Western Rite Liturgy Page

Archbishop +Walter’s Modified Liturgy

This small library exists to hold liturgy texts connected to my time with the former Holy Comforter Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas. I had done some church-related desktop publishing for Abp. +Walter, including preparing his existing Liturgy texts in computer form. It didn’t seem right to discard or shelve in a box the liturgy materials we prepared, so I have them here.

Abp. +Walter, who is now with the Lord, adapted the Communion service from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) for use in his independent Western Rite Orthodox Church. He removed some things, such as the reciting of the Ten Commandments, and he revised the Invocation, turning it into a somewhat more explicit Epiklesis. He also removed the filioque from the Creed.

The result is a somewhat shorter Liturgy that he intended to be more accessible to modern-day Americans. He named it the “Salisbury Rite”. I have been told that this name can be misleading. It is not a reconstruction of ancient texts from England. Rather, it is a modification of the 1928 BCP. I do not know whether his changes reflected the influence of any older Anglican texts.

Whether it is a good idea to modify liturgies in this way has been the subject of some debate. For some thoughtful questions by the highly-respected Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia, see Some thoughts on the “Western Rite” in Orthodoxy at www.holy-trinity.org.

Unformatted plain text:

PDF files presented as single pages in natural reading order:

PDF files arranged for double-sided printing on 8.5" by 11" paper, then folding the results in half to make a folded booklet:

PDF files containing only a single cover page, held separate so the booklet covers can be printed on different paper if desired:

Large Print in PDF format:

The American 1928 Book of Common Prayer

For reference, here are links to two other web sites (not produced by me) containing texts of the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which is in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition:


Last modified on 2024-10-13

montage of sheet music and a photo of me