A Presbyterian Prayer Book?

I have recently discovered an historical oddity that merits mention due to the role it played—or might have played—in the liturgical controversies in 17th-century England and Scotland. While the 1662 Book of Common Prayer remains the standard for the Church of England, few people are aware of an edition supposedly drawn up the previous year: The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, as amended by the Westminster Divines in the Royal Commission of 1661. Presbyterians are familiar with the Westminster Assembly, consisting of clergy and parliamentarians meeting between 1643 and 1653 to push the Church of England in a more explicitly Reformed direction. The Assembly produced a new form of church government that would replace bishops with pastors, teachers/doctors, elders, and deacons. It produced the Westminster Confession of Faith, a Larger and Shorter Catechism, and a Directory of Public Worship, which consisted more of rubrics than of a set liturgy.

But did the Assembly also produce a revision of the Book of Common Prayer? Not exactly. The Assembly had adjourned in 1653, assuming that its reforms would be maintained in the Churches of England and Scotland. This was in the midst of a period of great political instability variously called the English Civil War or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The year 1649 saw the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. The Commonwealth lasted until 1660, when Charles II was restored to the thrones of the kingdoms. By this time, the Westminster Assembly had been adjourned for seven years, having completed its work the same year that open military conflict had ended. Following the restoration of the monarchy, the Savoy Conference of 1661, at which some of the Assembly's delegates were present, attempted to settle the liturgical question, but without success. The King imposed the 1662 Prayer Book the following year, over considerable protest.

So what is this 1661 Prayer Book? and where did it come from? As far as I can tell, it is a reconstruction of what might have been acceptable to the Assembly if it had not opted for a Directory of Worship instead. Published in Philadelphia in 1864, this volume was edited by Charles Woodruff Shields, D.D. (1825-1904), who straddled the Presbyterian and Episcopal worlds. At the volume's end Shields appended nine chapters and four appendices discussing the relationship between Presbyterianism and prayer book worship. Despite what the title of the volume as a whole appears to indicate, the Westminster Assembly never approved a BCP.

What is in this volume? It is recognizably a Book of Common Prayer, but there are notable differences from the 1662 and subsequent editions. Like the 1662, the "1661" contains orders for morning and evening prayer, and the litany. But then comes "The Order for Divine Service on The Lord's Day," beginning with Psalm 122, proceeding to the Collect for Purity, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the collect for the day, the Epistle and Gospel lessons, followed by the Eight Beatitudes, and then the Gloria in Excelsis. Then the Apostles or Nicene Creeds, with the following rubric before the former: "Then the Minister and the People standing, will say the Apostles' Creed; wherein the words, 'He descended into hell,' are understood to mean that he continued in the state of the dead, and under the power of death, until the third day." Then comes the sermon, followed by "Collects, Ascriptions, and Benedictions." Nothing like this is found in the 1662.

Then come the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the church year. Notably absent here are the feast days for biblical saints included in the 1662. After this comes an "Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion." beginning with a preparatory service in advance of the Supper, something absent from the 1662 but found in the liturgies of other Reformed churches. Then follows the Public Baptism of Infants. Private baptism—unthinkable in the larger Reformed tradition—has been eliminated altogether.

The Catechism is the Westminster Shorter Catechism, memorably beginning with this question and answer: "What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever."

The "1661" naturally includes a complete Psalter, as rendered by Miles Coverdale, and scheduled to be read every thirty days.

Needless to say, no one ever worshipped with this prayer book. At best, it is an interesting side note in the history of English-language liturgy.