The "All Night Vigil" held in parish churches on a Saturday evening, is one of the best-known features of the Russian Orthodox Church. This English translation is intended both to help the worshipper to follow the service at the Vigil for Sunday held on Saturday night and to assist the choir in chanting the service. It contains the unvarying texts and rubrics regarding the insertion of the variable parts. The parts of the priest, deacon, reader and choir are clearly indicated.

This is the second 'book of bits' for worship produced by the Wild Goose Worship Group. Its predecessor, Cloth For the Cradle, was received with great enthusiasm by clergy and laity alike. This book traces Jesus' road to the cross through Lent, Holy Week and Easter. Its prime purpose is to resource worship that enables people to sense the hope, apprehension and joy of Easter as felt by Jesus' friends. The range and diversity offers a unique source of elements for lay and clergy worship planners and enablers. All of the material has been used in celebrations and services of public worship, but little has been previously published.

Central to every vampire story is the undead's need for human blood, but equally compelling is the human ingestion of vampire blood, which often creates a bond. This blood connection suggests two primal, natural desires: breastfeeding and communion with God through a blood covenant. This analysis of vampire stories explores the benefits of the bonding experiences of breastfeeding and Christian and vampire narratives, arguing that modern readers and viewers are drawn to this genre because of our innate fascination with the relationship between human and maker.

The 'Exeter Ordinale' is a huge ordinal issued by John de Grandisson, bishop of Exeter 1327-69], in 1337; it is edited on the basis of manuscripts that belonged to, and were annotated by, the bishop himself. The compilation marked an important point in medieval study of the liturgy, and the 'Legenda' liturgical readings for saints' days] which it contains are regarded as one of the most important sources for the study of English medieval hagiography, particularly for saints of English origin.

A three-year pattern of lectionary readings has come into widespread use over the past generation within many churches. Since its release in 1992 the three-year Revised Common Lectionary has had a significant influence ecumenically on worship and its preparation. Now the ecumenical consultation responsible for the Revised Common Lectionary is releasing a set of proposed prayers specifically designed for use with the calendar of readings in the RCL. The Consultation on Common Texts sought to prepare a truly ecumenical set of prayers that represent the full spectrum of Christian tradition in all its diverse richness.

The Episcopal Church is embarking on a new era of liturgical reform, giving us an opportunity to reflect on why we do what we do as a body. A Christian understanding of life sets every act of personal or communal worship as a response; we look on ourselves and everything around us with curiosity, wonder, awe, fear, love, hope, and uncertainty about what it all means for us and how we feel about it. Worship begins as a response, but reaches into the future and makes alterations to adapt to changing circumstances. This is essential reading as the General Convention approaches and these conversations continue.

An overview of the nature of Anglican worship and the inherent simplicity within the rites and rubrics gleaned from primary and secondary sources in the tradition, combined with a good dose of reason.

The definitive guide to the development of early Roman liturgy by one of the twentieth century's great liturgical scholars. The liturgy which developed at Rome during the early centuries of the Christian era was to establish the pattern for religious observance in the Latin West from the sixth century to the twentieth. Yet, for a variety of reasons, the origins and early development of this liturgy are far from clear. Evidence must be teased out of the various incidental references to be found in the writings of the early Church Fathers; Hippolytus, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustineand ultimately Gregory the Great. In this book the late G.G. Willis draws on a lifetime's intimate knowledge of the liturgical evidence for early Roman practice in order to present a refreshingly clear guide to the early Roman liturgy - a subject for which there exists no accessible introduction in English. He provides a new synthesis of the most significant developments in the form of the Roman mass, calendar, episcopal services, rites of baptism andordination up to the time of Gregory the Great (590-604).

The Egbert Pontifical (Paris, BN lat. 10575) and the Sidney Sussex Pontifical (Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College 100) cast light on the English church in the 10th century. This book presents editions of two of the best known Anglo-Saxon pontificals, the so-called `Egbert Pontifical' (Paris, BN lat. 10575) and the `Sidney Sussex Pontifical' (Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College 100). The pontifical was abishop's book which contained the various ceremonies which ony a bishop could perform: consecration of a church or cemetary, consecration of all orders of clergy and of abbots and abbesses, and the coronation of a king. The various pontifical services in these two manuscripts, therefore, help to illustrate the nature of these solemn ceremonies in Anglo-Saxon England, and are a valuable index of the state of the English chuch in the 10th century.

In this book the 2000 year history of Christian worship is viewed from a sociological perspective. Martin Stringer develops the idea of discourse as a way of understanding the place of Christian worship within its many and diverse social contexts. Beginning with the Biblical material the author provides a broad survey of changes over 2000 years of the Christian church, together with a series of case studies that highlight particular elements of the worship, or specific theoretical applications. Stringer does not simply examine the mainstream traditions of Christian worship in Europe and Byzantium, but also gives space to lesser-known traditions in Armenia, India, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Offering a contribution to the ongoing debate that breaks away from a purely textual or theological study of Christian worship, this book provides a greater understanding of the place of worship in its social and cultural context.

This volume, long delayed in its publication, furnishes an edition of two codexes discovered in 1910 by Dom Germain Morin. Bernhard Bischoff assigned the first of them [A] to the work of the bishop's scriptorium at Freising under the episcopate of either Hitto [811-836] or Erchambert [836-854], and the second [B] to the same origin, but around the year 900. Benedictiional A [ff. 1-14] contains 29 ans Benedictional B [ff. 15v-87v] 159 blessings of the episcopal type now introduced as Benedictiones Sollemnes into the Roman Rite. Like their modern cousins, many blessings on Clm 6430 are quadripartite, though a good number have more numerous members. A loose printed sheet addressed to members by Francis Wormald, Chairman of Council, spoke of the grave difficulties and delays that had attended publication, and warned that it had not been possible to take account of a study and partial edition of Benedictional A by Walter Durig, "Das Benedictionale Friburgense vetus", published in Archiv fur Liturgiewissenschaft 4 [1956] 223-244.

The Westminster Confession is a foundational document for countless churches worldwide. Churches of all sizes claim it as their confession and hold to it with varying degrees of closeness. However how many people actually have any real knowledge of the Confession or feel it is only of relevance to their church leaders Joey Pipa's study book is the ideal tool for all Christians who seek to gain a better understanding of their faith through exploring an integral cornerstone of Reformed Christianity. Pipa has produced an accessible user friendly study aid which illuminates the Westminster Confession for all Christians showing it is not just a document for intellectual theologians but is as relevant in our own lives today as when it was written. Also includes The Westminster Confession of Faith The Larger Catechism The Shorter Catechism The Belgic Confession The Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dordt

This text represents a sort of customary or ordinal for the English court chapel in 1449, intended to govern the life of the 49 people, including choirboys, who were the staff of this peripatetic establishment. It was based on earlier drafts, and was sent to Alvaro Vaz d'Almada, a knight of the Garter, for the use of Afonso V of Portugal; it includes a copy of the English coronation rites.

This volume contains the text only of three ordines, Ordo breviarii, Ordo ad Benedicendum Mensam, Ordo Missalis Fratrum Minorum. Haymo of Faversham was an English friar minor, and rose to become the general of the whole order. He worked in Paris, Assisi and Rome from 1230 to 1244, and was employed by Gregory IX in the revision of the Breviary of the Roman Curia, which eventually became the Breviary of the whole Roman Catholic church.

In the second decade of the sixteenth century medieval piety suddenly began to be attacked in some places as "idolatry," or false religion. This study calls attention to the importance of the idolatry issue during the Reformation.

This breviary was printed by Antonius Goin at Antwerp in September 1537; the first recension appeared in 1535, but the second is the forerunner of over a hundred subsequent editions before it was suppressed in 1558 by Pope Paul IV. It influenced Cranmer's liturgical projects, for which see volume 50 in the present series.

The Henry Bradshaw Society was established in 1890 in commemoration of Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian in Cambridge and a distinguished authority on early medieval manuscripts and liturgies, who died in 1886. The Society was founded 'for the editing of rare liturgical texts'; its principal focus is on the Western (Latin) Church and its rites, and on the medieval period in particular, from the sixth century to the sixteenth (in effect, from the earliest surviving Christian books until the Reformation). Liturgy was at the heart of Christian worship, and during the medieval period the Christian Church was at the heart of Western society. Study of medieval Christianity in its manifold aspects - historical, ecclesiastical, spiritual, sociological - inevitably involves study of its rites, and for that reason Henry Bradshaw Society publications have become standard source-books for an understanding of all aspects of the middle ages. Moreover, many of the Society's publications have been facsimile editions, and these facsimiles have become cornerstones of the science of palaeography. The society was founded for the editing of rare liturgical texts; its principal focus is on the Western (Latin) Church and its rites, and on the medieval period in particular, from the sixth century to the Reformation. Study of medieval Christianity - at the heart of Western society - inevitably involves study of its rites, and the society's publications are essential to an understanding of all aspects (historical, ecclesiastical, spiritual, sociological) of the middle ages.