John Wesley Prayer [dot] Com

Status: last updated: January 28, 2017.

The hardcover and large print paperback are both available. The limited leather edition is still in development. The eBook is now available. Click Order Now and choose you format.

Read on below for further description and check back here for more details about this upcoming publication.

 

Synopsis:

“I BELIEVE there is no LITURGY in the World, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational Piety, than the COMMON PRAYER of the CHURCH of ENGLAND…”

John Wesley

Despite those words, Wesley realized that in its entirety the BCP needed to be modified to fit the practices of the Methodists society, especially for those congregants living abroad in the new frontier.

This book was originally published in 1784 under the title THE SUNDAY SERVICE OF THE METHODISTS; IN NORTH AMERICA With other OCCASIONAL SERVICES. Wesley published this version to be considered for use in the parishes of the Continental US.

This book is a Methodist Book of Common Prayer, integrated for modern use, yet allegiant to the original Anglican-Wesleyan text.

Description:

This book is a Methodist Book of Common Prayer, integrated for modern use, yet allegiant to the original Anglican-Wesleyan text.

This is the original work by John and Charles Wesley published by them in 1784. This was their version of the English 1662 The Book of Common Prayer. It was intended to be a Minister’s Manual useful to the itinerant pastor. In the back of the book is a collection of Psalms and Hymns that they found inspiring and useful for Methodist’s services. It appears that these Hymns are from a variety of authors such as Issac Watts though no credits are referenced in the original.

The entire original work including scriptures has been transposed from the 18^th Century original publication to the 21^st Century digital age keeping all the original language and spellings so that students and researchers may make complete comparative studies of early Methodism and early Christian services and liturgies.

Prior works have been done producing a partial facsimile of the original book. This new publication is the first complete reproduction of the original book within it’s own volume and in modern text-type.

Other books are much thinner because they do not include the scripture passages; therefore you no longer have the Bible version of the original, and you can not readily see what the impact of Wesley’s abbreviated passages in a side by side comparison.

The entire book has been specially prepared for print and eBook.

 

FAQs:

Q: In John Wesley’s Bristol letter, September 10, 1784, he wrote to Dr. Thomas Coke, Francis Asbury, and to the Brethren in North-America expressing how he wished for them to remain disentangled both from the State, and from the English Hierarchy, and therefore named his book distinct from the BCP. Why then is this book called, John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer, and not simply John Wesley’s Prayer Book.

A: First of all the title John Wesley’s Prayer Book is a partial facsimile reprinting of the book done by James F. White in 1991. Second, John Wesley was a great editor of his day and desired to get the great works of Christian literature into the Methodist libraries.

The main reason for the cover title is that, after doing a comparative study between the 1662 BCP and John Wesley’s revision, I found that the majority of the content left from Wesley’s revision is essentially still the BCP. John Wesley states that the liturgy he had prepared was little differing from the church of England, and indeed is mainly in essence the work attributed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.

In today’s society most people are unaware of what goes on beyond the closed doors of the church, let alone that such a prayer book exists. True, John Wesley’s distinctions though minor are significant; and in keeping with Wesley, after the front-matter, begins Wesley’s same Title Page: The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America. With other Occasional Services. The title is John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer so that people will clearly know that this is properly The Book of Common Prayer as revised by John Wesley.

Q: When will this book be available?

A: The book and companion books became available through the lulu.com Store May 5, 2016 just in time for the National Day of Prayer. Availability of the Hardcover through Amazon and Barnes&Noble along with the eBook should be ready by this fall 2016.

Q: Is this a scan or a facsimile of the original?

A: This is neither a complete scan of the original book nor a facsimile. This is the entire original work (including scripture passages) produced by John and Charles Wesley along with their selection of Psalms and Hymns of their day, painstakingly transcribed retaining all the original material (including spellings) into modern text-type. Scans of the original vignettes are the only exceptions.

Q: How much will the books cost?

A: The price will depend on the market at the time of purchase. Prices have been determined using a comparative study and are comparable to similar reference works. While we have no direct control of pricing through distribution channels, sales and discounts are left to our discretion through the lulu.com Store and most likely the best prices will be found there. Additional offers of incentives and discounts from the printer are found on their main page; be sure to check there for a daily Use Code (coupon).

 

 

Intended Reader:

This book is primarily essential to Professors and Students researching the Wesleyan tradition. It may also be a prayer-devotional companion for those who cherish Wesley’s methods.

It contains 30 selections of Psalms for daily, morning and evening readings, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels consisting of of 57 readings for Sunday services and special services throughout the year, 24 Articles of Religion, and 112 metrical Psalms and Hymns.

This work is clearly a Minister’s Manual, though impractical for modern services it was the standard practice for hundreds of years in the Wesleyan/Anglican tradition and will prove helpful for ministers to enrich their own ministerial practices. This may be especially beneficial to independent churches that have no formal servicebook or hymnbook and want to borrow from our rich Christian heritage that inspired the holiness movement and sparked the revival of the 1800’s.

Other works that are a companion for studies in John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer are John Wesley’s Tracts on Prayer (from the Collected Works of Wesley XI) and Minutes of the 1784 Conference: of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America (these Minutes were bound as a form of Discipline in several copies of the 1784 edition of John Wesley’s version of the BCP). These Companion works are a bonus to the eBook.

 

Editor’s Biographical sketch:

Rev. Jonathan H. Johnson currently serves as an Elder in Pastoral Ministry at Our Father’s House Christian Community Church in Chili WI. In 2015 he received his Certificate of License and Ordination from Our Father’s House. In 2014 he received a Certificate in Christian Apologetics through Biola University in La Mirada California. In 2012 he received his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Christian liberal arts school, Asbury University, in Wilmore Kentucky. He serves as a studio artist for Furocious Studios.

He was raised and was a full member in the United Methodist Church; in later years he joined the Wesleyan Church and served there for 12 years. He is a lifetime aficionado of John and Charles Wesley and took course credit in Wesleyan doctrine. In college he found inspiration from early revivals and the Holiness Movement sparked by the Wesleys and Sir Francis Asbury. In his time of service in the ministry he has rekindled his appreciation for John Wesley in his study of Wesleyan sermons, liturgy and hymnology.

More info [ editor || project ]

 

Comparative study:

Part of the reason for the publication of this resource was to facilitate and satisfy academic curiosity. Computer screens are hard on the eyes over long hours of work. There’s nothing like the simplicity of a book and a highlighter.

 

 

 

In the Reference Scan of the BCP compared to the Wesley version the omissions are clear; In this instance it is discovered that Wesley deviated considerably from the BCP concerning Absolution or Remission of sins.

 

 

 

Another study tool is The MINUTES of the 1784 Conference in the U.S. This book is a companion to John Wesley’s BCP and was bound with several copies of the original after it was accepted at the 1784 Conference. This book will be included with the eBook of John Wesley’s BCP as an added bonus. Researching John Wesley’s version of the BCP I read in an article by J. Hamby Barton indicating that these Minutes were bound in several of 1st edition copies after it had been accepted by the Conference. This was confirmed as these minutes were found published in the book in the collection at the Princeton Theological Seminary Library. 

John Wesley’s Tracts on Prayer fit naturally in with his work on The Book of Common Prayer. The contents of this book are an excerpt from The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M. – Volume Xi. London, 1733, 203-272., and are published here as a companion to John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer. This includes A Collection of Forms of Prayer, A Collection of Prayers for Families, and Prayers for Children.

 

eBook:

The eBook is now available. Click Order Now and choose you format. The primary intention of this project was to get John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer into a digital format so that it would be in a clear text, resizable, searchable, fully indexed, and readable by the text-to-speach application.

 

In addition to John Wesley’s version of the BCP the eBook contains two bonus features:

The MINUTES of the 1784 Conference in the U.S., these Minutes were bound in several of first edition copies after it had been accepted by the Conference. This was intended as an early form of Discipline for the Methodist Churches.

John Wesley’s Tracts on Prayer: A COLLECTION OF FORMS OF PRAYER, FOR EVERY DAY IN THE WEEK, A COLLECTION OF PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES, and PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN. These tracts are an excerpt from The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M.  Volume Xi. London, 1733. 203-272. and are published here as a companion to John Wesley’s The Book of Common Prayer.

The Tracts and the Minutes are added as a special bonus to the eBook version in order to conveniently collect all these works of John Wesley in one digital Prayer Book and will also be available separately in paperback.

 

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^{White, James F. John Wesley’s Prayer Book. Akron, OH: OSL Publications, 1995.James Wood, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as They Are to Be Sun, penguin classics deluxe ed. (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2012), 68-69.}

^{J. Hamby Barton, The Two Versions of the First Edition of John Wesley’s the Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, in the the GCAH Virtual Reading Room, accessed April 13, 2016, http://archives.gcah.org/xmlui/handle/10516/5303 (page 3 of the pdf, page 155 in Methodist History, April 1985).} 

^{John Wesley, The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America: With Other Occasional Services, in the archive.org, accessed April 13, 2016, https://archive.org/details/amernorfm00wesl.}