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Rating: 
Summary: Anxiously Awaiting Publication....
Review: Anxiously awaiting publication of this fine Bible/BCP. I have nothing but rave reviews! Oxford Publishing is sure slow to re-publish it though. I've had it on order now for over a month. I certainly hope the leather binding is up to standard.
Rating:
Summary: Super Devotional and Study Tool
Review: Here is a wonderful devotional and 'spiritual fortification tool' for modern Christians. Seeking deeper walk with the Lord? Feel shackled by today's shallow Christianity? Don't know if you can find a handy all-in-one DEEP spiritual tool for personal growth? Do not discount the BCP/NRSV...here you have all the above and more. This is the STURDY hardback edition and it is well made and worth the great price.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent devotional & spiritual growth tool
Review: I PURCHASED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAMILY MOVING AWAY FROM OUR PARISH. I WAS THRILLED AT WHAT I RECEIVED AND THEY WERE EXTREMELY HAPPY. THERE ARE BLANK PAGES IN THE FRONT TO WRITE COMMENTS IF IT IS USED AS A GIFT. AS A MEMBER OF EPISCOPAL CHURCH THIS BOOK COMBINES NOT ONLY THE PRAYER BOOK, BUT THE COMPLETE BIBLE IN THE VERSION WE USE. I WOULD SUGGEST THIS BOOK FOR ANY AND ALL EPISCOPAL CHURCH MEMBERS.
Rating:
Summary: Anxiously Awaiting Publication....
Review: I use this Prayer Book/Bible combination for worship on Sundays as well as for the Daily Office (Morning, Evening, etc.). I can't express what it means to me to have all the prayers AND Bible readings in ONE PLACE. It could only be better if the Hymnal 1982 were attached . . . but that would be a little too big, even for me.
Rating: 
Summary: All in one place
Review: If you are Episcopalian or of some other church that may use the 1979 Prayer book, you will find this very useful for public worship. I have personally found it very nice for devotional use. If you want to use the Prayer Book's daily office lectionary to read a LOT of scripture every day, now you have them both in one place - along with all the prayers of the Prayer Book. I also would imagine that lots of ministers may find this useful when doing visits and going to hospitals and such. My only complaint is that it is a bit bulky - maybe they could release a 'slimmed down version' without the concordance or the Apocrypha. This is a very nice "all-in-one" volume. The leather edition looks pretty good and I was really surprised how well mine lays open even on pages near the beginning or the end.
Rating:
Summary: The only way to go...
Review: If you are looking for a way to do the Daily Office and want the convience of having only one book to use, then this one is the way to go. You have in one handy volume the complete text to the Book of Common Prayer and the NRSV Bible. I have looked for while for just such a book to do my daily devotionals. Not only will you have the two year lectionary, but all the collects and others prayers to enhance your prayer life.If you are looking for a good prayer book, this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: The only way to go...
Review: If you are looking for a way to do the Daily Office and want the convience of having only one book to use, then this one is the way to go. You have in one handy volume the complete text to the Book of Common Prayer and the NRSV Bible. I have looked for while for just such a book to do my daily devotionals. Not only will you have the two year lectionary, but all the collects and others prayers to enhance your prayer life. If you are looking for a good prayer book, this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: The good book and more...
Review: The Book of Common Prayer (1979) is the latest, complete BCP used by the American branch of the Anglicans, the Episcopal church. There have been many books that have had the title 'Book of Common Prayer' since the first one appeared in 1549; it has been used continuously in one edition or another in the Anglican tradition since 1559; the 'main' edition remains the 1662 edition. The American church modified the Book of Common Prayer for its own use beginning shortly after the Revolutionary War -- this book is the successor of a long and worthy tradition.
A bishop in the Episcopal church once said to me, 'We don't have a theology that we have to believe -- what we have is the prayerbook.' Please forgive the absence of context for this phrase -- while he would say that this statement in isolation is an exaggeration, and I would agree, nonetheless his statement serves to highlight both the importance of and the strength of the Book of Common Prayer.
To be an Anglican (in the United States, read Episcopalian for the same in the context of this article), one does not have to subscribe to any particular systematic theological framework. One does not have to practice a particular brand of liturgical style. One does not have to have an approved politico-theological viewpoint. One can be a conservative, liberal or moderate; one can be high church, low church, or broad; one can be charismatic, evangelical, or mainline traditional -- one can be any number of things in a rich diversity of choices, and the Book of Common Prayer can still be the book upon which spirituality and worship is centred.
From his first edition, Cranmer distinguished in his terminology the words minister and priest, and the two should not be viewed as interchangeable. A priest is a minister, but a minister need not be a priest. This become part of the early development of the idea of all people being ministers to each other, which is also a concept that has varying acceptance and fulfillment in actual practice over the history of Anglicanism.
One of my favourite prayers derives from this book, part of the English prayer book from the very first one in 1549:
Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication unto thee, and hast promised through thy well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his name, thou wilt be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be best for us, granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come, life everlasting. Amen.
This prayer, like many things in the BCP, has moved to a new location from the first edition, but nonetheless the spirit of the BCP shows a circuitous but continuous development from this first English Prayer Book to the current varieties. Likewise, other denominations have gleaned insights, prayers and structures from this and other versions of the BCP.
The current Book of Common Prayer is not copyrighted material. The purpose for leaving the BCP out of copyright is to permit free and easy duplication and incorporation into worship materials; however, it also serves the purpose (deliberately intended) of permitting people, Anglicans or not, to use portions of the BCP as inspiration and material for their own worship. The Book of Common Prayer is an Anglican gift to the world.
In this edition, the BCP is coupled with the Holy Bible, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which is one of the latest authoritative translations, a fairly standard and accessible one at use in the Episcopal church (as well as other churches) today; it bears the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the acceptance of the National Council of Churches, who holds the copyright. The text includes the Old Testament, New Testament and Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books.
This is a very thick book - with nearly a thousand pages in the BCP, another thousand in the Old Testament, almost three hundred pages in the New Testament, and a brief concordance to teh NRSV comprising another hundred pages, even with the thinnest of onion-skin paper, the book is large and somewhat ungainly. However, for those who like all-in-one versions, this is a worthwhile text. The pagination for the BCP and NRSV are consistent with other versions of these same documents, so reference is made easier.
Rating:
Summary: You need not be an Episcopalian to enjoy this classic.
Review: This is an unbeatable combination. I have throughly enjoyed mine. A companion for life that will draw you closer to the creator and redeemer of that life.
Rating:
Summary: You need not be an Episcopalian to enjoy this classic.
Review: This is an unbeatable combination. I have throughly enjoyed mine. A companion for life that will draw you closer to the creator and redeemer of that life.
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