The "Common Prayer" contains, in one volume, the articles of faith, and all the rites, ceremonies, and prescribed forms of the Church of England and it is thus not only a Prayerbook, but a Ritual and Confession of Faith. We give here a brief sketch of the history of English and American Prayer-books. As to the question of the value of such forms, SEE FORMS OF PRAYER. In the view of those churches, the devotions of separate families or persons may be conducted in any mode which best suits the circumstances of each but joint worship, common prayer, must be in forms on which all are previously agreed, because these alone can equally express common wants (see Canons 4, 38, and 98, Church of England, on the obligation to use the Book of Common Prayer. It is so called because it contains the prayers which the members of those churches use in common, as distinguished from their devotions as private individuals. Common Prayer the service-book of the Church of England and of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
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