Owen Collins--the pen name of an Anglican priest--has provided an alternative, arranging 365 devotionals, drawn entirely from the BCP, into a compact volume designed to encourage daily prayer. On February 25, readers will find the collect for Saint Matthais's Day and a passage from the Gospel of Matthew; on April 4, a verse from Psalm 103 and an excerpt from "Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea"; on September 1, a passage from the Litany and a prayer for the clergy traditionally. Even those who teethed on the Book of Common Prayer might be in for a few surprises--Collins draws occasionally from rather obscure services, such as "The Accession Service" and "The Churching of Women." "The Daily Book of Common Prayer" won't replace the original, but it is a welcome supplement.
The Book of Common Prayer has often been described as one of the most beautiful and inspiring works of English prose ("For musicality, few texts beat the Prayer of Consecration or the Prayer of Humble Access," hard-to-please style-guide writer Constance Hale once noted). But because the BCP was written primarily for church worship, it does not always lend itself to individual devotions.
