Saying Evensong today I found myself, perhaps for the first time, taking up the option to say the Litany in place of the usual intercession. Once upon a time of course it was said weekly on Sunday morning between Matins and Communion, in the rather gutsy form in the Book of Common Prayer (online at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/litany). Especially in that version I wonder whether it gets as close to lament as our rather reserved tradition gets. And whether in some modified form it could be a template for our orayer now. What do you think?

The text of the more anodyne but also for many the more appropriate version in Common Worship follows below the break: