HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER - BCP HISTORY

Following the American revolution, our country needed its own prayer book, and the first American BCP was ratified by the first General Assembly of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1789.  Subsequent changes required the approval of two successive General Assemblies.  The first book relied heavily upon the 1662 Anglican prayer book (which continues to be the official prayer book for the English church) as well as the Scottish Eucharistic rite of 1764 (in deference to America’s first bishop being consecrated by Scottish bishops when English bishops refused).  The Scottish influence resulted in the inclusion of the invocation of the Holy Spirit (epiclesis) during the Eucharistic prayer (absent from the English prayer rite).  Following approval of that first prayer book, alterations were made in 1892, 1928, and in 1979 (our present Book of Common Prayer).  Currently, our prayer book contains a church calendar and services for four types of daily offices.  Collects and propers for the church year as well as special days,  Eucharistic prayers, the offices of morning and evening prayer, and burials can be found in both contemporary (Rite II) and traditional (Rite I) language.  Our current Book of Common Prayer is the first one that includes services for baptism and family devotions.  

~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church