the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer (1662)
in modern language
One of the oldest traditions of the Christian Church is the catechumenate. In the early church, people who wanted to become Christians were taught the core beliefs of the church over an extended period of time — as many as three years — before being allowed to take Holy Communion with the rest of Christ’s people. This tradition eventually lapsed, but the Reformers of the sixteenth century brought it back, and in each of the great Reformation traditions there is a Catechism or Confession which young people, or those new to the church, were expected to learn and recite. (This usually happened as part of the rite of Confirmation, which is an episcopal rite, that is, one presided over by a bishop.) One of the briefest, yet most beautiful and meaningful, of these great catechisms is that of the Anglican Church, which appeared [in a form quite similar to what you see here] in the very first Book of Common Prayer 1549. The concluding section, on the Sacraments, was added in the 1662 revision of the Prayer Book.
What follows is an adaptation in modern English of that Catechism, along with links to relevant passages from Scripture. Though the primary purpose of this document is to train young people in the Christian faith, it is useful to any believer as a wonderful summation of the life that followers of Jesus are called to. Pay particular attention, if you would, to the way that this Catechism draws on the Anglican liturgy — on units of that liturgy familiar to every Anglican — and then feeds us back into the rich life of our common prayer.