Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and the <i>Book of Common Prayer</i>

Abstract This chapter traces the development of Anglican understandings of the threefold ministry of bishop, priests, and deacons as described in successive versions of the Book of Common Prayer. Beginning with the Ordinal of 1550 and the 1552 and 1662 Prayer Books, it notes how these early rites gave rise to widely divergent models of ordained ministry as a global Anglican Communion emerged. It discusses the significance of contextualization, anti-colonial movements, and the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement and how recent versions of the Book of Common Prayer incorporate new insights to the practice of ministry.