DURHAM Cathedral, 7.45am, Sunday. A notice at the back asks "Why not climb the 325 steps to the top of the tower" - You really want to know why not? - the rising sun shines directly through the rose window, refulgent above the high altar.

"How's that for glory?" someone whispers, though for many among the Sabbath's first congregation the yet greater glory will simply be in the incomparable words of the service.

They are members of the Prayer Book Society, campaigning for the more widespread use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer within the Church of England and staging their annual conference in Durham last weekend.

It is the prayer book for the quick and the dead, where sinners err and stray like lost sheep, where thees and thous are sown liberally and where Thy will, as always, be done.

A lot of the newer services have been dumbed down, says Prudence Dailey, the Society's vice-chairman. "The Prayer Book placed much greater emphasis on sin and redemption; they've taken out the bits that might scare the horses."

Supporters include the Bishop of London, the intractable Anne Robinson, authors PD James and Fay Weldon and, perhaps inevitably, the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, Rector of Cornhill and columnist of this parish.

The usual incumbents still abed, 100 or so of us occupy the choir stalls, the Dean and Canon David Kennedy - formerly at St Andrew's, Haughton-le-Skerne - appearing sharp upon their hour, unlike the ghost of Christmas Wheneveritwas which (memory suggests) was late.

Hidden behind the stalls are numerous little compartments, as if for calico, cambric and corduroy in Mr Fezziwig's drapery; on the front of the stalls opposite is painted the Latin injunction "Laudemus viros gloriosis" which probably translates into something like "Sing your heart out for the Lad."

Since the rear stalls also have a sort of low roof over them, another injunction might usefully have warned about minding the head.

The service is wonderful, just like it used to be all those years ago at St John's in Shildon, or in Durham Cathedral for 300 years until the Church started to think better of it.

"In the spirit of the Sixties, the clergy of the day decided to get rid of everything that was perceived to be old, including the Book of Common Prayer," says Prudence.

The early service is followed by a very good breakfast in St John's College, by sung Matins at ten o'clock, by more coffee thereafter and by a chance to chat to all those people who still believe in the Common touch, and in doing it by the Book.

Matins also includes the hymn When Morning Gilds the Skies, but though the roseate remains, the sun has wandered off elsewhere.

Formed 25 years ago, the Prayer Book Society has more than 4,000 members and branches in every English diocese. More members join in Durham, at least two on the Cathedral bus. They're going from strength to strength, they insist.

Canon Arthur Middleton, recently retired Rector of Boldon, near Sunderland, says that the liturgies which replaced the BCP - the Alternative Service Book and, more recently, Common Worship - were meant to bring young people back into the pews.

"A lot of modern liturgy has simply turned people off, unchurched and antagonised them. The Book of Common Prayer isn't just services, it's a compendium of theology.

"They say it's out of date and inaccessible, but that's what they say about Shakespeare and they don't translate Shakespeare.

"People understand it perfectly well. Youngsters don't like being talked down to, they don't want baby talk.

"'Accessible' is in one ear and out of the other. The Book of Common Prayer lodges in your senses; you don't forget it. The things of God aren't meant to be immediately comprehensible."

They seek to promote the BCP, they insist, not to replace any of the more recent forms of service. Mind, says Prudence Dailey, coffee going cold in her hand, she'd be lying if she said she actually liked them.

"The Book of Common Prayer was what held the Anglican church together. The Catholics have the Pope, we had the Prayer Book. That was what unified us worldwide.

"With the modern services, the emphasis is on diversity and choice; the Prayer Book has a coherent vision.

"Obviously we would regard the language as uniquely beautiful but it is a lot more than that. The enterprise has failed but because the English of the present day just isn't up to the task. It's not contemporary, just strange."

John Service, the recently appointed and aptly named chief executive, says that all sorts of initiatives are under way, including a contest - probably to be judged by Anne Robinson - in which youngsters are invited to declaim a section of the Prayer Book from memory.

The morning ends at 11.45am with a talk on the Milton Keynes effect, on how new town embraced 17th century service book.

Leaving, we're accosted by a chap who says that as much as he loved the prayer book with nowt tekken out he resisted joining the PBS for ten years because he thought it was a pressure group.

"Finally I was getting so glum about the Church that I had to. Getting rid of the Book of Common Prayer is like building great housing estates in the countryside. Once you've done it, you'll never see the grass again."

* Further information from the Prayer Book Society, 16 New Bridge Street, London EC4V 6AX; www.prayerbook.org.uk

Durham Cathedral uses the Book of Common Prayer for Holy Communion at 8am every Sunday.