The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is a foundational liturgy for the Church of England and for all the daughter provinces of the Anglican Communion, though its status has changed, and in many provinces it is a distant memory. In England, it remains the one liturgy that has parliamentary authorisation, with all others having synodical authority only. In the days of the General Ordination Exams, knowledge of the Prayer Book was provided by The tutorial prayer book by Neil and Willoughby, but with the appearance of new liturgies, and the decline in 1662 services, no modern replacement has appeared, and probably was thought unnecessary. Gerald Bray's book is designed to fill this space.

The initial chapter provides a very readable historical overview of the Prayer Book, and subsequent chapters give a commentary – historical, textual and theological – on its various services. The commentary is very detailed on the preface and the other introductory material, such as ‘Of ceremonies’, and how to use the psalter, followed by chapters on the divine offices and their accoutrements. This chapter is slightly marred by the discussion of Chalcedon, and highlighting Nestorius, with no comment on the Miaphysite position. Modern ecumenical debate in the Vienna Dialogues and the Syriac Dialogues generally accept that even Nestorius (in the Bazaar of Heraclides) was not a Nestorian, and in this respect Bray's comments are unhelpful and misleading. Detailed discussions are given on the communion and baptismal rites, with tables identifying material from various sources such as the Sarum Use (and it was a Use, not a Rite). Bray's reference to covenant theology in relation to baptism could be misleading, for Cranmer seems to have quite deliberately avoided using the Zurich-Geneva preferred terminology. It was, however, common parlance for the 1662 revisers, but they refrained from introducing the term (rampant in the 1644 Directory and Baxter's Savoy liturgy) into 1662. Bray gives less detail and attention to the marriage service, and here he seems more concerned with legalities than the liturgy itself and its background. The remaining pastoral services are collected together in one chapter. A final chapter deals with the ordination services, and the titles of the Thirty-Nine Articles are listed, but the articles not expounded.

For those looking for a navigation through 1662, the historical overview and the chapter on ordination rites are masterful and very helpful. However, like many commentaries, there is a theological bias which seeps through from time to time. It is not a bias to the language of 1662 – this is not a Prayer Book Society voice; rather, Bray's expertise in the English Reformation formularies has been utilised to give an Evangelical reading of 1662, and the text is frequently read in the light of 1559, which in turn is read in the light of 1552. This overlooks the fact that liturgical language is always pliable and open to various interpretations and readings, and the mindset of the 1662 compilers was certainly not that of Thomas Cranmer in 1552. Whatever Cranmer's doctrine and intention, the language has always allowed a wider latitude than he may have intended or desired. Herbert Thorndike clearly had a much ‘higher’ doctrine of eucharistic presence than Cranmer, and was able to use 1662; equally, Edward Reynolds as bishop of Norwich used the 1662 communion rite, but his own beliefs and teachings were that the communion preserves the soul only, not body and soul as the liturgy stated. To read 1662 in the light of 1552 is akin to interpreting 1552 in the light of 1549 and the Sarum mass. This is to read theological history in reverse. Bray is very critical of the medieval Church, and he stresses the Prayer Book rejection of transubstantiation. At one point in discussing the Gospel narratives, he then argues that Jesus clearly was not teaching that the bread and wine were the substances of his body and blood. Other remarks about transubstantiation suggest that Bray, like most sixteenth-century commentators, including Cranmer, did not understand the thirteenth-century arguments of Aquinas in the same way as, in the eighteenth century, Samuel Clarke used a contemporary understanding of ‘person’ to reject Athanasian Christology. In dealing with vesture, Bray omits the Elizabethan requirement that in cathedrals copes should be worn for communion, which she insisted on in the royal chapel. When discussing contemporary English ordination, Bray mentions the surplice, but neglects to mention that many dioceses insist on a white stole, regardless of churchmanship. This seems to set 1552 deliberately as the preferred setting. There are also some curious oversights such as, when discussing Jeremy Taylor's rite, there is total silence on the extensive use Taylor made of the liturgy of St James. For the reviewer, it is curious that so much attention was given to the commination service, and so little to churching of women. The latter has provoked several books and articles by women about ‘purification’ which Bray might have recognised. Interestingly, although the service was criticised by ‘Puritans’ as ‘Jewish’, many seventeenth-century women welcomed the ‘gossiping’, which was a social occasion that went in tandem with the service. This reviewer's mother told him she was ‘churched’ after his birth, but ten years later, in 1958, she was not churched on the birth of his brother, though it was still in use in the Durham area when he trained for ministry. On the other hand, this reviewer has never encountered the commination in parish worship.

Gerald Bray has made a brave attempt to make sense of 1662 for contemporary readers, especially those of a more Evangelical slant. Latimer House Publications are frequently cited in preference to other studies. How wide that readership is would be interesting to know. Many Church of England Evangelical churches have abandoned all vesture for services, use material that is hard to identify as Anglican at all, and are unlikely to take up cassock and surplice and 1662 Morning Prayer again. Those of a more ‘catholic’ hue will probably not find the book congenial at all, which is unfortunate. Those who wish for a short overview of the development of Anglican liturgy, and the ordination rites, will be richly rewarded by Bray in those chapters.