"I think this is a beautiful project, and one that will be useful to churches and families that want to take advantage of the great beauty and theological power of the old prayer book, without being distracted by irrelevant or obscure language."
-- Alan Jacobs, Baylor University
"This splendid new edition of the Book of Common Prayer, adapted for international contemporary use, opens up a unique liturgical treasure for the benefit of all Christians and all nations."
-- Catherine Pickstock, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge
"The official prayer book of the Church of England remains the revised version of 1662. And beyond the United Kingdom, the 1662 edition continues to wield enormous influence in the Anglican Communion as well as in other churches around the world. Believers who still wish to pray from this time-tested prayer book now have a gorgeously produced, reader-friendly edition with which to do so. A greater gift for lovers of the Book of Common Prayer can hardly be imagined."
-- Wesley Hill, associate professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania
"Anglicans in North America today are not sufficiently familiar with the classic Book of Common Prayer (1662). Accordingly, I heartily endorse this accessible new edition of this essential Anglican formulary. It has long been needed and the editors are to be strongly commended for their care and restraint."
-- Gillis Harp, Grove City College
"In an age when each new wave of liturgical reform seems doomed to obsolescence almost before it is completed, Bray and Keane's call to 'Look to the rock from whence you were hewn' is a breath of fresh air. Amid the wreckage of discarded innovations that litter the liturgical landscape, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer still stands as the classic expression of Anglican spirituality, the finest edition of a prayer book that has nurtured the faith of countless millions. Bray and Keane are to be praised and saluted for retrieving this forgotten gem, polishing it up, and demonstrating its enduring value as a guide for public and private devotion. In the process, they have also proven the folly of overhasty modernizations of older devotional texts, showing that archaic language can be not merely beautiful but still thoroughly intelligible. Judiciously edited and beautifully presented, this edition is a great gift to the church today; I pray that it will be gratefully received and widely adopted."
-- Brad Littlejohn, president of the Davenant Institute
"The Prayer Book—in the classic edition of 1662—has been attacked, denigrated, dismissed, damned with faint praise, patronized, patted on the head, and torn in shreds. It's too Protestant, it's too Catholic, it's a typical Anglican muddle, it does not express the new insight of the modern age, it's not open to the Spirit, it's not relevant. Yet all these cantankerous and often sophistical cavillations fall away when you pray according to the rule of prayer it sets forth with an open heart and an open mind. What then meets you in these pages is a pure scriptural teaching, deeply embedded in the catholic tradition, turned into the language of prayer, and in the corporate action of liturgy, with a craftmanship that is quietly breathtaking. Its prose is not Tudor but timeless, not purple but plain in its elegance (simplex munditiis); and in its clarity, dignity, and quiet beauty it carries the weight of conviction as almost nothing else does. That is why it survived the Marian reaction, the Puritan interregnum, and the diktats of modern liturgists; that's why it will encourage and embolden the faithful in the new dark ages of skepticism and hostility to religion. Though this prayer book came out of the Church of England, it belongs not to the English, nor even to Anglicans, much less to Anglophiles (fruity accents and whatnot)—as this edition makes clear, it is a prayer book for English-speaking Christians throughout the world."
-- Gavin Dunbar, rector of St. John's Church, Savannah, Georgia (the Episcopal Church), and president of the Prayer Book Society of the USA
"By sensitively updating the language and adapting the content for use by the worldwide Anglican Communion, this 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, makes a most welcome contribution toward making the classical liturgy of Anglicanism accessible to younger people and to a wider audience. Those who use it will rediscover a liturgical tradition that has shaped the spiritual life of generations of faithful Anglicans and be strengthened in their faith as they make their pilgrim way to the celestial city."
-- Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School
"The Book of Common Prayer is and has been the Anglican rule of life for centuries. While many Anglican provinces assert the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as one of their formularies, this assertion often remains an ideal rather than a practice. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, makes the 1662 Prayer Book more accessible to Anglicans and others today. It will be, I pray, an integrating force among Anglican churches in a global Anglicanism that is all too rapidly disintegrating."
-- Charles Erlandson, professor of church history at Cranmer Theological House
"The Book of Common Prayer—with its timeless liturgies, lectionary, psalms, and prayers—has long held worldwide Anglicanism together. This splendid new 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, preserves the beauty, power, and majesty of the original text while making modest linguistic updates throughout and offering judicious amendments to the prayers and psalter. The editors and publisher deserve high praise for presenting this authoritative, affordable, and accessible text for Christians worldwide to use in their private devotions and public worship."
-- John Witte Jr., Emory University
"The editors of The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, are to be congratulated on making every effort to preserve the substance and form of traditional common prayer in a manner accessible to the widest possible community of Anglican worshippers. The rhythm, meter, and musicality of the language, so critically important for liturgical expression, have been preserved intact. The editors' discerning decision 'to update the language of rubrics most; prayers less; and Psalms, canticles, and biblical texts least of all' is admirable indeed, and strikes just the right balance of minimal but acceptable modification. 'O worship the Lord in beauty of holiness. Let the whole earth stand in awe of Him.'"
-- Torrance Kirby, McGill University
