THE BOOK OF
COMMON PRAYER,
AND ADMINISTRATION OF
THE SACRAMENTS;
AND OTHER
RITES AND CEREMONIES
OF THE CHURCH,
ACCORDING TO THE USE
OF
The Protestant
Episcopal Church
IN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA:
TOGETHER WITH
THE PSALTER, OR PSALMS
OF DAVID.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-------------------------------
1. THE Ratification
of the Book of Common Prayer.
2. The Preface.
3. The Order how the
Psalter is appointed to be read
4. The Order how the rest
of the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read.
5. Table of Lessons
of Holy Scripture to be read at Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the Year.
6. The Calendar.
7. Tables and Rules
for the Moveable and Immoveable Feasts, together with the Days of Fasting and
Abstinence throughout the Year.
8. Tables for finding
the Holydays.
9. The Order for
Daily Morning Prayer.
10. The Order for
Daily Evening Prayer.
11. Prayers and
Thanksgivings upon several Occasions, to be used before the two final Prayers
of Morning and Evening Service.
12. The Collects
Epistles, and Gospels, to be used throughout the Year.
13. The Order for the
Administration of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion.
14. The Ministration
of Public Baptism of Infants, to be used in the Church.
15. The Ministration
of Private Baptism of Children, in Houses.
16. The Ministration
of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able to answer for themselves.
17. A Catechism; that
is to say an Instruction to be learned by every Person before he be brought to
be confirmed by the Bishop.
18. The Order of
Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those that are baptized, and come to
years of Discretion.
19. The Form of
Solemnization of Matrimony.
20. The Order for the
Visitation of the Sick.
21. The Communion of
the Sick.
22. The Order for the
Burial of the Dead.
23. The Thanksgiving
of Women after Child-birth, commonly called, The Churching of Women.
24. Forms of Prayer
to be used at Sea.
25. A Form of Prayer
for the Visitation of Prisoners.
26. A Form of Prayer
and Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the Fruits of the earth, and all the
other Blessings of his merciful Providence.
27. Forms of Prayer
to be used in Families.
28: Selections of
Psalms, to be used instead of the Psalms for the Day, at the discretion of the
Minister.
29. The Psalter, or
Psalms of David.
THE RATIFICATION OF
THE BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER.
-----------------------------------------------------
By the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention,
this Sixteenth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and eighty-nine.
THIS
Convention having, in their present Session, set forth A Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other
Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, do hereby establish the said Book: And
they declare it to be the Liturgy of this Church: And require that it be received
as such by all the members of the same: And this Book shall be in use from and
after the First Day of October, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and ninety.
PREFACE.
-----------------
IT is
a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, that in his worship, different forms and usages may without offence be
allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire; and that, in every
Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be
referred to Discipline: and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be
altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem
most convenient for the edification of the people, "according to the
various exigencies of times and occasions."
The
Church of England, to which the
Protestant Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under God, for her
first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection, hath,
in the Preface of her Book of Common Prayer, laid it down as a rule, that
"The particular forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies
appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and
alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important
considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions,
such changes and alterations should be made therein; as to those who are in
places of authority should, from time to time, seem either necessary or
expedient.”
The
same Church hath not only in her Preface, but likewise in her Articles and
Homilies declared the necessity and expediency of occasional alterations and
amendments in her Forms of Public Worship; and we find accordingly, that,
seeking to "keep the happy mean between too much stiffness in refusing,
and too much easiness in admitting variations in things once advisedly
established", she hath, in the reign of several Princes since the first
compiling of her Liturgy in the time of Edward the Sixth upon just and weighty
considerations her thereunto moving yielded to make such alterations in some
particulars, as in their respective times were thought convenient; yet so as
that the main body and essential parts of the same (as well in the chiefest materials as in the frame and order thereof) have
still been continued firm and unshaken.
Her
general aim in these different reviews and alterations hath been, as she
farther declares in her said Preface "to do that which according to her
best understanding, might most tend to the preservation of peace and unity in
the Church; the procuring of reverence, and the exciting of piety and devotion
in the worship of God; and finally the cutting off occasion, from them that
seek occasion. Of cavil or quarrel against her Liturgy." And although,
according to her judgment, there be not "any thing in it contrary to the
Word of God or to sound doctrine, or which a godly man may not with a good
conscience use and submit unto, or which is not fairly defensible, if allowed
such just and favourable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed
to all human writings;" yet upon the principles already laid down, it
cannot but be supposed that further alterations would in time be found
expedient. Accordingly, a commission for a review was issued in the year 1689:
but this great and good work miscarried at that time; and the Civil Authority
has not since thought proper to revive it by any new commission.
But
when in the course of Divine Providence, these. American States became independent
with respect to civil government, their ecclesiastical independence was
necessarily included; and the different religious denominations of Christians
in these States were left at full and equal liberty to model and organize their
respective Churches, and forms of worship, and discipline, in such manner as
they might judge most convenient for their future prosperity; consistently with
the constitution and laws of their country.
The
attention of this Church was in the first place drawn to those alterations in
the Liturgy which became necessary in the prayers for our Civil Rulers, in
Consequence of the Revolution. And the principal care herein was to make them
conformable to what ought to be the proper end of all such prayers, namely,
that "Rulers may have grace, wisdom, and understanding to execute justice,
and to maintain truth;" and that the people "may lead quiet and
peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty."
But
while these alterations were in review before the Convention, they could not but,
with gratitude to God, embrace the happy occasion which was offered to them
(uninfluenced and unrestrained by any worldly authority whatsoever) to take a
further review of the Public Service, and to establish such other alterations
and amendments therein as might be deemed expedient.
It
seems unnecessary to enumerate all the different alterations and amendments.
They will appear, and it is to be hoped, the reasons of them also, upon a
comparison of this with the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. In
which it will also appear that this Church is far from intending to depart from
the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or
worship; or further than local circumstances require.
And
now, this important work being brought to a conclusion, it is hoped the whole
will be received and examined by every true member of our Church. and every
sincere Christian, with a meek, candid, and charitable frame of mind; without
prejudice or prepossessions; seriously considering what Christianity is, and
what the truths of the Gospel are; and earnestly beseeching Almighty God to
accompany with his blessing every endeavour for promulgating them to mankind,
in the clearest, plainest, most affecting and majestic manner, for the sake of
Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour.
THE ORDER
How
the Psalter is Appointed to be Read.
THE Psalter shall be read through once every month, as it
is there appointed, both for Morning and for Evening Prayer. But in February,
it shall be read only to the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth day of the month.
And whereas, January, March, May, July,
August, October, and December, have one-and-thirty days apiece; it is ordered that
the same Psalms shall be read the last day of the said months which were read
the day before; so that the Psalter may begin again on the first day of the
next month ensuing.
And whereas the 119th Psalm is divided into
twenty-two Portions, and is over long to be read at one time; it is so ordered,
that at one time shall not be read above four or five of the said Portions.
The Minister shall, instead of reading from
the Psalter as divided for Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, may read one of
the Selections set out by this Church.
And, on Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving,
appointed either by the Civil or by the Ecclesiastical Authority, the Minister
may appoint such Psalms as he shall think fit in his discretion, unless any
shall have been appointed by the Ecclesiastical Authority, in a Service set out
for the Occasion; which, in that case, shall be used and no other.
[see Proper Psalms on Certain Days elsewhere
on this web site]
THE ORDER
How
the rest of the Holy Scripture is Appointed to be Read.
THE Old Testament is appointed for the First Lessons at
Morning and Evening Prayer, so that the most part thereof will be read every
year once, as in the Calendar is appointed.
The New Testament is appointed for the
Second Lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer.
And to know what Lessons shall be read
every day, look for the day of the month in the Calendar following, and there
ye shall find the Chapters that shall be read for the Lessons, both at Morning
and at Evening Prayer; except only the Movable Feasts, which are not in the
Calendar; and the Immovable, where there is a blank left in the column of
Lessons; the Proper Lessons for all which days are to be found in the table of
Proper Lessons.
And, on Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving,
the same rule is to obtain as in reading the Psalms.
And the same discretion of choice is
allowed on occasions of Ecclesiastical Conventions and those of Charitable
Collections.
And Note, That whensoever Proper Psalms or
Lessons are appointed, then the Psalms and Lessons of ordinary course appointed
in the Psalter and Calendar, if they be different, shall be omitted for that
time.
Note also, That the Collect, Epistle, and
Gospel, appointed for the Sunday, shall serve for the Week after, where it is
not in this Book otherwise ordered.
[see TABLES of LESSONS of Holy Scripture, to be read at Morning and Evening Prayer throughout
the Year, and Feasts and Fasts else
where on this web site]
* The Numbers
prefixed to the several Days (in the foregoing Calendar) between the 21st Day
of March and the 18th Day of April, both inclusive, denote the Days upon which
those Full Moons do fall, which happen upon or next after the 21st Day of
March, in those years, of which they are respectively the Golden Numbers; and
the Sunday Letter next following any such Full Moon points out Easter-Day for
that year. All of which holds until the Year of our Lord 1899, inclusive; after
which Year, the Place of these Golden Numbers will be to be changed, as is
hereafter expressed.
Formatted and abridged
by Lee Chapel, Order of Centurions, based on the 1869 BCP