Morning and Evening Prayer

The History

Mattins and Evensong are the traditional names given to the services of morning and evening prayer which were created by Archbishop Cranmer for the English Church At the Reformation, based on the old monastic services. They consist of a combination of prayers, psalms, hymns, readings from the scriptures and a sermon. They have changed little since they were included in the 1549 Prayer Book, although there have been some revisions, most notably the language being brought up to date. For a long time they were the principal Sunday services in the Anglican Church, as from the time of the Reformation until the 19th Century there were no weekly –communion

New Services

In the latter part of the twentieth century there were many changes in ways of worship laid down for the Anglican Church. The introduction of Family Services and Children's Services has taken place, although these are often still based on the form of services to be found in mattins and evensong. These are intended to allow children and the congregation generally to take a greater part in the worship, and to allow more freedom within the structure, rather than to continue with the same liturgical formula all the time. It would be interesting to find out what your local church has been doing and why they have made changes (if they have!). Several reports from the Church, notably "Children in the Way", have highlighted the need for all the people, not just the children to learn more about their faith, and to celebrate that faith in different ways, recognising the different gifts each brings to the worship of God.