Celebrations as Festivals mark Common Worship's full house

The concluding volume of the largest liturgical publishing project ever carried out in this country is published today.

'Common Worship: Festivals' is a comprehensive liturgical resource for use in the Church of England, containing material to help churches celebrate saints' days and other festivals and holy days.

"From early times the Christian Church has celebrated those in whom it has seen, with a particular clarity, the power of God to transform human lives, [from] those who first heard Jesus' teaching and followed his call... [to] those who have succeeded and been inspired by them in subsequent generations," explains the volume's introduction.

The new volume provides the resources for marking the individual holy days on which these saints and holy men and women are remembered.

People remembered in the book's rich collection of material range from Alban, who became the first recorded British Christian martyr after he gave shelter to a Christian priest fleeing from arrest in around the year 250, to Josephine Butler, the social reformer who played a major role in improving conditions for women in education and public health before her death in 1906. Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury whose Book of Common Prayer remains a valued part of the Church of England's liturgical provision, also features among the people whose faithful lives are celebrated by the volume's contents.

The Rt Rev Stephen Platten, the Bishop of Wakefield and Chairman of the Liturgical Commission, comments: "A key concept throughout the production of the Common Worship family of materials is that the Christian life is a journey, one which those as yet uncommitted to the faith are invited and encouraged to join.

"It is a real privilege to have been involved in the creation of a range of material which could be described as signposts and viewing points along that journey.

"The material in Festivals provides a fitting note on which to conclude the series, by looking to the inspiration of those who have gone before us. The example of the martyrs, saints and those we remember through the festivals challenges us to proceed with the next phase: to make sure our worship is not only worthy of God, but also to ensure that it connects with people and transforms lives, just as they did."

For ease of use, Common Worship: Festivals is organised by day and contains all the liturgical material required for each festival, except the text of the Bible readings. In addition to the relevant Collects, Post Communion prayers and other material, Festivals also includes prefaces for each occasion or type of occasion set to traditional plainsong, and confirms the liturgical colours to be used in church.

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.