The Solemn Collects are a set of prayers of two types (biddings and collect

Collect

In Christian liturgy, a collect is both a liturgical action and a short, general prayer. In the Middle Ages, the prayer was referred to in Latin as collectio, but in the more ancient sources, as oratio. In English, and in this usage, "collect" is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable...

s) used in the Good Friday

Good Friday

Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...

 liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

 of the Episcopal Church (USA), which is published in the 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

. They are among the most ancient prayers of the Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 church.

Form

The Solemn Collects are divided into five sections that address the five major areas of life that intercessory prayer is designed to address: prayers are said seeking God's aid for the Christian church, for all the nations of the world, for those sick and in need, for any not yet reached by the missionary efforts of the Church, and for the people who are praying, that they may act holily and live eternally.

Each section begins with a bidding spoken by a deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

, which invites the congregation to pray silently for a particular set of concerns. A period of silence follows. The celebrant

Celebrant

Celebrant may refer to:* Celebrant or Officiant, the leader of a liturgy or ceremony who is empowered to perform it** In the Catholic and Anglican churches, the celebrant is the person who celebrates a sacrament, e.g., the priest who celebrates the Eucharist or the bishop who ordains a priest*...

 then says a collect which concludes those prayers, after which the deacon reads the next bidding.

Traditionally, the congregation is asked to kneel while each bidding is spoken and while silence is being kept, and then to stand for the collect.

History

The exact date of the writing of the Solemn Collects is uncertain: dates as early as the 2nd Century A.D. and as late as the 5th Century A.D. appear in various sources. Some sources suggest that the biddings were written 100-200 years prior to the collects that accompany them. The Solemn Collects appear in the Gelasian Sacramentary

Gelasian Sacramentary

The so-called "Gelasian Sacramentary" is a book of Christian liturgy. A sacramentary contains the priest's texts for celebrating the Eucharist throughout the year...

 and the Gregorian Sacramentary, which mean that they must have entered their modern form by the 600s.