The Process

The first major convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the former Colonies took place in Philadelphia from September 27 to October 7, 1785. In attendance were delegates from the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. Representation was not even across these states, of course. At this point there were only two orders, clerical and lay, and the tally of each lay as follows:

State	Clerical Delegates	Lay Delegates
New York	1	1
New Jersey	2	1
Pennsylvania	5	13
Delaware	1	6
Maryland	5	2
Virginia	1	1
South Carolina	1	2

As you can see, location mattered quite a lot in terms of attendance; Pennsylvania had more delegates than the Northern and Southern States combined, and the other two Mid-Atlantic States (Maryland and Delaware) only compounded the regional advantage. Note that each delegation had at least one Clerical and one Lay delegate; this will become important in a moment.

The four main matters on the table were interconnected with one another: the construction of a constitution to govern the church, the necessary alterations to the Book of Common Prayer, a framing of the articles of belief, and a plan to secure the Episcopacy. A central and overriding theme of the previous convention had been a consensus that “said church shall maintain the doctrines of the Gospel, as now held by the Church of England; and shall adhere to the liturgy of the said church” (Journals, ii). Everything depended on producing documents that clearly demonstrated that the Protestant Episcopal Church of the gathered states shared the doctrines, discipline, and liturgy of the church of England in order to secure the consecration of three Americans to begin a valid line of bishops upon the American continent.

Convention got underway on the morning of the 28th, the Rev. Griffiths of Virginia reading prayers and, with one vote per state, Dr. William White of Pennsylvania was elected President. The evening session ran through the various articles of the New York Convention of 1784 approving them and appointed a committee:

…consisting of one Clerical and one Lay Deputy from the Church in each state, to consider of and report such alterations in the Liturgy, as shall render it consistent with the American revolution and the constitutions of the respective states: And such further alterations in the Liturgy, as it may be adviseable for this Convention to recommend to the consideration of the Church here represented.

Journals, 5

Furthermore, a later resolve called for:

…A Committee, to be composed as aforesaid, prepare and report a draft of an ecclesiastical constitution for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Journals, 6

After this resolve, a committee was selected by name and a clarification identified that the liturgical alterations would be carried out by this same committee. Thus, both the Constitution and the Liturgy were prepared by the same 14 people. (It’s unclear what the other 18 were doing…)

The Revisions were completed by October 3rd, services for the 4th of July and the First Tuesday of November as Thanksgiving were completed, a committee consisting of Dr. White (President), Dr. Smith (chair of the Liturgy committee), and Dr. Wharton were to ensuring the printing of the revised Liturgy, publishing with it “such of the reading and singing psalms and such a Kalendar of proper lessons for the different Sundays and Holy-days throughout the year as they may think proper.” (Journals, 15).

Of this revised liturgy, 4,000 copies were printed for distribution within the states, and the sheets were sent to England that 50 copies might be printed there for the consideration of the English bishops.

The Contents

The base text for the 1786 Proposed Book was the 1774 Oxford printing of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. However, as the preface of the Proposed Book makes clear, it was greatly influenced by the aborted alterations of the 1689 BCP. Indeed, the preface sets out the 13 points of dispute that the 1689 alteration attempted to make and states “By comparing the following book, as now offered to the Church, with this preface and the notes annexed, it will appear that most of the amendments or alterations which had the sanction of the great Divines of 1689 have been adopted, with such others as are thought reasonable and expedient” (1786 PrBCP, vii). Dr. Smith’s sermon preached at the Convention on the prayer book changes delivers an encomium on the 1689 commissioners going so far as to identify the greatest of the lay influencers as “the great Lord [Francis] Bacon, the father of almost all reformation and improvement in modern philosophy and science” (Liturgae Americanae, xvi). The implication is that the 1689 proposals and their inclusion in the 1786 BCP reflect a prayer book birthed consciously in the New Age of Reason.

The Communion Office appears surprisingly early in the book—right after the Prayers & Thanksgivings that follow the Daily Office. Liturgae Americanae presents a parallel in 4 columns; on one page is the Standard Edition of 1892 and the Standard Edition of 1790 (supplemented as needed by the editions from 1793-1871). On the facing page is the Proposed Book of 1786 and the 1775 Edition of the 1662 BCP. By looking at this page containing the 1786 and 1775/1662 it’s easy to see the differences:

• Omission of the initial Lord’s Prayer
• Omission of the two Collects for the King following the 10 Commandments
• The Creed
• In the Prayers for the whole state of Christ’s Church the substitution of “Rulers and Governors” for language about “Kings and Princes”
• The Gloria in excelsis is shortened by cutting out the “Thou that takest away” sections
• A number of the concluding rubrics including the Black Rubric on kneeling not meaning adoration are also dropped.

Thus, the liturgy can be diagrammed in relation to its predecessor very simply:

The Result

There was dissatisfaction with the Proposed Book on both sides of the Atlantic. The more important side—the English one—was shocked at the omission of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and also the alteration of the Apostles’ Creed which changed Christ’s descent to hell to “the place of departed spirits.” Another non-prayer book issue was the notion in the Constitution that laymen would have anything to do with the discipline of a bishop. However, after a variety of assurances that the omission of the Nicene Creed was accidental only and that the Apostles’ Creed wording would be replaced and “departed spirits” relegated to a footnote, the Church of England agreed that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the various states was in continuity with its own doctrine and discipline.

Accordingly, three men—Samuel Proovost of New York, William White of Pennsylvania, and David Griffith of Virginia—were identified as the three who would be sent to England to be consecrated as bishops. Griffiths fell ill, though, and was unable to make the journey. Despite that circumstance, Proovost and White left for England in July, 1786. After a good deal of conversations, meetings, and Parliament passing an act allowing the consecration as bishop of non-Englishmen who did not swear allegiance to the king, Proovost and White were consecrated in the chapel at Lambeth on February 4th, 1787, and arrived home on Easter of that same year.

The English episcopacy had come to America. But—with only two bishops; one more would be needed for valid consecrations in the New World…