it is a long time Anglican tradition to have beautiful Evensong services with lots of music and prayers.
• Noonday Prayer and Compline are especially suitable for individuals at lunch or at home before going to sleep. These liturgies in the Prayer Book reflect most faithfully the early Monastic Offices.
• Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage: I bet these words will seem familiar to you even if you have never taken part in this service; as they are the most common words in old time movies when they want a marriage scene.
• The Great Litany was the first liturgical prayer published in English, a few years before the rest of the Prayer Book. I think the Great Litany is very powerful prayer but many think it is too medieval. Originally it was said three times a week.
• An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism: Everyone should be familiar with this section. Anyone reading this, along with the Baptismal Covenant, will be strengthened by the clear statement of the respect the Church teaches for the Dignity and Integrity of every single individual; loved by God as a child of God.