Proposed Book

The Book of Common Prayer, . . . As Revised and Proposed to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1786) incorporated recommendations from Connecticut and from the other New England states and revisions of a convention of states south of New England. The book was edited by William White of Philadelphia, William Smith of Maryland, and Charles H. Wharton of Delaware. The language was slightly modernized and some repetitiousness eliminated. The Psalter and metrical psalter were abridged to omit troublesome passages. Proper lessons were appointed for some days that lacked them, and proper NT lessons were appointed for Sundays. Some OT passages and most lessons from the Apocrypha were omitted. Black Letter Days were eliminated. “Minister” replaced “Priest.” “He descended into hell” was omitted from the Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds deleted. There were abridgements and changes in all rites and in the Catechism and Articles of Religion. The book contained fifty-one hymns, several times the number in earlier metrical psalters. This book was the basis for the first American BCP (1789). The 1789 revision restored some elements from the 1662 BCP but made even more radical changes, including deleting mention of confession from Visitation of the Sick and omitting the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. See Book of Common Prayer, The (“BCP”).