The Book of Common Prayer
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    The Book of Common Prayer
Anglican Church of Canada

 

The Book of Alternative Services (the BAS - undoubtedly the most widely used Prayer Book in Canada today) is now available from the Anglican Church of Canada in PDF format. Selected services are also available in French, Cree and Chinese. The BAS is also available as HTML from a Canadian parish.

A number of additional liturgical texts are available on the Anglican Church of Canada's website. These include the 1962 BCP; Occasional Celebrations; additional Eucharistic Prayers and Services of the Word; Calendar resources; material for trial use; and other resources.

Experimental Liturgies leading up to the Book of Alternative Services:
    The Qu'Appelle Liturgy (1969)
    This liturgy has also been adapted and translated into Nisga'a, an indigenous language of British Columbia.
    The Algoma Liturgy (1968)
    The Trail-Rossland Liturgy (1967)

The 1962 Canadian BCP (the current official Canadian Book of Common Prayer) is available in HTML format from the Prayerbook Society of Canada. The Anglican Church of Canada also has it in PDF format.

Le Recueil des Prières: the 1962 Canadian BCP in French.

Draft Eucharist service (1952). The first attempt at a Eucharist for the eventual 1962 BCP.   new!

The 1918 Book of Common Prayer, the first Canadian BCP, in PDF format from a large Altar Book. We also have Holy Communion from the the 1918 BCP in HTML. A 1914 Report of the Committee charged with drawing up the 1918 BCP is online thanks to the Internet Archive. Finally, we also have online The Story of the Canadian Revision of the Prayer Book, which describes both its development and the services.   new!

Services and Prayers, a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer from the Diocese of New Westminster (1911).

The 1918 Book of Common Prayer in Ukrainian.

The (1662) Book of Common Prayer has been translated into a number of Canadian indigenous languages (links in bold are to texts on this site):
    Cree (Northern Ontario; 1949),
    Ojibwe (Ontario; 1880),
    Portions of the BCP in Slavey (Northwest Territories; 1882).
    Portions in Western Eskimo, or Inuinnaktun (Nunavut, 1922)
    Portions in Haida (British Columbia; 1899)
   
Prayers from the BCP in Gitxsan (British Columbia, 1881) 
   
Portions in Tsimshian(British Columbia, 1882)
    Marriage, Visitation of the Sick, and Burial in Thompson or Nlaka'pamux (British Columbia, 1880)
    Holy Communion, Baptism, and Catechism / Confirmation in Kwak'wala (or Kwagūtl; British Columbia, 1900) Morning & Evening Prayer and the Litany (1888) are available from the Internet Archive.
   The 1918 Canadian BCP in Gwich'in (or Kutchin, Takudh; Yukon, 1957, Griffiths 82:5), also the 1662 BCP from the Internet Archive (1885, Griffiths 82:2), and from Google Books (1899, Griffiths 82:3).
    Ojibwe (1882) from the Internet Archive; Griffiths 129:6
    Eskimo (Inuktitut; 1900) from the Internet Archive; Griffiths 32:2
    Nishg'a (portions, 1889) from the Internet Archive, Griffiths 121:1.
    Dakota (portions, 1889) from the Internet Archive, Griffiths 24:5.
    Additional texts may be found on our Languages page.

Portions of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer are also available in several other Canadian indigenous languages from Project Canterbury.

 

 The Anglican Church of Canada did not get its own Book of Common Prayer until 1918; prior to that it used the 1662 Church of England BCP. There was a revision in 1962 (probably the last Anglican Prayer Book revision to use traditional language) and a modern-language Book of Alternative Services in 1985.

Last Updated: 9 May 2020
Web author: Charles Wohlers U. S. EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaWorld