The Book of Common Prayer and Worship at St Mary of Charity
St Mary of Charity in Faversham is more than a setting for a historic service. Its stones, monuments and medieval furnishings frame a continuing rhythm of prayer shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, later revisions and the worship of the Church of England. The prayer book provides a common vocabulary, while the building gives that vocabulary weight, memory and a physical presence.
For many Australians, the Anglican connection feels familiar. The Church of England and the Anglican Church of Australia share a Protestant inheritance, a strong choral culture and roots in the language of the 1662 prayer book, yet they are separate jurisdictions with different authorities. Visitors therefore meet a tradition they may recognise, expressed through English texts and customs that can also feel distinctly English.
Worship here can include the Eucharistic rite, sung responses, Evensong, psalms, silence and seasonal preaching. Around those acts are misericords, brasses, memorials and the celebrated painted column. Heritage is not separate from worship: it shapes what a visitor sees, hears and remembers, from the threshold to the altar.
A common book through changing centuries
Thomas Cranmer’s prayer book first appeared in 1549, with revisions under Edward VI, Elizabeth I and, finally, the 1662 settlement. That sequence matters at St Mary of Charity because the parish’s post-medieval life grew alongside the printed Bible and authorised forms of worship. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer established the rhythms still widely recognised: Scripture in readings and psalms, set responses, confession, intercessions, communion and a final dismissal.
Tradition has continued through change. The Church of England has authorised contemporary orders, especially through Common Worship, while BCP material remains important in many services. Translation is another layer: some congregations favour the authorised 1662 language; others use updated wording so that everyone can hear and share the text. The choice of rite is a local pastoral decision, not a test of whether a visitor belongs.
| Element | 1662 Book of Common Prayer | Common Worship and other authorised material | What a visitor may notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall approach | A common order for the congregation | Clear contemporary language and varied forms | The parish chooses the order used for a particular service |
| Congregational responses | Set answers have a strong place | Responses can range from spoken to silent | Visitors may join where invited or follow the printed text quietly |
| Psalms and readings | Scripture remains central | Responsorial and newly written material may supplement the psalms | Readings may sound familiar even when their wording differs |
| Music | Psalms, canticles and anthems form part of the pattern | A wider musical repertoire is possible | Organ, choir and congregation can make worship a shared act |
| Continuing role | Preserves a historic connection with Anglican worship | Supports accessibility and present-day needs | Different generations can recognise the same essential prayers |
The enduring strength of a common book is its ability to gather people without erasing difference. A familiar collect can welcome a first-time visitor and steady someone who has prayed it for decades. At Christmas and Easter, the pattern becomes especially vivid, while Lent and Ordinary Time offer quieter forms of attention. Hearing the same words in an ancient market-town church can make liturgical continuity tangible without making it feel unchanged.
How a service takes shape
A Sunday Eucharist might follow the 1662 order or a more contemporary authorised form. The broad movement remains recognisable: gathering, a collect, readings, a Creed or confession, intercessions, the offering, a prayer of thanksgiving, communion and dismissal. At St Mary of Charity, organ and choir can make each response feel like part of one act. The building’s scale and stone acoustics give pauses and sung syllables room to settle.
Evensong offers another way into the church’s musical life. Canticles such as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, a psalm, readings, an anthem and silence make the Christian year audible. This pattern has particular resonance for Australians accustomed to Anglican Evensong in cathedrals and college chapels, although local timetables differ. The building can hold sacred and secular echoes: medieval stone, eighteenth-century monuments and music rooted in a living tradition.
Participation does not require performance. The congregation may answer boldly, follow printed orders quietly or simply be present, and children can learn that church is a place where they belong. Coffee after Sunday service is a familiar social routine for many churchgoers in Melbourne and Sydney, while Faversham offers the parallel experience of lingering beside its market and other historic buildings after worship.
Heritage that carries the words
The building sharpens the meaning of the prayer book. Medieval misericords turn formal stonework into a sequence of ordinary and comic observations; brasses and memorials record people whom the authorised prayers now address indirectly. The painted column preserves one of the church’s most distinctive visual traces, with surviving colour demonstrating how medieval worship was once a richly visual experience. These objects make worship historically situated, showing how generations brought private grief, civic identity and devotion into the same enclosure.
Faversham’s market-town history also helps explain why worship here has never been entirely separate from public life. Medieval feast days, processions and communal ceremonies gave way to Reformation preaching, parliamentary worship and modern parish services, but the pattern of marking time together remained. A useful parallel comes from medieval combat festivals, which shows how historical spectacle can invite public participation while still needing historical care. At St Mary’s, the church is interpreted as a place of prayer first, not simply an event backdrop.
Conservation adds a practical dimension to worship. If candles, incense, flowers or moving crowds threaten fragile surfaces, decisions about placement and access protect features that also hold meaning. The generous solution is to let people see the building closely while respecting limits set by those caring for it. Memorials are read as evidence of lives and beliefs, including changes in social status, family ties and attitudes to death.
The Anglican tradition from an Australian angle
Australian Anglicanism shares ancestry with the Church of England, but it has grown through the Anglican Church of Australia’s own synods, theological debates and local worship. Its authorised books preserve many 1662 forms while allowing Australian expressions of faith. St Mary of Charity sits outside that constitutional structure: an Anglican visitor is welcome, but attending a service in England does not make someone a member of an Australian parish.
Australia has strong traditions of market-based community life, from Adelaide Central Market to Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market. The stalls, greetings and regular routines of those places offer a useful analogy with Faversham’s market square: worship has long been woven into ordinary social fabric rather than sealed off from it. The analogy has limits, since a market exchange and a Eucharist are different kinds of gathering, but both reveal how shared spaces create belonging.
Everyday Australian habits also colour the visit. Weekends may be organised around sport, shopping or time outdoors, and many families expect flexibility in Sunday routines. A morning service followed by brunch, an afternoon evensong or a quiet candle-lit prayer can suit different patterns. Bring water and dress for an English church interior rather than assuming Australian heat: Faversham can be cool and damp, and stone floors are often colder than they appear.
Legal frameworks should not be confused with liturgical customs. Australian marriages are governed nationally by the federal Marriage Act 1961, whereas a wedding at St Mary of Charity takes place under the Marriage Act 1949 for England and Wales and the Church of England’s rules for marriage. Couples resident in Australia who plan a ceremony in England must follow the applicable local registration and notice requirements; a renewal of vows can have different requirements from a legal marriage. Similar differences affect funerals, burial permissions and record-keeping.
A respectful visit and a place to join in
St Mary of Charity rewards a slower visit. The church’s heritage project offers directions, opening information and interpretation of its historic features, including the misericords, brasses, memorials and painted column. Check current arrangements before travelling, because service times, access and opening arrangements can change. A little preparation makes it easier to move between heritage exploration and worship rather than treating one as an optional addition.
The right balance depends on the purpose of the visit. A sung Eucharist offers time with the congregation and the choir, while a quiet weekday visit allows close attention to architecture and memorials. The two experiences can complement each other, especially when a service reveals how the church is used before its quieter details come into focus.
For those joining worship
- Arrive a few minutes early so the building can be approached without distraction.
- Check the parish’s current schedule and note whether the service is Eucharistic, Evensong or another office.
- Join responses as you wish; silence and private participation are also valid.
- Ask a steward or clergy member about access, seating, hearing support and children.
- Keep phones silent and follow any photography guidance given in the church.
For those exploring the heritage
- Read memorials as records of families, trades, status and mourning across several centuries.
- Look closely at the painted column and consider how much of its original pattern survives.
- Move from the choir stalls to the misericords, where carved details reward careful viewing.
- Compare the brasses with later memorials to see how commemoration changed over time.
- Pair the church with Faversham Market and nearby historic buildings to understand the town around it.
St Mary of Charity thus joins text, sound, stone and memory. The Book of Common Prayer supplies a lasting structure, but the parish’s worship gives it a living voice. The painted column, misericords, brasses and memorials carry the prayers beyond one generation, while Sunday and weekday services keep those prayers connected to present life. For heritage, learning, reflection and prayer, the church offers a setting in which history is encountered as an active part of Christian worship.