The Book of Common Prayer
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    History of the American Prayer Book

 

This page has links to those parts of the book Liturgiae Americanae which do not lay out comparisons to the various American Prayer Books, but describe the development of the American Book of Common Prayer through the 1892 Edition in various ways. These three parts are:

An Historical Account of the American Book of Common Prayer, by William McGarvey: An extended essay and introduction to the development of the American Prayer Book though about 1900, told primarily through the actions of, first, State Conventions, and then General Conventions of the Episcopal Church.

The Standard Editions of the American Book of Common Prayer, by Frederick Gibson: A description, often in excrutiating detail, of the various standard editions of the 1789 U. S. BCP. These include the first (1790) printing, followed by the seven Standard Editions leading up to the 1892 Revision. Also includes a listing of U. S. BCP's printed before 1800.

Documents Illustrative of the History of the American Prayer Book, collected by William McGarvey: These are primarily State Convention reports giving a background to the development of the 1786 Proposed Book, reactions to it, and then development of the first 1789 Book of Common Prayer.

There is also another appendix to this book, "Various Readings of the Prayer Book Psalter," which we have summarized (at least as it applies to the U. S. BCP) in a table.

The text of the entire book is also availble from the Internet Archive in PDF and plain text formats.

 

Web author: Charles Wohlers U. S. EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaWorld