Book of Common Prayer 1662
The Book of Common Prayer, 1662 seems to be the "key" document used by the Church of England to govern how services and other activites with the church are conducted. The Church of England website does not make it clear what the significance of 1662 is in relation to the development of the Church of England as the major liturgical institution in England and Wales.
Politically the use of this document is interesting with respect to the separation of Church and State, in 1662 the State was very much the monarchy, since that date much has changed most notably in the 1830's with the Reform Act.
1662 is also just after the Interregnum, which ended in 1660, and it was probably drafted to consolidate the state religion that was somewhat interupted by the republican government of Oliver Cromwell and the wish not to return to the situation that existed before 1649. The Reformation and the years leading up to Charles I's regicide must have created tremendous tensions between the Protestant church and the then suppressed and vilified Catholic church.
Trying to understand why the statement that the "expression of worship" was through the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and "eyes and hearts firmly rooted in Anglican Catholic mission", quoted in the "Needs" request from Belchamp Walter to the Church of England I came up with this:
At first I thought that BCP (1662) was an attempt to preserve some of the "oldy-worldy" language from the 17th Century, but I think that there is more too it than just the usage of words that "modern" people use. In the same manner that making things "more accessable" by changing the words it does not change the meaning.
King James Bible - 1611
I initally presumed that this version was the basis of the 1662 version. The 1662 version would have been authored in the Restoration (Charles II) and pre-dates the Protestant William of Orange (William III 1689-1694) and the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
James I was an "Anglican" (roughly in today's terms), he did not restore England to Catholisism when he succeeded in 1603. It was hoped that he would and Guy Fawkes was not impressed.
Popish Conspiritors (Guy Fawkes - The Gunpowder Plot (1605)) - the arrival of William III - revisions between 1662 and 1832 (see The 1769 King James Bible, as revised by Benjamin Blayney)
Christian bible translations
In my attempt to work out the development of the Christian Bible I see that there are the following:
- Wycliffe Bible, translated by John Wycliffe, 1380s.
- Tyndale Bible, translated by William Tyndale, 1526.
- Coverdale Bible, translated by Myles Coverdale, 1535.
- Geneva Bible, translated by William Whittingham et al., 1557–1560.
- Bishops' Bible, translated by Matthew Parker et al., 1568.
- Douay–Rheims Bible, translated by the English College at Douai, 1582-1610.
- King James Version, translated by Richard Bancroft et al., 1611.
- Thomson's Bible, translated by Charles Thomson, 1808 from the Septuagint and Greek New Testament.
- Webster's Revision, edited by Noah Webster, 1833.
- English Revised Version, edited by Charles John Ellicott et al., 1885.
- Young's Literal Translation, translated by Robert Young, 1898.
- American Standard Version, translated by Philip Schaff et al., 1901. (unsourced text being replaced with transcription in-progress:
- The Emphasised Bible, translated by Joseph Bryant Rotherham, 1916
- Bible in Basic English, translated by Samuel Henry Hooke, 1941–9.
- World English Bible, translated by Michael Paul Johnson, (unsourced text being replaced with transcription in-progress:
- The Free Bible, translated by Wikisource, ongoing since 2006.
- Berean Standard Bible translated by Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee, 2016, 2020, 2023.
- Literal Standard Version, translated by Covenant Press, 2020. (unsourced text being replaced with transcription in-progress:
There is obviously a distinction between the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer as there is no bible that is listed for 1662 and 1928 (1928 is an American version of BCP)
Church of England
The Chirch of England website says that The Book of Common Prayer (1662) printed by John Baskerville in 1762 is their key source fpr operations.
The quote:
They provide a link so that you can download the BCP 1662 in PDF format and they have detailed documentation on how they implement the BCP.