Hymn Book as “Prayer Book”

An interesting thought.

It has been asserted by some that in many of the English “free churches” (dissenters from the Anglican Church, including Baptists), the hymn book acted as a central, unifying, and authoritative resource. In that place it fulfilled many of the same functions as the Book of Common Prayer did in the Church of England. I find this very intriguing, and think there is some merit in that assertion. A group of churches with a shared hymn book had a degree of shared theological and structural framework for worship.

For example, Ernest Payne says that the hymn book as a body of practical and experimental divinity was “One of the more immediate and personal legacies of Wesley was the hymn book he edited.” He continues, “In the Free Churches a hymn book takes the place occupied by the Prayer Book in the devotional life, public and private, of the Anglican. This in part explains how it is that the hymns of Watts, Doddridge, and the Wesleys have so entered into the life of the English people.”

The Free Church Tradition in the Life of England, Ernest Alexander Payne. London: S.C.M. Press Ltd., 1944, p. 79