Common Worship Publications

The ‘main volume’ is the backbone of the Common Worship series – the primary worship and service book for the Church of England.
It contains material used on Sundays by most churches: a variety of Communion services and non-eucharistic forms of worship, as well as the basic Baptism service and the Psalms.

Available in Hardback Black, Presentation and Desk Editions. 

The Main Volume President's Edition is a large, A4 volume, designed to be used by those presiding at Holy Communion. It contains Eucharistic material from the original Main Volume alongside additional content, such as further prayers, collects, seasonal variations and music.

Explore all versions of the President's Edition here. 

Available in Hardback and as an e-book. 

A full range of booklets, cards and other resources drawn from Pastoral Services is also available.

The increased participation of children in celebrations of the Eucharist and the growing practice of admitting children to communion have been notable features of the life of the Church of England in recent years. These additional Eucharistic prayers for Common Worship are designed for use where significant numbers of children are present, particularly in school worship.

Available in Paperback and as an e-book. 

Includes the text of the Order One service, all eight eucharistic prayers, and supplementary texts including a form of preparation, penitential material, the Apostles Creed, a selection of prayers at the preparation of the table and a selection of prayers after communion.

Explore our many Communion Booklets here.

The following booklets contain material also found in the main volume. They contain both their own pagination and that of the main volume, for ease of use.

A range of Morning, Evening and Night Prayer Booklets is available.

The Lectionary

A lectionary is a list of Bible readings assigned to each day of the Christian year. The Common Worship Lectionary is the Bible reading plan for the Church of England, dictating which readings are read during services.

The Common Worship Lectionary consists of two main parts - the Sunday readings, which operate on a three-year cycle, and the Weekday readings, which operate on a two-year cycle. There are also special readings for feasts and festivals, many of which fall on different days each year (such as Easter). These 'moveable feasts' alter the usual pattern of readings, meaning that no year has the exact same lectionary readings as any other.

For this reason, each year the recommended Bible readings (references only) are published in a booklet to enable churches to find the correct daily readings with ease. The dates of feasts and festivals are also worked out and clearly presented.

The lectionary follows the church year, beginning on the first Sunday of Advent. This falls in late November or early December. Each annual lectionary is published in the April before it begins.

The Lectionary booklet is available in Large and Standard formats.

It is also available as an app for Android and Apple devices and Windows and Mac Desktop.

Collects

A Collect is a 'collecting prayer', one that gathers together the prayers of the congregation. It may be said at various points during a service. In the Church of England a Collect may also be used as the 'prayer of the week', prayed daily to link one's personal prayers to the Sunday liturgy.

Although a selection of Collects were included in the main volume in 2000, further Collects in contemporary language were requested and subsequently published as the Additional Collects in 2004.

The full range of Collects volumes can be found here.

This versatile collection provides a wealth of supplementary material to help you customize Common Worship services for any locality, age group, special occasion or festival. It offers:

• Advice and guidance on planning, preparing and structuring services.
• Over 250 pages of prayers and liturgy, conveniently organised by function, e.g. Gathering and Greeting, Praise and Thanksgiving, Action and Movement.
• 22 easy-to-adapt sample servicse for eucharistic, non-eucharistic, all-age worship and seasonal services.

Available in Hardback and Paperback.

Also available for Amazon Kindle and as an e-book.

Times and Seasons

Times and Seasons provides liturgical material for the major seasons of the Christian year. For each season, it offers a wide range of prayers and blessings, as well as fully worked out services and creative outlines for key events, such as Christingle and crib services, Easter Vigils and Dawn Services.

It also includes a collection of resources for the festivals and seasons of the agricultural year and material to explore themes such as creation and the environment.

Each season's material is clearly labelled, making Times and Seasons a comprehensive bank of resources to be drawn from throughout the year.

Available in Hardback, for Amazon Kindle and as an e-book. 

Festivals 

This volume contains everything you need to celebrate the Saints' days, principal holy days and special occasions in the Church of England calendar. It brings together all the prayers ('propers') and Collects needed for these days with Eucharistic material and music.

Designed to be used directly at the altar during a Festival celebration of Holy Communion, it also includes Holy Communion Order One in the centre of the book for easy access.

Available in Hardback and as an e-book. 

Proclaiming the Passion

The accounts of Jesus' Passion are at the heart of the Gospel tradition. This booklet sets out the texts of the Passion narratives for dramatic reading by a number of voices, on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. This liturgical custom has been present in northern Europe since the tenth century and in recent decades has seen something of a revival.

Available in Paperback, for Amazon Kindle and as an e-book.

This special hybrid volume of Common Worship provides the ordination liturgies of the Church of England from The Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship alongside a study guide for these services.

It is intended to facilitate study of the texts by all who are interested in what the Church of England teaches about ordination, and especially by those who are themselves preparing to be ordained. It also serves as a resource for ecumenical dialogue about ministry in the Church.

The first part presents the authorised ordination services, annotated with references to Scripture and to the Canons of the Church of England. The second part explains the thinking behind the services and offers a practical guide to planning ordinations. 

• A practical guide to celebrating ordinations

Available in Hardback and Paperback.

Also available for Amazon Kindle and as an e-book.