Evening Prayer (Anglican) - in Traditional Prayer Books

In Traditional Prayer Books

The service of Evening Prayer, according to traditional prayer books such as the 1662 English or 1959 Canadian Book of Common Prayer, is similar in structure to the equivalent Morning Prayer (or Matins), but with different canticles and with evening-specific collects. It is made up of the following elements:

• A spoken penitential introduction, including the General Confession and the Lord's Prayer. These are frequently omitted at daily choral Evensong.
• Preces — a series of verses and responses including the Gloria Patri.
• A portion of the psalter, i.e. one or more prose psalms, concluding with the Gloria Patri.
• Two lessons (readings) from the Bible. The first is usually taken from the Old Testament and the second from the New Testament.
• Two canticles, one after each of the lessons, usually the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis, each concluding with the Gloria Patri.
• The Apostles' Creed, often chanted on a monotone.
• Several prayers and responses, often chanted. These include the Kyrie eleison and the Lord's Prayer, followed by several verses and responses ("suffrages"), and the Collect of the Day and two additional collects (the "three collects").
• An anthem following the third collect ("In quires and places where they sing, here followeth the anthem," in the famous phraseology of the 1662 edition of the Prayer Book).
• Additional spoken prayers.

If the service is accompanied the church organ will normally be played before and after the service. Many institutions have regular unaccompanied evensongs: at Durham Cathedral, Southwell Minster, Exeter Cathedral and Ripon Cathedral, as well as the Chapels of New College, Oxford and King's College, Cambridge, for example, Friday evensongs are usually sung to a cappella settings of the liturgy.

A further variation to the standard rendering of choral evensong is mens' voices services. In institutions where the choir is made up of adult men (who sing the alto, tenor and bass parts) and trebles (boy or girl choristers) who sing the upper-most part(s), one day a week the service may be sung by men only. When this occurs, the musical settings are for alto, tenor and bass voices only. At Durham Cathedral, it is the norm for Thursday evenings to be sung by the gentlemen of the choir.

In practice, the penitential introduction is often omitted, especially at sung services. A sermon or homily may be preached at the end on Sundays or feast days, but does not form a set part of the liturgy. Also, one or more congregational hymns may be added to the service. In Anglo-Catholic churches, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament frequently follows Evensong.