The Rev. Andrew Kadel, Director of the General Theological Seminary Library, will present the Anglican Society Lecture on Friday, November 12, 2010 at 10 am in the Seabury Auditorium. His topic will be: ‘A better adaptation of ancient formularies to present wants’: William Reed Huntington’s notes and the documents of the 1880 Joint Committee on the Book of Common Prayer. The lecture is a part of the annual meeting of the Anglican Society.
Bishop Huntington’s 1878 Notes on the Book of Common Prayer offer valuable insights into the mind of one of the leading lights of the Prayer Book revision of the late nineteenth century. His Notes illuminate the reasoning behind the changes made in 1892 and are a useful instrument in evaluating any future changes and amendments to the Book of Common Prayer.
The two volumes that comprise Bishop Huntington’s Notes were given as the first gift to the future Christoph Keller Jr. Library in honor of the Rev. J. Robert Wright, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery Professor of Ecclesiastical History and senior professor at General. The first of the two volumes is Huntington’s own working copy of the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, which he used in making the revisions subsequently incorporated into the revised Prayer Book. The second is a bound notebook of 31 printed and manuscript “papers and memoranda” from the Episcopal Church’s Joint Committee on the Book of Common Prayer.
The purpose of the Anglican Society is to promote and maintain the Catholic doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church in accordance with the principles and contents of the Book of Common Prayer. Please join us for this lecture and learn more about the history of this recent gift to the Library of The General Theological Seminary.
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