Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer

The Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer is an office with canonical responsibilities in churches of North American Anglicanism, including the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Anglican Church of North America.

Overview

The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Episcopal Church contains the liturgy used in its worship services and for other religious gatherings. The BCP and its predecessors are descended from the prayer books used by the Church of England. There have been four versions of the United States Prayer Book that have been used. They are known by the year of issuance: 1789, 1892, 1928, and 1979. In 1784, in order to bring about the consecration of America's first bishop, Samuel Seabury of Connecticut, in Scotland, a "concordat was signed by Seabury and the Scottish bishops" who consecrated him pledging use of the Scottish Eucharistic Rite by the Episcopal Church then, thus "following Scottish structure" (with some of its liturgy derived from Eastern Orthodoxy) and circumventing the Church of England.

After approval, the official text is controlled by the custodian. The 1868 General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America resolved that

There shall be an officer of this Convention, to be called the "Custodian of the Standard Prayer Book," to whom shall be entrusted the keeping of the Stereotype Plates, and a copy of the Standard Edition of the Book of Common Prayer for the use of the Convention.

The 1871 General Convention granted the custodian the responsibility for recording any alterations made by the General Convention in the BCP. The custodian is nominated by the House of Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies, and serves until a successor is appointed.

List of Church of England in Canada (Anglican Church of Canada) Custodians
  • William James Armitage (February 6, 1860 – 1929)

List of Episcopal Church USA Custodians
  1. Benjamin Isaac Haight, 1868–1879
  2. Francis Harrison, 1880–1885
  3. Samuel Hart, 1886–1917
  4. Lucien Moore Robinson, 1917–1932
  5. John Wallace Suter, 1932–1942
  6. John Wallace Suter, Jr., 1942–1962
  7. Charles Mortimer Guilbert, 1963-1998
  8. Gregory Michael Howe, 2000-2015
  9. Juan M. Cabrero-Oliver, 2015–present

Source: The Episcopal Church website. + Source: Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, Documents of Witness, A History of the Episcopal Church 1982-1985 (CHC: 1994).

List of Anglican Church of North America Custodians
  1. Archbishop Robert Duncan, inaugural appointment, incumbent

References


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