From Gunpowder Treason Day to Remembrance Sunday

National Prayers: Special Worship since the Reformation. Volume 4: anniversary commemorations, additional material and indices, 1533-2023 provides a history of the annual British and Irish state and religious anniversaries (Accession day, Gowrie day, Gunpowder Treason day, Restoration day, and commemoration of Charles I’s execution and the Great Fire of London, and for the modern state anniversaries of Armistice day and Remembrance Sunday).

It also includes materials on particular occasions of special worship for 2016-23, including the Covid pandemic, commemoration of Prince Philip, platinum jubilee and funeral of Elizabeth II, and coronation of Charles III. 

What is special worship?

Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of Britain and Ireland have summoned their nations to special acts of public worship during crises, wars and times of celebration, or for annual days of commemoration and remembrance.

These special prayers, special days of worship and religious anniversaries were national events, reaching into every parish. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and – in England and Wales, and in Ireland – prayers or complete liturgies which temporarily supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer, and most recently in Common Worship. 

Insights into anniversaries

Anniversaries have long been associated with marking key moments in the ‘protestant calendar’, including Elizabeth I’s accession and the Gunpowder Plot.  But the volume provides the first extended analysis of the first post-Reformation anniversary: ordered in Mary I’s reign to celebrate the realm’s return to the Catholic Church and papal jurisdiction.

Anniversaries were inherently political commemorations.  They were initially ordered to commemorate particular events and official ‘readings’ of them.  Subsequently, they could be adopted by political parties or groups to celebrate their ideals: the Whigs preferred 5 November, while the Tories focused on the royalist occasions of 30 January (execution of Charles I) and 29 May (Restoration of the monarchy).

They were also opportunities for both ministers and parishioners to register their own religious and political views.  Non-jurors might refuse to read out the thanksgivings prayers for William III’s arrival incorporated into the November 5 commemorations.  Jacobites would refuse to celebrate the Hanoverian succession.

Equally, public support could be vital in the development of anniversaries.  Permission to broadcast the Remembrance service from the Cenotaph, now such a staple of the commemoration, was eventually granted because of significant public pressure: people wanted to be able to listen to the service and participate virtually.

The British State Prayers project

The British state prayers project was initially developed by Philip Williamson (working on 20th century religion) and Natalie Mears (working on 16th century special forms of prayer).  They invited Stephen Taylor (then at the University of Reading) to join and he later became a colleague.  Alasdair Raffe, now a Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh, was the Research Assistant and Lucy Bates was a funded PhD student working with Natalie on the Civil War period.

Their research has taken them from Special Collections in Durham University to a host of local, diocesan, university, church and national archives, as well as The Royal Archives, Lambeth Palace Library, and the public libraries of New York and Boston.

More than just special worship

Though volume 4 and its companions focus on special worship, as one reviewer commented, they provide ‘a rich harvest for those interested in a wide array of themes, ideas and developments’, including the changing shape of religion across the British Isles, the changing role of the monarch from political leader to unifying figurehead, the nature of religious practice in parishes, the development of the ecumenical movement, the role of the press and modern broadcasting.

The project has also sparked interest in special worship in other countries.  Some of this work, including lists of occasions in the British Empire, can be found on the Special Acts of Worship website, developed by Philip Williamson.

National Prayers, 4 volumes

Volume 4 complements the other three volumes that provide edited texts, commentaries and source notes for over 900 occasions of special worship for the periods 1533-1688, 1689-1870, and 1871-2016.  It also contains supplementary material for the whole period of the edition, including extensive additions to the list of particular occasions of special worship observed from 1533 to 1660, an index of biblical references, and a general index covering all four volumes of the edition.

All four volumes have been published by The Church of England Record Society (volumes 20, 22, 26 and 29) and are available to members or directly through Boydell and Brewer.