The St. Bede Blog

Another Foray into UK History If you read the last post and were thinking “What the heck is all this about the 1689 Proposed BCP/Alterations; I though we were in the late 1700s,” there’s a reason and I really did mean 1689.

The Process The first major convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the former Colonies took place in Philadelphia from September 27 to October 7, 1785.

This post is an interruption of the previous series, but one done for the sake of timeliness… As there is interest in the 1789 Book of Common Prayer on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, here is an equally interesting

[Disclaimer: As most folks here know, I am a New Testament scholar by training and a patristist/medievalist by inclination.

Quick Rehearsal of English History Let’s do a recap of how the first two English prayer books came about, because they set up the two fundamental structural choices offered to Anglicans regarding the shape of the Communion Office.

Having discussed the two discontinuities that a present Episcopal worshipper would experience encountering the 1789 Communion Office, it’s time to point out the continuity–and it’s a pretty obvious one.

The second discontinuity experienced in the 1789 Communion Office for a worshipper familiar with the current prayer book is twofold; first, there a quite a number of elements placed in a different order from the present, and second, there are a few insert…

From the perspective of a present-day Episcopal worshipper, the experience of the 1789 Communion Office presents two discontinuities with modern practice, and one key continuity.

The Texts In order to talk about the 1789 Communion Office, we’ve got to get familiar with it.

Alright.