Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Prayer Book parishes in ECUSA

We think we have it bad? According to the PBS-USA site, only seven parishes in ECUSA use the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer at their principal services. (However, their listing would appear to be incomplete).

*St John's Chapel, Monterey CA
*Guardian Angels, Lantana FL (Missal interpolations)
*St John's, Savannah GA
*All Saints, Thomasville GA
*St John's, Detroit MI
*All Saints, Wynnewood PA
*The Zabriskie Memorial Church of S. John the Evangelist, Newport RI (with Missal interpolations)
*St Andrew, Fort Worth TX
*St Thomas, Houston TX

Why the popularity of St John and All Saints?

All Saints, Thomasville, uses the 1979 kalendar and lectionary.

One wonders if the folks in Wynnewood lose any of their potential customers to S. Clem's.

10 comments:

Fr. Aaron Orear said...

Well, obviously ECUSA actually replaced their book, rather than this uniquely Canadian (and, one might say, Anglican) arrangement by which an experimental liturgy becomes the standard. The BAS really shows it seams, especially around the subject of usability...but then we're all supposed to be printing the entire liturgy in the bulletin by now.

Mind you, I prefer the ECUSA 1979 over the 1928 OR the Canadian 1962. It was only misguided (yet somehow charming) patriotism that kept the ACC from simply adopting it and replacing "President and Congress" with "Queen, Prime Minister and Parliament".

G said...

I have little things that I don't like about the 1979 BCP, at least from what I've been told. The absence of the weekday Eucharistic lectionary, splitting the morning preces into two and putting the second half at Evensong (whereas I *love* the BAS Evening Preces "O Lord, I call to you; come to me quickly...), the imposition of the collects for mission, the idiosyncratic "Blessed be God, Father..." rather than the Roman-style "The grace of our Lord..."

I'm sure there are others.

As a card-carrying member of the Prayer Book Society (well, we don't actually have cards, but you get the idea), I of course think the 1962 kicks ass.

Davis said...

Few from Wynnewood would consider St Clement's an alternative as it's what we call old fashioned Low Church there, while St John's Newport uses the missal, rather than the strict '28 PB.

Ecgbert said...

I think the very tony St Thomas, Fifth Avenue in New York is 1928 as well.

G said...

I had thought so! But it wasn't mentioned on any of the listings I used, which would mean that they really are woefully incomplete.

Davis said...

I think you'd find many many more which aren't on any special list and would rather be discreet about it!

Fr. Aaron Orear said...

The funny thing about the MP preces is that, until I vacationed in England, I had no clue that the 1979 had split anything in two. I'd never heard anything else. Having gotten used to it here, I agree. Odd choice.

I like the collects for mission, actually. They're rather pretty. The 1962 Canadian BCP, of course, is also bereft of a daily lectionary (unless you count using the Sunday Epistle and Gospel all week, in which case the 1979 is similarly equipped). And the "Blessed be God" is really beautiful sung. I've never heard a decent sung version of "The grace of our Lord..."

Ultimately it's not about better or worse, (with apologies to the Prayer Book Society) it's about what you're used to. That said, someone needs to fix the provisional layout of the BAS, and that right quick.

Anonymous said...

Every time i've run into the 1928 it's been at a church that isn't in the ECUSA. The most interesting would be one I MWed a while back under a pseudonym, Old St. Peter's http://ship-of-fools.com/Mystery/2006/1226.html

Patrick Cook said...

The 1979 Prayer Book is actually far more Catholic in tone than the 1928 version, which I am all for. BUT I find the language rather bland. Not nearly as bland as
the Missal currently used by the Roman Church, but not as poetic as Cranmer's language. I'm therefore a huge fan of The Anglican Service Book, which takes the '79 Prayer Book and adapts it to the traditional English of Anglicanism. It also adds Anglo-Catholic devotions like the Angelus and a Rite for blessing congregants with water from Walsingham.

The Silent Acolyte said...

Geoff, my boyfriend tells me that the post in Chinese is a nonsense spamlish post consisting of hospitality job postings. Nothing to do with the 1928 at all.