The Left Stack (from bottom to top)
• The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, edited by John Henry Blunt (1899) - A VERY large annotated edition of the 1662 Prayer Book. A bit Anglo-Catholic for my taste, but an immensely helpful and informative reference book.
• The Elizabethan Prayer Book, edited by John Booty (1559/2005) - A beautiful modern reprint of the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.
• The Liturgy of Comprehension 1689, edited by Timothy Fawcett (1689/1973) - A modern reprint of the Prayer Book revision of 1689. It was a joint venture between Churchmen and Puritans that ultimately failed and was never approved by either Convocation or Parliament.
• The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, by Massey Shepherd (1950) - A 1928 American Prayer Book with thorough commentary included. Not as good as Blunt's, but more up-to-date. I'd like to have this rebound one of these days...
• The Book of Common Prayer 1928 (ECUSA) - This is the nice genuine leather Oxford edition that seems to come and go out of print every few years. I bought this new in 2002, but never really use it because I prefer my editions combined with the Bible or the 1940 Hymnal.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1918 (Canada) - This is a beautiful Prayer Book, or was when it was new sometime in the 1930's. It's genuine leather with marbled end papers and art gilt pages -- and it's full-size.
• The Cathedral Prayer Book (C of E, ca. 1900) - Another beautiful BCP that is entirely set to music and bound in high quality leather with gilt pages. This has seen a century of nearly constant use and is still holding up.
• The Scottish Prayer Book 1929 - I'd like to find a leather copy sometime, but even hardcovers like this are rare.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1928 & The Hymnal 1940 - I use this a lot. This is the "leatherette" that Seabury always used instead of real leather. Mine was printed in 1953 and shows it.
• The First & Second Prayer Books of Edward VI (1910) - I should really replace this with a nicer edition. This is an old hardcover Everyman reprint of both the 1549 and 1552 Prayer Books.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1928 (ECUSA) - This is an original Oxford small-size leather copy of the 1929 edition, before the format was changed and the lectionary violated by liberals in 1943.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1662 (CofE) - A very nice hardcover and leather-like copy from Oxford, circa 1996.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1785 (ECUSA) - A very nicely preserved 1820's leather copy of ECUSA's original BCP. Printed by The New York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society. My dad rescued this out a dumpster at a Lutheran Church in Palm Springs.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1785 (ECUSA) - Another well-preserved copy of the 1785 BCP. This one's from 1886 and includes the "recently" revised orders for Morning and Evening Prayer.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1892 (ECUSA) - A beautiful padded leather Prayer Book from 1893. It has a matching hymnal as well and the covers lock together. Rescued from the same Lutheran dumpster.
The Centre Stack (from bottom to top)
• The Book of Common Prayer 2005 (REC) - The current edition of my own jurisdiction's Prayer Book -- a combination of the 1662 and 1928 Prayer Books with a smattering of our own updates and innovations. The printing is really nice and on thick paper, but it's sadly only available in hardcover and bonded leather. I plan on having this rebound when it's worn out.• The Book of Common Prayer 1928 & King James Bible with Apocrypha - This is my beloved and I reviewed it in the previous post.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1926 (Ireland) - This is a smallish hardcover edition from about 1930. I bought it as "old stock" from a bookstore in Ireland. It's pristine and is actually, believe it or not, brand new and never used. I love the two-column format of most of the book.
• A Book of Common Prayer 1954 (South Africa) - Other than Blunt's annotated BCP, this was the hardest to find in my collection. This is an Oxford hardcover edition of the old South African alternative service book that came from the cathedral in Grahamstown. Well used but holding up. At some point someone did some wonderful and very tedious repair work to this volume.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1959 (Canada) - This was the "first" draft of the current Canadian BCP that survived only three years of use -- no wonder my copy is pristine.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1962 (Canada) - This is the current BCP in Canada, although its use is fairly rare. I'd like to find a leather copy, but those are even harder to find than old South African Prayer Books. From the Anglican Book Centre logo on the title page I know this copy is pre-1980's.
• The Teacher's Prayer Book - This is a neat little hardcover with lots of Art Nouveau gilt lettering and decorations. This is less thorough than Blunt or Shepherd, but a good annotated 1662 Prayer Book. My copy is from 1920. Printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1892 (REC) - This is a 1984 hardcover reprint of the REC's 1892 Prayer Book, which was still used in Canada until the current round of revision began in the 1990's.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1932 (REC) - This is a nice hardcover 1987 reprint of the prayer book used by the REC in the United States until the 1990's.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1874 (REC) - I'm guessing this is the rarest BCP in my collection. This is the original Prayer Book of the REC -- essentially a slightly tweaked version of the Prayer Book that Bp. William White proposed to PECUSA in 1785. This is an edition published for the RE parishes in Canada and therefore tweaked a bit more in a handful of places to include prayers for the monarch.
The Right Stack (from bottom to top)
• The Book of Alternative Services 1985 (Canada) - This doesn't really qualify as Common Prayer, but it's the book used by most Anglicans in Canada. This is sort of the already liberal American 1979 BCP on liberal steroids.
• A New Zealand Prayer Book 1989 - Probably the most liberal Prayer Book in the Communion. This is a complete departure from the Common Prayer tradition that includes a bunch of syncretistic pseudo-Christian and Native/Maori cra...um...garbage. Liberal theology aside, if you can find an original New Zealand printing like this, instead of the cheapo American eidtions, the printing is bi-colour and very nice -- a beautiful book.
• The Book of Common Prayer 2004 (Ireland) - This is one of the most beautifully printed hardcover Prayer Books I've seen. The cover is a beautiful green, leather-like, and embossed with a gilt celtic cross and title. The interior is printed in both red and black text. While including more liberal modern services, much of the old 1926 BCP is still included -- a bit theologically confusing, however.
• A Prayer Book for Australia 1995 - This is the current Prayer Book in Australia and is a comparatively conservative alternative to the 1662 BCP. Printed by Broughton. The salespeople there were awesome when I ordered this by email and received it less than a week later after paying for standard surface mail (e.g., slow boat from Australia).
• Prayer Book of the Church of England in South Africa 1992 - This is a paperback edition of the CESA's current modern language alternative service book. It's basically all taken from the 1978 Australian book, but includes an interesting modern language version of the 39 Articles of Religion.
• An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 (South Africa) - This is the current modern-language alternative services book for the more liberal Church Province of South Africa. They only seem to print a low-end pseudo-buckram bound edition by Collins.
• The Alternative Service Book 1980 (CofE) - This is the hardcover pew edition of the now-defunct ASB from England. Printed by Hodder and Stoughton.
• An English Prayer Book 1994 - Oxford prints a very nicely bound hardcover copy of J.I. Packer's modern-language translation of the 1662 Prayer Book. Copyright is held by the Church Society. This was supposed to be the Evangelicals' contribution to prayer book revision, but it didn't get very far...
• An Australian Prayer Book 1978 - This is a conservative modern-language update of the 1662 Prayer Book. It's been popular in conservative Anglican churches in many other countries outside Australia and was even authorised for use in the REC. It's filled with neat illustrations of native Australian flora.
• The Book of Common Worship 1962 (The Church of South India) - This is basically the traditional BCP adapted for an ecumenical united church. Mine's a hardcover edition printed by Oxford.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1979 (ECUSA) - Whatever the title may be, this is not Common Prayer. This is the liberal modern-language service book currently in use in ECUSA wherever even more liberal trial-use liturgies aren't being used.
• The Book of Common Prayer 1984 (Wales) - This is the the fairly conservative Prayer Book of The Church in Wales. It uses traditional language with texts from the RSV. This is a hardcover copy of "Volume 1". The Welsh BCP is a bit confusing in that there are multiple volumes. I believe "Volume 2" is all in the Welsh language.
14 comments:
The Canadian BCP is more commonly used than you might think. Most of the parishes around here tend to have both a BCP and BAS Eucharist on Sunday morning. I've never heard of a church using the BAS for Evening Prayer (and with good reason).
I'd never heard of An English Prayer Book; looks like a rather interesting work, in any event.
Andrew,
The problems is that BAS services dominate, especially if one wants to attend Sunday morning worship any time after 8 AM. The parish I served in Vancouver used the BCP at an 8 AM services attended by at most a dozen people. That was more than a decade ago and they've since dropped the BCP service completely. In those days there were one or two parishes that used the BCP at their main Sunday services on alternate weeks, using the BAS on the other Sundays. The only parish I know of in Vancouver that continues to use the BCP for almost all their services is St. John's, Shaugnessy. Sadly, if you relegate the BCP to the poorly attended early service it eventually tends to die off and the young people and families rarely, if ever, get exposed to it -- it's seen as the old people's service -- and when they're gone it's gone with them. More parishes need to give greater priority to the BCP (or better yet, ditch the liberal influenced 1962 BCP in favour of the 1918 or the 1662).
The Church Society's "An English Prayer Book" is a good alternative. I think there's more hope for the new "An Anglican Prayer Book" just released by the Anglican Mission in America. Being in one of the Common Cause jurisdictions, I can say that there are some who want modern language and would be willing to adopt and use this new prayer book. Peter Toon did most of the work on it, and it really is a faithful modern-language translation of the 1662 BCP. It would be nice to see something around which the Common Cause partners can rally -- at least those who want to use modern-language.
Come to think of it, there's actually list of Canadian parishes that use the BCP. The church I grew up in might be somewhat of an exception; it has the BCP service at 9:00 a.m., and it is indeed a slightly older crowd, but not overly so. It's more a service for people who just want to go to church a bit earlier, and like something a little more traditional. I myself was introduced to the BCP as an altar server, since they make sure that all of the servers get experience at both services. I've realized, in retrospect, that this is actually a brilliant way of making teenagers more aware of liturgy.
This might sound odd, but it seems to me that there's more life left in the BCP than the BAS. While some people do indeed simply use it because they've done so since they were a kid, others recognize that it really does provide a solid basis for worship. Most of the Anglicans I know that are enthusiastic about renewing our church tend to at least be aware of what's in the BCP and appreciate its value, even if they don't use it on a regular basis.
That said, the BCP really does need some sort of revision, because many people do seem to find its language a little confusing. It's encouraging to hear that there are some attempts being made at this, though often such attempts seem to result in a really flat-sounding text. It will be interesting to take a look at the AMIA text; hopefully they'll make it available online.
Haven't heard about liberalism in the 1962 book before; I was under the impression that they had mainly just updated some particularly archaic phrasing, added a few Canadian prayers, added Compline, and put the Agnus Dei back in. I'll have to find a copy of the 1662 book and compare them more closely.
Andrew,
Yes, the 1962 BCP was heavily influenced by liberalism, which is why my preference is for the 1918 or 1662. Some examples:
• The older Daily Office lectionary was abandoned in favour of a newer lectionary that covers less Scripture and does so fairly selectively.
• The penitential nature of the Prayer Book was significantly watered down. Note that the Commination was removed and the Penitential Office and Litany pared down.
• The penitential nature of the Communion service was watered down by changes in the confession, etc.
• The theology of the Prayer for the Church was watered down.
• And what is to me the most offensive: the heavy editing and censoring of the Psalter. The imprecatory psalms were completely removed, but many, many verses were also excised from other psalms and other verses and phrases drastically changed when they were found offensive to liberal ears. The changes in the Psalter are significant enough that I find it difficult to even describe it as "The Psalter" because it's been so heavily edited as to no longer truly be Holy Scripture.
• A close comparison with the 1662 BCP will show other changes, but I think I've covered the more significant of them.
Excellent and informative post! And a nice collection of Prayer Books (and Prayer Book imposters. . .).
Hello; I'm slowly putting together a small collection of editions of the Book of Common Prayer, and I was wondering if you had any tips on acquiring some of the more obscure ones, like South Africa or the Church of South India book.
By the way, Courtenay/Comox is a nice area--I have family there.
Thanks,
Robert Konschak
Robert,
If you're looking for current editions, the Anglican Book Centre in Toronto has always been a good place. They also have a presence on the web. The Anglican Bibliopole in New York also has a lot of rare Anglican-related books. www.abebooks.com is a good resource to find rare books worldwide. I think I found my South Indian books via that site. As for South Africa: I believe the Anglican Book Centre sells their current (1989) Prayer Book. Good luck finding their previous 1954 Prayer Book. I bought mine from the Anglican Bibliopole and it was their last copy. The CPSA seems to have as its goal to take them all out of circulation and to make sure they never see the light of day again. There are also a number of African prayer books that seem only to be available directly from the publishers in Africa.
Good Luck!
Bill+
Another really good place to get prayer books in Ontario is the Church Bookroom, in Kingston.
Fr. Klock--here's one to add to your shelves:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=119111&event=WL&item_code=WW
Update--I was able to get a 1954 South Africa BCP, courtesy of the kind people at St. Catherine's, Bramley (suburb of Johannesburg). They had extras they were no longer using, and posted one off to me free of charge. My hat's off to them.
I am in The Church in wales, And I can tell you that vollume 2 is in both welsh and english.
I like your collection of BCP especially the • The Book of Common Prayer 1928 & King James Bible with Apocrypha - This is my beloved and I reviewed it in the previous post.
How does one even find one in good shape.
Also the 1662 annotated version at the top great for those who want to read into the intent of the BCP by the original writers.
The previous poster mentioned a 1928 BCP/KJV Bible with Apocrypha; I have one of these from the 1950s, beautifully done up in real leather, and given me by a retired Episcopal priest--it's something I use and cherish in his memory. Recently I've also come across a 1881 reprint of the 1549 BCP, in remarkably good condition considering its age, and a late-1800s 1789 BCP. Shortly, thanks to eBay, I'll have a South India book as well.
There are some lovely old books amongst them :)
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