The Book of Common Prayer for the Episcopal Church

The Book of Common Prayer

United States

England

Scotland

The Book of Common Prayer
The Episcopal Church

Current (1979) Edition:

The Episcopal Church is the representative of the Anglican Communion in the United States, and also in several other countries. It has had its own Book of Common Prayer since the American Revolution; prior to that, of course, it was part of the Church of England.There have been four editions of the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer; all are presented here, starting with the latest and going back to the first.

Formatted Version:
RTF, WordPerfect, MSWord, and PDF formats

HTML and other versions (includes Kindle, eBook, iPhone, etc.)

Links to Prayer Books and liturgies. This is to be the official list of approved texts and liturgies.

Enriching Our Worship: Free PDF's are now available for each of the six volumes:
Vol. 1: Morning & Evening Prayer, The Litany, Holy Eucharist
Vol. 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying, Burial of a Child
Vol. 3: Burial Rites for Adults; Burial of a Child
Vol. 4: Renewal of Ministry, Welcoming a New Rector
Vol. 5: Liturgies & Prayers Related to Childbearing, Childbirth, & Loss
Vol. 6: Witnessing & Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant.

The Book of Occasional Services (2022) approved at General Convention; and Libro de ritos ocasionales (2018)

Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018, approved at General Convention

Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022.

Holy Eucharist in Expansive Language, approved for trial use at General Convention 2018 (includes Spanish translation).

Eucharistic Liturgies for Children from the Rev. Emily Garcia

How2charist, a digital instructed Eucharist. Free, but registration required.

Two gender-neutral marriage services, approved at General Convention 2015 (scroll down for free downloads); and Te Bendeciré, y Serás Bendición. See also Enriching Our Worship, Vol. 6.

Proposed Trial Liturgy for Good Friday.

The Anglican Service Book: The contemporary language portions of the 1979 BCP put into traditional language, along with other material of interest primarily to Anglo-Catholic parishes.

Liber Precum Publicarum: The 1979 U. S. Book of Common Prayer in Latin.

Portions of the BCP in Vietnamese, from St. Patrick's Church in Virginia.

Niobrara Wocekiye Wowapi, parts of the 1979 BCP in Lakota

Adadosligi gigoweli, portions of the 1979 BCP in Cherokee.

The Standard Book

Libro de Oración Común (2022), The 1979 BCP in Spanish is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format from the Episcopal Church Center. Also available is Holy Women, Holy Men in Spanish.

Le Livre de la Prière Commune (2022), the 1979 BCP in French, available as a PDF from Church Publishing.

Ausgewählte Liturgien aus dem Book of Common Prayer, portions of the 1979 BCP in German: PDF graphic (English & German) and PDF text (German only).

Il Libro della Preghiera Comune, portions of the 1979 BCP in Italian

Portions of the BCP in Polish

Litiji Kreyol La: Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 in Kreyol, or Haitian Creole.

The Episcopal Church's Asiamerica Ministries Office has a number of liturgical resources in Hmong, Ilocano, Vietnamese, Japanese, Nepalese, Korean and Karen.

Holy Communion in Tagalog

Holy communion, Rite II, in Japanese
The Marriage Service, in English and Japanese

Holy Communion, Rites I and II, in Hawaiian.

The New Liturgy (1966), the first in a series of Trial Eucharist services leading up to the 1979 BCP.

A Functional Liturgy (1961): From the Order of the Holy Cross, and by a member of the committee which developed the 1979 BCP

Prayer Book Studies, Series I (1950-1963): The first attempts at revision of the 1928 BCP.

Older Editions:
	1928 in HTML, WordPerfect 6.0, and PDF formats. The Standard Book, D. B. Updike's classic of typography (PDF only) Livre des Prières Publiques: The 1928 Edition in French. Libro de Oración Común: The 1928 Edition in Spanish Livro de Oração Comum: The 1928 Edition in Portuguese, for use in Brazil Wocekiye Wowape: the 1928 Edition in Dakota A Service of Compline (1914) Holy Communion & Morning Prayer, with additional prayers, in Chinese The Proposed Revision of the Book of Common Prayer (1925) The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: an American Edition of "The Grey Book" (1933), another predecessor of the Book of Occasional Services. A Suggested Order for The Administration of the Lord’s Supper (1935). A Prayer Book for Soldiers and Sailors from WW II The Armed Forces Prayer Book from the Korean War The Book of Offices (1949), the immediate predecessor of the Book of Occasional Sercices Service Book for the Diocese of New Jersey (1940), similar to the Book of Offices above
	1892 in HTML, WordPerfect 6.0, and PDF formats The 1892 Edition in Tigara (an Alaskan Eskimo tongue). The 1892 Edition in Swedish The 1892 Edition in Hungarian The 1892 Edition in Bontoc Igorot (A Philippines tongue) The Standard Book (PDF only) Livre des Prières Publiques , the 1892 Edition in French (PDF, 27MB) Das allgemeine Gebetbuch: The 1892 Edition in German Libro della Preghiere Comuni: The 1892 Edition in Italian Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Cheyenne Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Koyukon (a language of Alaska) The Book of Common Prayer in Ojibwe A Book of Offices (1914): the predecessor of The Book of Occasional Services A Book of Offices and Prayers for Priest and People (1896) The Holy Cross Missal (1920), published for the Order of the Holy Cross The Campaign Prayer Book: For use in WW I Proposed Alterations & Additions, and Book of Offices, of 1889. The People's Book of the Holy Eucharist (1914) from the Diocese of Fond du Lac
	1789 in HTML WordPerfect 6.0, and PDF formats. The 1871 Standard Edition: The last standard, in PDF. The 1845 Standard Edition, in PDF 1795 "first folio", or altar book, in PDF The 1790 "First Edition": the very first printing of the 1789 BCP, in PDF The 1790 partial folio: pages to be inserted into existing English BCP's A 1775 English (1662) BCP, said to be the printing on which the first US BCP was based. Livre des Prières Publiques: The 1789 Edition in French. The Book of Common Prayer in Mohawk Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Ottawa Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Dakota Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Norwegian Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Swedish Soldiers' Prayer Books from the Civil War: two books used by Union soldiers The Book of Common Prayer of the Confederacy: The BCP in the South during the Civil War Prayers from the BCP, translated into Oneida
	1786 Proposed BCP in HTML and WordPerfect 6.0 formats
	Bishop Seabury's Communion Office (1786) in HTML or PDF formats The Prayer Book of King's Chapel, Boston (1785)
Hawaii Portions of the 1662 Church of England BCP, in Hawaiian (1862-3). Includes the Preface to the 1863 Hawaiian Book of Common Prayer, written by King Kamehameha, in English and Hawaiian.

Last updated: 6 March 2024

Web author: Charles Wohlers

U. S. • England • Scotland • Ireland • Wales • Canada • World

Current (1979) Edition:

Older Editions:

Hawaii