Welcome to the Office of Liturgy
Under the leadership of the The Very Reverend Brent Whetstone, the Office of Liturgy serves as a resource for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy throughout the Anglican Free Communion International.
The Office of Liturgy will provide access to resources for our churches and ministries to use, as well as help develop any special liturgies at the request of the Presiding Bishop.
Books of Common Prayer
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer served the Episcopal Church for fifty years, from 1928 until 1978. We are presenting this electronic version of the U. S. 1928 Book of Common Prayer in hopes that it will prove useful and instructive to the Church. Parishes might find it useful in recreating historical services, for example, to celebrate the anniversary of the parish. Others might find it instructive to compare the changes, additions, and deletions, which have taken place in the various versions of the Book of Common Prayer.
The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the official primary liturgical book of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. An edition in the same tradition as other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, it contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. It is the fourth major revision of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church, and succeeded the 1928 edition. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has been translated into multiple languages and is considered a representative production of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement.
“The Book of Common Prayer (2019) is a form of prayers and praises that is thoroughly Biblical, catholic in the manner of the early centuries, highly participatory in delivery, peculiarly Anglican and English in its roots, culturally adaptive and missional in a most remarkable way, utterly accessible to the people, and whose repetitions are intended to form the faithful catechetically and to give them doxological voice.” ~ Preface, The Book of Common Prayer 2019
In 1988 the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia authorised through its general synod A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa intended to serve the needs of New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Island Anglicans. This book is unusual for its cultural diversity; it includes passages in the Maori, Fijian, Tongan and English languages. In other respects, it reflects the same ecumenical influence of the Liturgical Movement as in other new Anglican books of the period, and borrows freely from a variety of international sources. The book is not presented as a definitive or final liturgical authority, such as the use of the definite article in the title might have implied. While the preface is ambiguous regarding the status of older forms and books, the implication however is that this book is now the norm of worship for Anglicans in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The book has also been revised in a number of minor ways since the initial publication, such as by the inclusion of the Revised Common Lectionary and an online edition is offered freely as the standard for reference.
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the traditional and well loved prayer book of the Anglican Church and is used daily in homes and churches throughout the world. Its phrases and vocabulary are widely admired and have made a major contribution to the English language.
1662 Prayer Book Services
The videos below offer examples of the full range of 1662 Prayer Book Services.
Each video contains a narrated version of many of the Prayer Book services, the narrator is giving advice and directions on how one might choose to celebrate the 1662 Liturgy.
The videos are based on Using the Book of Common Prayer: A Simple Guide by Paul Thomas (2012) published by Church House Publishing (ISBN: 9780715142769), available from the Prayer Book Society online shop.
If you have any questions or require further information, please contact the Prayer Book Society.
Holy Communion – Narrated
This is one of a series of videos intended primarily for as training aids for clergy on how to conduct services according to the Book of Common Prayer (1662). This ‘Narrated’ version includes a voiceover giving suggestions as to how the service might be used in practice, with common variations. Please see also the un-narrated version, which presents the service straight through, with no voiceover.
The video was recorded at St James’s, Sussex Gardens (Paddington), in London.
This is a somewhat High-Church version of the Holy Communion service. There is also a more Evangelical presentation of the liturgy, which was recorded at the Annual Conference of the Prayer Book Society, and which can be found on the Prayer Book Society YouTube page.
Evensong – Narrated
This is one of a series of videos intended primarily for as training aids for for clergy and others on how to conduct services according to the Book of Common Prayer (1662) which is used in the Church of England, and authorized to be used in the Anglican Free Communion International.
This ‘Narrated’ version includes a voiceover giving suggestions as to how the service might be used in practice, with common variations. Please see also the un-narrated version, which presents the service straight through, with no voiceover.
The video was recorded at St James’s, Sussex Gardens (Paddington), in London.
Mattins – Narrated
This is one of a series of videos intended primarily for as training aids for for clergy and others on how to conduct services according to the Book of Common Prayer (1662) which is used in the Church of England, and authorized to be used in the Anglican Free Communion International.. This ‘Narrated’ version includes a voiceover giving suggestions as to how the service might be used in practice, with common variations. Please see also the un-narrated version, which presents the service straight through, with no voiceover.
The video was recorded at St James’s, Sussex Gardens (Paddington), in London.
Marriage 1662 – Narrated
This is one of a series of videos intended primarily for as training aids for for clergy and others on how to conduct services according to the Book of Common Prayer (1662) which is used in the Church of England, and authorized to be used in the Anglican Free Communion International.
This ‘Narrated’ version includes a voiceover giving suggestions as to how the service might be used in practice, with common variations. Please see also the un-narrated version, which presents the service straight through, with no voiceover. This video presents the original 1662 version of the service for the Solemnization of Matrimony.
The video was recorded at St James’s, Sussex Gardens (Paddington), in London.
Holy Eucharist Rite II
The How2charist Story
How2charist is much more than a tool for formation and evangelism; it’s a dream that has been in the making for over a decade! In 2008, project creator Callie Swanlund took a seminary course with the Rev. Dr. Micah Jackson called New Media in Worship & Preaching. Micah challenged students to create projects that incorporated new forms of media into worship, since the church had already been using media in the form of icons for centuries. Callie used the foundation of an instructed eucharist—in which the history of the eucharistic rite and the symbolism of the service are explained in narrative form—to make a more seamless liturgy that was stimulating and enlightening. Taking inspiration from VH1’s Pop-Up Video series, the How2charist was born.
While the early PowerPoint version was edifying and enjoyable, many friends, colleagues, and parishioners asked whether this was something that could be made available more broadly. Callie dreamed of partnering with someone who could bring the technical background to make this a reality. Fast-forward several years, and enter Jeremy Tackett. As Callie excitedly explained her vision of sharing a live How2charist, Jeremy immediately jumped on board and started naming off the numerous pieces of equipment and tech assistants he’d need. They both saw each other’s excitement and knew this project needed to be something easily accessible by individuals, churches, seminaries, schools, dioceses, and more. It needed to preserve the beauty of the Book of Common Prayer liturgy, be informative and prayerful, be a high-quality shareable resource for the whole Church, and—most importantly— draw people closer to God.
In 2018, Callie launched a How2charist Kickstarter and partnered with The Episcopal Church‘s digital evangelism team. The crowd-funding model generated communal excitement, ensured the resource would be available to all, and was wildly successful (raising over $30,000). Because of the partnership between Callie and The Episcopal Church, the How2charist project can serve as a model to support individuals, parishes, and dioceses as they innovate and create new ways of spreading the Gospel. The project’s creator, Callie, was responsible for raising financial support to make the project viable; the digital evangelism team supported the project by providing guidance and technical direction, resourcing with other offices as needed (from formation to evangelism to tech), and by giving the tools needed to launch and scale the idea for a larger audience.
After the Kickstarter was fully funded, there was a push to raise more money as a seed for filming a second version in Spanish. The English version was filmed in Philadelphia, PA, in August 2018, and the Spanish version was filmed in Los Angeles, Calif., in November 2018 (with release anticipated in Spring 2019). At each step of the way, How2charist fans have expanded the original project idea into an even bigger challenge and dream, and the future journey for How2charist is yet to be seen!
This is a communal resource: made possible by the financial support and creative talents of many, and given as a gift for all. Callie and the Office of Communication at The Episcopal Church can’t wait to see the ways in which individuals and churches co-create ways of evangelizing the Gospel and deepening faith through the How2charist!