Alongside this breadth and depth of material, the book itself has been designed to be used by priests celebrating Holy Communion, with solid hardback covers and looser binding enabling the book to lie flat, whilst six coloured ribbons enable easy navigation.
Thinking big
Common Worship is the biggest project ever undertaken by the Liturgical Commission, supported by Church House Publishing. From the sample booklet printed in the spring of 2000, to this final volume being published in the spring of 2008, almost 60 different publications have been completed - an average rate of nine separate items each year.
Somewhere in the region of 1.6 million printed items have been produced in total, plus more than half a million information leaflets and booklets distributed to parishes at the turn of the millennium.
To give an idea of its scale, for the standard volume alone - which includes comprehensive material for morning, evening and night prayer; Holy Communion and Holy Baptism - the printers used 2,500 miles of paper, weighing 300 tonnes, 190 miles of ribbon, and enough binding material to cover 4.5 football pitches.
Laid end-to-end, all 1.6 million items would stretch 335km (based on an average A5 height of 21cm), lining the roads for the distance between Lambeth Palace and Bishopthorpe Palace, the offices and homes of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York respectively.
What next?
The Liturgical Commission launched Transforming Worship last summer, an initiative to help church leaders make the most of the available resources both within and outside the Common Worship family. Transforming Worship is already gaining momentum, with the launch of a dedicated online resource portal at www.transformingworship.org.uk and the recent publication of Worship Changes Lives, a guide aimed at stimulating discussion within local churches on how worship might be a greater force for change within their community.
"The Church of England owes a debt of gratitude to all those involved in producing this rich and inspiring range of liturgy. All of us in the Church who are responsible for arranging services need to engage with the wealth of material now at our disposal," said Bishop Platten.
Go to www.chpublishing.co.uk for more information.
