The Collect is a form of prayer which is a core part of the liturgical worship of most Christian traditions, certainly in the Christian West, yet, relatively little work has been done to reflect on the use of this common form of prayer in different traditions, and the Protestant tradition in particular.In this representative collection of essays Bridget Nichols draws together a range of leading scholars who reflect on the history and the development of this form of prayer common to all churches of the western tradition.As well as offering a historical introduction the book offers reflections on the collect in the Methodist tradition, in Baptist worship, in Scandinavian Lutheran traditions, in American Lutheranism and on collect writing today.Dr Bridget Nichols is the Lay Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely. Her publications include Liturgical Hermeneutics (Peter Lang, 2006) and 'Liturgy as Literature' in Andrew Hass, David Jasper and Elizabeth Jay (eds) The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology (Oxford University Press, 2007.Contributors include: Jeremy Haselock, Karen Westerfield-Tucker, Michael Perham, John Lampard and David Kennedy.