Prologue: Our Aim

"We hope to be of help to the young Christian minister who aspires to prepare himself to lead his people in worshipping of Almighty God. First, to make a simple pattern growing out of the basic principles, Scriptural and psychological, underlying the experience, and then to suggest helps in developing material suited to promote the Experience, such as Orders of Service, the construct of prayers, and conduct of the “Service.” Emphasis will be laid constantly on the abundance of liturgical material found in Holy Scripture—and in prayers of the ages. The content rather than the form is emphasized. It is our belief that the simplest form can be made to carry heavy freight of spiritually uplifting matter if the sources available are used by one who knows the basic pattern of worship. Simple and useable helps are here recorded that give assistance in formulating public prayer and making Worship “real.” No criticism is implied of classical or standard liturgies, they are drafted for our own purposes and to those in the tradition of a liturgical communion these helps will be unnecessary."

--Dr. Jesse Halsey, in an unpublished, draft introduction to the 1946 revision of the Book of Common Worship