"What the great hymnbook of 1780 is to the Methodists and the Psalter to the Presbyterians, the Book of Common Prayer is to the English Church: "unique, unapproachable, elemental in its perfection". With the Authorised Version it is our living link with ourselves and with the early modern phase of our language in its first simple and supple splendour. Herbert Howells, one of the finest of our church composers in the older generation, puts the threat quite simply: "It is as if someone has gone around and put black marks on parish church after parish church, and one cathedral after another.""
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Original Language: English
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Sources
David Martin, 'A plea for our Common Prayer', in Brian Morris (ed.), Ritual Murder: Essays on Liturgical Reform (1980), pp. 21-22
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Book_of_Common_Prayer
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Book of Common Prayer
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