07/01/2026
Have you ever wondered about how Anglicans in the newly independant colonies of America worshipped? Read on for a brief history of the early version of the Book of Common Prayer.
1776 was a major turning point for Anglican worship in America. Up to that point, American colonists relied on the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which required praying for the British monarch.
Following the Declaration of Independence, the Protestant Episcopal Church had to alter its services to reflect the new political reality. Almost immediately after July 1776, local rectors and vestries began crossing out petitions for the King of Great Britain and the royal family, an act of high treason written directly into their altar books. For example, the vestry at Christ Church, Philadelphia, famously took a literal red pen and a stroke of the pen to their existing books to remove the royal petitions.
After the Revolutionary War, the American church sought to draft its own distinct liturgy. Church leaders like William White drafted the "Proposed Book" of 1786, which integrated American political language but faced backlash from both American and English bishops for being overly revised. By 1789, the American church successfully ratified its very own Book of Common Prayer, officially marking the birth of the American Episcopal liturgy.
