Armed Forces Prayer Book

The title was given to the revision of the World War II Prayer Book for Soldiers and Sailors issued in 1951 at the time of the Korean War for the Armed Forces Division of the Episcopal Church. It contained many items not in the BCP, mostly of a devotional nature, including forms for emergency baptism and “The Way of Penitence.” It was thoroughly revised in 1967 under the editorship of the Rev. H. Boone Porter and reissued as A Prayer Book for the Armed Forces. It was revised again in 1988 by Howard E. Galley and the Rev. Donald W. Beers to conform to the 1979 BCP and The Hymnal 1982, but it largely retains its 1967 format. It contains personal prayers, a service of worship which may be led by a lay person, a short form of the Holy Eucharist, Baptism, Reconciliation, prayers for the wounded and the dying, burial, psalms, hymns, canticles, and biblical passages.