At my Church, the 8 a.m. service is Holy Communion with the liturgy from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (BCP).

I am one of the privileged few in the Church of England to be able to attend this service every Sunday.

Since the 1980s, the C of E has done everything possible to take the BCP out of use. In 1980 and 1984 (the edition I have), the Church published the Alternative Service Book (ASB), which the satirical magazine Private Eye lampooned for decades in a series called The Alternative Rocky Horror Service Book. The satirists scored a bullseye with every instalment.

A newer prayer book, Common Worship, superseded the ASB in 2000. It is considerably better.

However, what both the ASB and Common Worship have done is to effectively make the BCP obsolete.

The ASB Wikipedia entry says (emphases mine):

The Prayer Book Society soon complained that it was becoming hard to find a church which used the old prayer book and that theological colleges were not introducing students to it.

I can vouch for both complaints.

I’ve been attending my church for nearly 30 years. In that time, we have had either vicars or curates who entered the seminary, often as second careers. They could not reasonably recite the BCP liturgy. (On the other hand, our present incumbent, a young vicar, also a second careerist, does an excellent job.)

As some of these people were older than I am, I can assume only that they were not regular churchgoers in their youth.

In any event, one of the bright aspects of the coronavirus pandemic is that our church is using the BCP exclusively at 8 a.m. on Sunday. This is because the traditional liturgy service from Common Worship calls for the Peace, which involves shaking hands.

It would seem that other C of E churches also adopted the BCP during the pandemic.

An Anglican laywoman recently posed the following question on Twitter and received encouraging replies:

A benefice is a group of churches in one catchment area.

Here’s another encouraging response:

I’ve noticed a rise in people attending BCP services at churches I sing at, Evensong especially popular. Many of the younger generations I speak to prefer it – “it makes sense”. A church using BCP has flourishing choir of young people and many young families in the congregation.

The young vicar of the Anglican church in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, in Greater Manchester is particularly enthusiastic:

The Revd Sarah Hancock’s is a typically welcoming C of E response.

Those uncertain about reciting 17th century prayers can be drawn in:

The BCP liturgy went down well on Zoom when the churches were closed. Those who attended online are now back in church:

There were two enthusiastic responses from Cambridge.

The first is from Westcott House, the city’s Anglican seminary:

The second is from Cambridge University Press:

Coincidentally, my copy of the BCP is from Cambridge University Press. It’s nearly 30 years old and still looks like new. It came with an attractive yet durable slipcase, too.

Nothing would make traditionalists happier than a wider return to the BCP for some services, either on Sunday or during the week.

The BCP really does lift the soul and remind one of the communion of saints, those many generations of devout Anglicans who prayed from it through the centuries.

Long live the BCP.