prayer was taken out of the schools in 1963.
when was prayer taken out of the schools?
1963
the media and popular culture often erroneously credit atheist madalyn murray o'hair with removing school prayer from us public schools, when the case against recitation of the lord's prayer in baltimore schools was decided by the supreme court in 1963. a more significant case had reached the supreme court one year prior, suddenly changing the legal climate for school prayer. in 1955, the new york board of regents developed a prayer recommended (but not required) for the school districts under its purview. the prayer was relatively short: "almighty god, we acknowledge our dependence on thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country." the board stated that the prayer would "combat juvenile delinquency and counter the spread of communism."
school prayer in the united states
seabury played a decisive role in the evolution of anglican liturgy in north america after the revolution. his "communion office," published in new london in 1786, was based on the scottish liturgy of 1764 rather than the 1662 book of common prayer in use in the church of england. seabury's defense of the scottish service—especially its restoration of oblationary language and the epiklesis or invocation of the holy spirit in the prayer of consecration was adopted into the book of common prayer with minor change by the episcopal church in 1789. the english 1552, 1559, 1604 and 1662 books of common prayers of consecration ended with the words of institution; but the scottish rite prayer continued with an oblation, anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions and doxology based on the ancient classical models of consecration prayers. the prayer was a mix of roman and orthodox doctrines with some calvinist elements. the english rites focused on the memorial to the exclusion of sacrificial language in the prayer of consecration. such sacrificial language as remained was placed at the end of the service in an optional prayer of oblation at which point the congregation made a self-offering beseeching god "to accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." the removal of oblation from the prayer of consecration was done in order to avoid the suggestion that the holy eucharist was a material peace offering to god made by his church in and with christ with the very same sacrifice he had offered once for all and now made present as a sacrament the restoration of the full eucharistic prayer taken from the scottish rite included the words, "which we now offer unto thee," after "with these thy holy gifts." the prayer continued after the oblationary words with, "the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make," in the american prayer book thereby restoring the connection between "prayers and supplications' and the self-offering of the congregation with and through the consecrated elements. the changes fairly undid cranmer's intentions of 1549 and 1552. the adoption of the scottish rite brought the episcopal church's eucharistic doctrine closer to the tradition of the catholic and orthodox churches. the adoption of the scottish prayer of consecration restored to the liturgy of the new church the ancient doctrine from the mid-second century that the eucharist is the church's sacrifice.
samuel seabury