Customer Reviews

The Anglican Service Book: A Traditional Language Adaptation of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer Together With the Psalter or Psalms of David & Additional Devotations

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This book is excellent. It is attractively presented, and masterfully done. The entire 1979 book (except for the ordination of bishops) is offered in traditional English in a thoughtful and careful translation. This is not simply a case of changing "you's" to "thee's and thou's." Also included is a nice selection of other devotional material, and ancient liturgical rites of Western Christianity. This volume is really the "best of both worlds" as it takes into account the excellent liturgical scholarship found in the 1979 American BCP, and the beautiful and rythmic English of the 1928 book. In addition to the 1928 Eucharistic Prayer, this book also includes Eucharistic Prayer II, and Eucharistic Prayers A,B, and D, all in "Rite I" English. In addition, a traditional English translation of the Gregorian Canon, and the Canon of the 1549 prayer book are included. ... With the wealth of material in The Anglican Service Book, you can be as "high" or "low" as you like, and still use classical English!

This volume picks up where the 1979 Book of Common Prayer leaves off. It provides high-quality traditional-language texts for items offered only in quasi-English newspeak in the BCP. Editing is scrupulous, and the book itself is handsomely laid out and printed. Among the goodies in an appendix are the Roman Canon in Miles Coverdale's translation, the 1549 BCP canon, and a form of blessing with water from the holy well at Walsingham. Already in use in many Anglo-catholic parishes, and a boon to lay folk also.

For those of us who aren't super happy with the "modern" language portion of the 1979 BCP, this book will make you glad! The services that aren't available in traditional language in the 79 BCP comprise most of that book's content. This book corrects that oversight and more. ALL the services of the 79 BCP are included in this book plus several others, mostly leaning to the Anglo-Catholic side of things. Since I tend to lean that way that's a very good thing as far as I'm concerned! The Psalter is from the 1928 BCP. All in all it's an improved version of the 1979 BCP. Highly recommend it.

Our Vestry was so impressed with the accuracy and beauty of the language that we purchased enough for the whole parish. God's work through this book in the Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston, SC has transformed our worship service from beautiful to heavenly. A "must have" for those who wish to ascend to the altar and step into the divine liturgy of His Kingdom. Surrounded by angels, archangels, and all the heavenly hosts, we enact the worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and this prayer book is a worthy aide for the journey.

This is the book that won me to Anglican Catholicism...and the book my parish worships with. The beauty of the language throughout, along with the solid collection of services, prayers, and othersuch, provides the user with a wonderous worship resource. I don't know when this book will be available again for purchase, but if you are Anglo-Catholic, and you are looking for an excellent devotional resource...pick this one up!

-j

After a lengthy period of "Trial Rites" in various colored covers, the Episcopal Church finally adopted the current 1979 Prayerbook to the dismay of many who preferred the "old" 1928 Book of Common Prayer. However, on of the provisions allowed in the "new" Prayerbook was the right to adopted the contemporary language of Rite Two to the more traditional language found in Rite One. While some parishes did take advantage of this by printing their own in-house leaflets, it was not until 1991 that a dedicated effort to produce a book that would replace the contemporary language with traditional Elizabethan language. This was achieved by The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.

This effort required more work than simply replacing you with thee and thou. A great deal of attention was paid to retaining the sort of cadence found in the work of Thomas Cramner which had made past editions of the Book of Common Prayer so beautiful to say. It is obvious that a great deal of work went into "translating" the 1979 BCP into Elizabethen English and producing a work which had the potential to satisfy if not please the more traditionally inclined Episcopalians. All except the ordination of a bishop was and some of the Eucharistic Prayers was put into Jacobean English: the Coverdale Psalter was retained. Additionally, there are a number of rites and rituals not a part of the Book of Common Prayer but which are practiced in many Anglo-Catholic parishes. When these additions appear in the service that are designated by a line in the margins. There are a lot of lines.

While these additional Anglo-Catholic rites meet the needs of Anglo-Catholics, some of them may be outright offensive to those of the "Low" or "Evangelical" parties in the Episcopal Church. There is no doubt that this book is intended for Anglo-Catholics and Ritualists. One wonders if the appeal of the book might have been broader if the publishers had simply reformed the 1979 Prayer Book.

That being said, there is a lot to like about this volume. In some ways it is an improvement over the 1979 BCP in its layout: congregational responses are printed in bold and therefore it kind of jumps out of you and encourages you to say your part in the Service. It is a nice cloth bound volume that should hold up to the normal weekly (and possibly daily).

Because of the relatively low demand of a book such as this, the cost is rather high. (I cannot help but note that the Anglican Breviary is published for $85.00 in a bonded leather with ribbons -- it would have been nice if this volume were also published in that format). One wishes that the price was lower so more parishes so inclined could afford it. The question is how many traditional language parishes remain in the Episcopal Church, as well as how many "continuing Anglican" parishes would use it. Outside of the "8 o'clock" service and perhaps Lent, one rarely finds Rite One being used which is tragic (one also wishes that the rubrics were two way - that one could modernize Cramner's language).

Overall, I like the book and think that the Church of the Good Shepherd did a fine job in producing an Elizabethan Anglo-Catholic Missal, but it also leaves me with a certain sense of sadness about what our society has lost in its drift away from the language of Shakespeare, Cramner, and King (not saint) James