With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is perhaps the most important book in the English language. Indeed, Brian Cummings notes that this extraordinary book formed the basis of worship in England ‘from the Reformation to the Beatles’ (p. ix). In one volume, Cummings has accomplished the seemingly impossible: publishing a critical edition of the three most important editions of the Prayer Book. Such a monumental endeavour is no easy task, requiring many difficult choices and decisions on what to include, and what to exclude. This task, however, was completed in just over 800 pages, and done exceedingly well.

In his Introduction, Cummings encapsulates the importance and history of the BCP. Considering the volumes which have been written on the Anglican Prayer Book, Cummings’ summary is remarkable in its succinctness. The Introduction is followed by a Note on the Texts, in which Cummings provides a brief synopsis of the history of Prayer Book printings along with the rationale behind his critical text. A brief but important Note on Music, a Select Bibliography suggesting further reading, and a helpful Chronology round out the preliminary matter.

The heart of this book is a critical edition of the three most important editions of the BCP: 1549, 1559 (which is a slight revision of the 1552 BCP) and 1662. Cummings is careful to present the texts as close to the original as possible, retaining such things as original spelling, while also reproducing the prayers and rubrics in such a way as to make it intelligible to the modern reader. In order to limit the length of the book, only the text of the 1662 BCP is presented in its entirety. This is not ideal, and Cummings admits as much, but including all three Prayer Books in their entirety would have brought this volume to well over 1500 pages. Several sections are therefore omitted in the texts of the 1549 and 1559 Prayer Books, and therein lies the difficult decision of what to delete. Cummings, for example, chose to omit the Psalter and Ordinal in both the 1549 and 1559; a wise choice, in my opinion, as the Psalter and Ordinal were never really a part of previous editions of the Prayer Book, but merely bound together with the BCP (often with other material such as the Sternhold and Hopkins Metrical Psalms). However, I’m less enthralled with his choice to omit such things as the Collects, Epistles and Gospels from the 1549 and 1559 BCP. The 1662 edition not only made some significant changes to the older Collects, but also used a different translation of the Bible for the Epistles and Gospels (the Authorized Version of 1611 was used instead of the Great Bible of 1540). I personally would have preferred to see the Collects, Epistles and Gospels included in Cummings’ 1549 and 1552 editions, even if such inclusions would have added to the length of the book.

Explanatory notes, which appear at the end of the volume, are comprehensive yet brief. The notes for the 1549 Prayer Book focus on its creation; notes for the 1559 and 1662 Prayer Books detail subsequent revisions in relation to earlier editions of the BCP. In my opinion, Cummings could have incorporated more of the significant scholarship from liturgiologists such as Colin Buchanan and Gordon Jeanes in his notes. A Glossary and Index complete the volume.

Cummings’ edition of the BCP will appeal to those seeking an introduction to the Prayer Book, as well as historians and Prayer Book scholars in need of a reference edition of the BCP. Not only does Cummings offer a fresh edition of the BCP which takes into account some of the most recent scholarship; he was also able to provide the three most important Prayer Book editions in one volume.