1The Twelfth Annual Report, with the Address of the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, at the Anniversary Meeting of the Bishop White Prayer Book Society, May 21st, 1845 (Philadelphia: King and Baird, 1845), 19–27.Introduced and transcribed by Richard J. Mammana
The Bishop White Prayer Book Society (BWPBS) is one of the few survivors of the multitude of local American organizations formed in the nineteenth century to promote distribution of the Book of Common Prayer. Based in Philadelphia, and affiliated closely with the Diocese of Pennsylvania, the BWPBS was established in the year 1834 ‘with the view to supply missionaries, destitute parishes, and Episcopalians everywhere, with the public formularies of the Church’. Still active today, the society has a remarkable record of supporting not just distribution of the BCP, but also translations into languages other than English, and the provision of related materials such as hymnals and supplementary liturgical texts. The modern researcher on the BWPBS is fortunate to have a wealth of