The Prayer Book Society of Canada built Common Prayer Canada so the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer can live on a phone or in a browser. Press Pray and the app assembles the office for that day: Morning Prayer, Prayers at Mid-Day, Evening Prayer, Compline, the Litany and Supplication, Antecommunion, Family Prayers, and Prayers at Sea, with Psalms, Bible lessons, seasonal variations, and collects.^1 The web edition also offers a Penitential Service among its services.^3
You can pray in English, Inuktitut, or French, and the web edition now offers Cree as well.^3 Lessons can be read in KJV, ESV, or NRSV, and the app includes the complete Coverdale Psalter of the 1962 book, a glossary and notes, night reading, and reminders.^2 Musical settings for Compline, voiced by Heidi Fewster, can be turned on in the display settings.^7
The Society, founded in 1986, exists to promote the understanding and use of the Book of Common Prayer as a spiritual system of nurture for life in Christ.^4 During pandemic church closures, the Rev. Chris Dow, the Rev. Mark Regis, and the Rev. Jonathan Turtle proposed a daily office app; Gordon Maitland and the Society backed it, and it was live by Advent 2020.^5
The resource is free on the web, iPhone, iPad, and Android; the Society invites donations through CanadaHelps.^1
One Google Play reviewer wrote: "I never thought I'd be the prayer app type of person, but I decided to give it a try, and I fell in love with the BCP." Another called it "the best, most intuitive, non-eye straining, customisable version of the Prayer Book."^8
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