Prayer Book Studies Volume Five: Trial-use Baptism, Calendar and Ordination, Issues 18-20

A landmark series of studies devoted to the revision of the Book of Common Prayer returns to print — Volume Five concerns new draft liturgies presented to the Church’s general convention. The creation of the landmark 1979 American Book of Common Prayer was the fruit of nearly four decades of discussion within the Episcopal Church. Prayer Book Studies is a series of official reports by the Church’s Standing Liturgical Commission that were published irregularly over the course of that period, representing the work of the committees deliberating over and drafting the materials that would eventually become the 1979 revision.

These reports provide an extraordinary window into the work of leading liturgical scholars during an age characterized by huge transformation in the fields of liturgy. Long out of print and unavailable, these reports, collected in nine volumes, are an invaluable resource for liturgical scholars and clergy. Volume 5 contains the first group of draft liturgies presented to the General Convention of 1970. These studies provide liturgies for the Calendar, Christian Initiation, and the Ordinal.