The Book of Common Prayer
United States England Scotland Ireland Wales Canada World

    The Book of Common Prayer in Slavey
Anglican Church of Canada

 

Title page, Slavey BCP

PORTIONS OF THE

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER,

HYMNS, ETC.,

IN THE

CHIPEWYAN LANGUAGE.

 

BY ARCHDEACON KIRKBY.

 

ADAPTED FOR THE USE OF THE SLAVI INDIANS

BY THE

RIGHT REV. W. C. BOMPAS, D.D.,
BISHOP OF ATHABASCA.

 


LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS.


 

The Slavey (or Slave or Slavi) are a Native American group living in the upper Mackenzie River / Great Slave Lake area of Canada's Northwest Territories, and adjacent parts of Alberta and British Columbia. The language is one of the Athabaskan family and is divided into two main dialects, North and South Slavey. Slavey is one of the official languages of the Northwest Territories and is spoken today by about 4000 people. Slavey is written both in Roman characters (as is presented here), and in syllabic characters (such as may be seen in the Cree BCP)

The Slavey people were originally evangelized in the 1860's and 1870's by C. M. S. missionaries, including the Revs. Kirkby and Bompas responsible for this translation. The text presented here was the first BCP in the Slavey language, originally published in 1879 in syllabic characters; this here is a later 1882 printing in Roman characters. As may be seen in the Table of Contents below, it consists of the more important parts of the 1662 BCP, plus some hymns and scripture stories. Note that the services included in this book should probably be considered "abridged" versions of those in the 1662 BCP. There appears to be a very large number of omissions, plus changes and occasional additions to the 1662 text. For example, in Morning and Evening Prayer, several of the canticles are omitted, there are no rubrics nor a prayer for the Queen, and a General Thanksgiving is added. For some reason unknown to us, this book was printed entirely in capital letters, and is so reproduced here. The book appears in David Griffiths' Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer as 158:2. More information on this and other early translations may be found in The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World

This book is also available as PDF graphics from the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive also has a later (1891, Griffiths 158:3), more complete edition.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ekledon Yadzeti.
    Morning Prayer.
Ekheli Yadzeti.
    Evening Prayer.
The Litany.
Prayers.
Edariye Onasi Yadzeti.
    Service for Holy Communion.
Meketaisini Yadzeti.
    Baptismal Service.
Kegaunte Yadzeti.
    Marriage Service.
Koyiginiti Yadzeti.
    Burial Service.
Hymns.
Scripture stories.
Catechism.


Rev. William Kirkby


Rev. William Kirkby

Rt. Rev. William Bompas

grave of Kirkby
Grave of Rev. William Kirkby in Rye, NY

 

Thanks are due to Richard Mammana, who provided and transcribed the text.

 

Web author: Charles Wohlers U. S. EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaWorld