<Li> North American Anglican Conference </Li> <Tr> <Td> Anglicanism portal </Td> </Tr> <P> The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican Christian churches . The original book, published in 1549 in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome . Prayer books, unlike books of prayers, contain the words of structured (or liturgical) services of worship . The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English . It contained Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion and also the occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service . It also set out in full the "propers" (that is the parts of the service which varied week by week or, at times, daily throughout the Church's Year): the collects and the epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday Communion Service . Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the Psalms; and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be said or sung between the readings (Careless 2003, p. 26). </P> <P> The 1549 book was soon succeeded by a more reformed revision in 1552 under the same editorial hand, that of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury . It was used only for a few months, as after Edward VI's death in 1553, his half - sister Mary I restored Roman Catholic worship . Mary died in 1558 and, in 1559, Elizabeth I reintroduced the 1552 book with a few modifications to make it acceptable to more traditionally minded worshippers, notably the inclusion of the words of administration from the 1549 Communion Service alongside those of 1552 . </P>

When was the book of common prayer first published