The CATHEDRAL TIMES The weekly newsletter of the Cathedral of St. Philip · Serving Atlanta and the World · October 8, 2017
THE EPISCOPAL BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER – AND ITS REVISIONS! When I was younger, I remember someone writing that their father had been baptized and confirmed using the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, but that he (the writer) had been baptized and confirmed using the 1892 Prayer Book. He said his children had been baptized and confirmed using the 1928 Prayer Book – and that his granddaughter had been confirmed in London using the English Prayer Book of 1662. Which one, he asked, was the real Prayer Book? (See William Sydnor, The Real Prayer Book, 1978, p 1.) I have been asked, from time to time, to reflect upon whether it is time to revise our current Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. The topic may well be an issue at our next General Convention, in July of 2018. The authorized prayer books of The Episcopal Church include those of 1789, 1892, 1928, and 1979. But they also include the English books before that: 1549, 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662. Most of those revisions occurred in times of notable cultural or political change. Are we in such a time now? So, this Sunday at the Dean’s Forum and Old Fashioned Sunday School class—meeting in the Parish Hall at 10:10 a.m.—I will present an overview of the history of Prayer Book revision in the Episcopal Church. Perhaps many of you have favorite prayers, but which are found in different prayer books. Perhaps many of you have experienced important spiritual events, but led by different prayer books. Perhaps many of you wonder why The Episcopal Church even uses a prayer book at all. What is The Book of Common Prayer? What are its revisions? And, what does it mean to pray together, to pray corporately? Join us this Sunday for presentation and discussion. Grace and peace to you,
Join us this Sunday, October 8, at 10:10 a.m. in Child Hall, as Dean Sam Candler gives a presentation on The Book of Common Prayer and its revisions.