19th-and 20th-century effort to encourage the active participation of the laity in the liturgy of the Christian churches by creating simpler rites more attuned to early Christian traditions and more relevant to modern life.
The movement began in the Roman Catholic church in the mid-19th century and spread to other Christian churches in Europe and the U.S. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) called for translation of Latin liturgies into the vernaculars of individual countries and the reform of all sacramental rites. The Lutheran Church revised the Lutheran Book of Worship in 1978, and the Episcopal Church adopted a revised Book of Common Prayer in 1979.