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A remarkable seventeenth-century Book of Common Prayer, containing the special service appointed for the annual commemoration of the Great Fire of London, recently went on display at St Olave Hart Street. The book made up part of the church's Faith & Fire Discovery Day.
The event, held around the 360th anniversary of the Great Fire, brought together history, science and Christian faith to explore what the events of 1666 can still teach us about fire, disaster and resilience today.
More than 500 visitors came to St Olave's, Seething Lane Gardens and All Hallows by the Tower during the day. Scientists from Imperial College London carried out live fire-science demonstrations, bringing to life Samuel Pepys’ description of the Great Fire. Activities and exhibitions in the church he called his ‘own’ explored seventeenth-century responses to the disaster and the continuing challenges presented by destructive fires today.
Among the objects on display at St Olave's was a folio Book of Common Prayer dating from the reign of James II (1685–1688), kindly lent by Joanna Comer.
The volume contains the special “Forms of Prayer to be used yearly on the second of September, for the dreadful Fire of London”. The annual observance prescribed its own psalms and lessons, the Litany and penitential prayers, together with special provision for Holy Communion.
Its language gives a striking insight into how the generation after the Fire understood and prayed about what had happened. Alongside the strongly penitential language characteristic of its period are recurring themes of mercy, healing and restoration. Worshippers were invited to pray in words drawn from Scripture: “Come, therefore, let us turn again unto our Lord: for he hath smitten us, and he will heal us.”
Prayer and preaching after the Fire
The Faith & Fire exhibition at St Olave Hart Street also drew upon the sermons preached for these annual commemorations.
Among them was William Wray's The Rebellious City Destroyed, an anniversary sermon preached at St Olave Hart Street on 2 September 1682, sixteen years after the Great Fire.
Bringing Wray's sermon together with the Prayer Book enabled visitors to reconstruct something of what an anniversary of the Great Fire at St Olave's might have been like more than three centuries ago: and how the liturgy and preaching attempted to interpret the catastrophe for a contemporary congregation.
A Prayer Book with a mystery of its own
The Prayer Book itself also has an intriguing history. The Royal Arms are embossed and gilded on its front and back boards. In the services of Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and the Litany, the name JAMES was subsequently altered in ink in an apparent attempt to produce GEORG, suggesting that the volume continued in use after the accession of George I in 1714. It seems unlikely that the King's German name would have been used outside court circles, as Prayer Books printed for general use during the reign use GEORGE.
Its owner, Joanna Comer, believes that these features may indicate that the volume originally belonged to a Chapel Royal. The inclusion of the annual Fire of London service may further point towards a London setting, although the precise provenance of the volume remains a fascinating subject for further research.
“One of the joys of the day was being able to put the science and history of the Great Fire alongside the prayers and preaching of people who lived much closer to it," said the Revd Phillip Dawson, Rector of St Olave Hart Street. "This Prayer Book made that response wonderfully tangible."
“We also drew on William Wray's anniversary sermon, preached here at St Olave's in 1682. Putting the sermon alongside the Prayer Book meant that we could begin to reconstruct for visitors something of how an anniversary of the Fire might actually have been experienced in this church: Scripture, prayer and preaching all helping a community to remember and interpret catastrophe.
“The Great Fire was not simply remembered as an historical event. Year after year Londoners were invited to bring its destruction, survival and rebuilding before God. At St Olave's, which survived the Fire and where Samuel Pepys worshipped, it was particularly moving to open a Prayer Book from that world and discover how the Church itself kept the memory of 1666 alive.”
The display formed part of the wider Faith & Fire: Exploring the Science and Faith of the Great Fire of London project, which brought scientists, historians and churches together to consider how communities understand catastrophe, what helps them become resilient, and what the experience of the Great Fire might still teach us in an age when destructive urban and wildland fires remain a pressing concern.
St Olave Hart Street was one of the medieval City churches to survive the Great Fire. Its most famous parishioner, the diarist Samuel Pepys, witnessed the Fire at close quarters and recorded its progress in his diary. He and his wife Elizabeth are buried in the church.
