The Council of Christians and Jews in the UK has welcomed a move by Canada’s Anglican Church to drop a prayer for the conversion of Jews.

The Synod of the Canadian Church voted to replace the prayer from the Good Friday liturgy in the traditional Book of Common Prayer with an alternative seeking reconciliation with the Jews.

The Book of Common Prayer - which dates back to the embryonic Church of England in the mid-sixteenth century - is today used by fewer than 10 per cent of Anglican congregations in Canada. Most prefer the more contemporary Book of Alternative Services.

Rob Thompson, CCJ senior programme manager, said, “This is significant news for the Anglican Church in Canada and we strongly welcome it.”

It will require a further vote of the Synod in three years to approve the introduction of the new prayer for reconciliation, whose text begins, “ O God, who didst choose Israel to be thine inheritance: have mercy upon us and forgive us for violence and wickedness against our brother Jacob”.

In 1992 Canada’s Anglican Church deleted a Good Friday prayer from the Book of Common Prayer which asked God to show mercy to the Jews for rejecting Jesus.

While the Book of Common Prayer - which was last substantially amended in 1662 -  is also used in English churches, most congregations pray with the modern liturgy known as Common Worship.

The new C of E Good Friday service contains a prayer which speaks of greater understanding between Jews and Christians.

The introduction to Easter season services also emphasises the importance of being “sensitive to the ways in which an unreflecting use of traditional texts can perpetuate a strain of Christian antisemitism”.