The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Anglican Communion totals nearly 85 million people across 165 countries.
One of the ways the Episcopal Church is bound together with the Anglican Communion is through our method of prayer, specifically through our use of the Book of Common Prayer.
The Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1549 by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. The idea for the book arose because Cranmer and others believed that prayer, like scripture, should be available to all people, clergy, and laity, in their own languages.
Over the years, the Book of Common Prayer has been revised and edited numerous times. The Church of England uses the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which has many overlaps with the original 1559 version.
Our Episcopal Church in the U.S. adopted our first Book of Common Prayer in 1789, which was influenced by both the original Book of Common Prayer and the Scottish Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer, which if you'll remember from a few weeks ago, is a remnant of the understanding that first U.S. Episcopal Bishop Samuel Seabury came to with the Scottish Episcopal Church, when he could not be consecrated by the Church of England.
The Book of Common Prayer that we currently use in our church is from the last revision in 1979, which unites us to all Episcopalians as all congregations in the Episcopal Church are expected to worship according to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
This information is taken from the book "Walk in Love: Episcopal Beliefs & Practices" written by Scott Gunn & Melody Wilson Shobe
