The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the official primary liturgical book of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. An edition in the same tradition as other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, it contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. It is the fourth major revision of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church, and succeeded the 1928 edition. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has been translated into multiple languages and is considered a representative production of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement.

Background Following the English Reformation and the separation of the Church of England from the Catholic Church, the liturgies of Anglicanism were transcribed into English. The first such production was the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, traditionally considered to be work of Thomas Cranmer, which replaced both the missals and breviaries of Catholic usage. Among these liturgies were the Communion service and canonical hours of Matins and Evensong, with the addition of the Ordinal containing the form for the consecration of bishops, priests, and deacons in 1550. Under Edward VI, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer incorporated more radically Protestant reforms, a process that continued with 1559 edition approved under Elizabeth I. The 1559 edition was for some time the second-most diffuse book in England, behind only the Bible, through an act of Parliament that mandated its presence in each parish church across the country.

American prayer books

Prior to the consecration of Samuel Seabury by the Episcopal Church of Scotland as the first American Anglican bishop to not accept the English Crown and the establishment of the independent Episcopal Church after the American Revolutionary War, the Church of England had operated in what would become the United States using the liturgies as defined in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Pennsylvanian Episcopal priests William Smith and William White created the first widely used American edition of the prayer book in 1786 as a "proposed" text based on the 1662 prayer book. A further revision with a greater departure from the English 1662 edition was approved for regular usage by the newly established Episcopal Church in 1789. Notably, the Eucharistic prayers of this approved edition included a similar Epiclesis invoking the Holy Spirit as that present in Eastern Christian rituals and the Episcopal Church of Scotland's liturgy. Proposals to remove the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds faced successful objections from both a caucus of High Church Virginians and English bishops who had been consulted on the prayer book's production.

Revisions of the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, known as "Standard Editions", were promulgated by the General Convention in 1793, 1822, 1832, 1838, 1845, and 1871 with notes regarding changes. It is from 1789 edition that the 1979 Book of Common Prayer derives two introductory texts: "The Ratification of The Book of Common Prayer (1789)" and the preface.

The 1789 edition would be replaced in 1892 by a new edition of the prayer book considered a "conservative" revision of its predecessor. The 1892 Book of Common Prayer was the first American prayer book to have a standard edition made which further printings were to be compared against and inserted rubrical emphasis on offering Communion to all present. Among the alterations were several derived from edits in a draft liturgy produced by the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1889. The limited scope of the revision resulted in only a comparatively brief usage of the 1892 edition, with work commencing in 1913 on what would ultimately result in the 1928 edition.

Following a more than decade-long process of revision, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer was adopted. Besides altering the language as to sound more contemporary, the 1928 edition also omitted the office for the visitation of prisoners (introduced in the 1789 edition) as well as other components deemed outdated. The revision also sought to eschew perceived "medieval" and "pagan" qualities, such as reference to God's anger, as well as altering prayers to remove "extreme Calvinism." The then-Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer John Wallace Suter lauded the 1928 for its "new flexibility" and considered it as a text to be used continuously through the life of both the laity and clergy.

Development

Liturgical Movement and trial liturgies

The Second Vatican Council and the Catholic Church's adoption of the Mass in the vernacular as standard during the process of aggiornamento represented a significant high point in the influence of the Liturgical Movement, a loose effort to improve Christian worship practices across denominational lines. Previous to that, in 1959, the Anglican Church of Canada had proposed a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer that was formally adopted by their General Synod as the 1962 prayer book. Such events were considered by the leadership of the Episcopal Church as reflective of a need for new prayer book revision.

Even prior to these developments, early proponents of the Liturgical Movement within Episcopal Church had laid the groundwork for revision. Among them were William Palmer Ladd, Massey H. Shepherd, Edward L. Parsons, and Bayard Hale Jones. Parsons and Jones, after publishing the influential history The American Prayer Book in 1937, served on the Episcopal Church's Standing Liturgical Commission. This commission produced a series of publications called Prayer Book Studies, reviewing key elements of prayer book history and production. Within their 1950 study on baptism, confirmation, and the lectionary, the commission criticized the "abrupt conclusion" to the 1928 prayer book's revision process and lamented that there had not been opportunity to incorporate elements from the Church of England's 1928 English proposed prayer book and the Scottish Episcopal Church's 1929 Scottish Prayer Book. The commission also stated that, despite these criticisms, it did not propose "any immediate revision."

Within the Prayer Book Studies program, several liturgies were developed, including two increments of the Holy Eucharist liturgy in 1953 and 1966. The New Liturgy, also published in 1966, closely mirrored the Communion office in that year's Prayer Book Studies XVII. It featured the deletion of the Filioque from the Nicene Creed, a move that would remain in the prayer book proposals through 1976.

At the 1967 General Convention, the Standing Liturgical Commission submitted a new Eucharistic liturgy which was approved and published for trial use as The Liturgy of the Lord's Supper. A broader revision was approved at the 1970 General Convention, including a new lectionary and forms for the Daily Office and ordinations, as the Services for Trial Use–known as the "Green Book" for its cover. Further revision resulted in the Authorized Services 1973–known as the "Zebra Book", also for its cover. The Zebra Book included the same pattern of parallel traditional-language and contemporary-language forms for certain prayers and rites.

The proposals with multiple options for the same offices drew complaints that the new productions were "no longer a book of common prayer but of common services." Urban T. Holmes III, a prominent Episcopal priest, contended that the liturgists developing the 1979 prayer book had to respond to a theological crisis that saw them draw on liturgies from before the 1549 prayer book while making a more 20th-century theological statement.

Proposal and approval

The 1976 General Convention approved the usage of a proposed new revision of the Book of Common Prayer by a wide margin. It was also at this General Convention that the ordination of women was approved within the Episcopal Church. This new prayer book, The Proposed Book of Common Prayer, included a preceding "certificate" from Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer Charles Mortimer Guillbert dated to January 1977 that described the text as "a revision of The Book of Common Prayer (1928)" and approved its usage backdated to the First Sunday of Advent, 1976, through a period of three years. The Proposed Book of Common Prayer was adopted by the 1979 General Convention in Denver as the official liturgy of the Episcopal Church.

Article X of the Constitutions and Canons of the Episcopal Church provides that "The Book of Common Prayer, as now established or hereafter amended by the authority of this Church, shall be in use in all the Dioceses of this Church." The Canon 3 of Title II of the Constitutions and Canons established that this prayer book is that adopted in 1979. In 2000, the General Convention passed a resolution apologizing to those who "were offended or alienated by inappropriate or uncharitable behavior during the time of transition to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer." The resolution specified Native Americans as especially adversely impacted by the revision process.

Episcopal Church canon law requires the production of a Standard Edition copy from which the Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer is to compare all printings of approved editions of the Book of Common Prayer for certification. Such books were extravagantly bound in the cases of the 1892 and 1928 editions. However, while a prospectus was published advertising additional copies bound to the specifications of the Standard Edition to be purchased by the general public, both these and the Standard Edition itself were never produced. The prospectus lists that up 275 copies of the 1979 Standard Edition could be produced, with the price set at $2,000. Despite this, all copies of the 1979 prayer book bear a certification stating that each edition "has been compared with a certified copy of the Standard Book, as the Canon directs, and that it conforms thereto," followed by the name of the custodian at date of print.

Contents

Besides prayers, offices, and devotions, the 1979 prayer book includes a number of supplementary texts and essays. These include the certification from the Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer, the 1789 prayer book's "Ratification" and preface, a catechism, and explanatory essays preceding certain offices. Additionally, the "Historical Documents of the Church" section contains the Chalcedonian creed on Christ's natures, the Athanasian Creed, the preface to the 1549 prayer book, and the 1801 American version of the Articles of Religion.

Two-rite arrangement The 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer was intended to contain all the regular public liturgies used within the Episcopal Church, with only limited additional variety permitted by specific exemptions. It features two forms for the Holy Eucharist and for Morning and Evening Prayer. The Rite I services keep most of the language of the 1928 edition and older books, while Rite II uses contemporary language and offers a mixture of newly composed texts. Some Rite II prayers were adapted from the older forms, and some borrowed from other sources, notably the Byzantine Rite. The majority of Episcopal parishes have adopted Rite II services as their standard.

In the context of the newly introduced Proper Liturgies for Special Days and other offices rendered exclusively in contemporary language, the essay "Concerning the Service of the Church" provides permissions to conform them to Rite I language in the contexts of those services. The essay also notes that all Biblical quotation within the prayer book–except the Psalms–are from the Revised Standard Version translation.

Holy Eucharist