Rev. Canon H. Boone Porter; Episcopal Liturgy Expert, Editor

The Rev. Canon H. Boone Porter, a leading thinker and scholar in the Episcopal Church who was one of the chief architects of the 1979 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, has died.

Porter died of pneumonia June 5 in Southport, Conn. He was 76.

In a career lasting 44 years, he was a leading voice in revitalizing the Episcopal Church’s relationship with itself and the world. He moved for liturgical reform and the inclusion of women, African Americans, Native Americans and rural communities in the church.

At the time of his death, Porter was senior editor of the weekly magazine Living Church, to which he had also contributed articles until this year. From 1977 to 1990, he was the publication’s editor and general manager.

In the course of his career, Porter taught liturgy at several Episcopal seminaries. He was also a member of the church’s Standing Liturgical Commission and the Board of Examining Chaplains.

Harry Boone Porter was born in Louisville, Ky., on Jan. 10, 1923, into a wealthy family that created and controlled the Porter paint company. Young Porter showed an early interest in the beauty and mystery of nature and humanity, but World War II interrupted his study of art and philosophy at Yale University. He served as an intelligence officer on the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific.

After the war, Porter completed his studies at Yale and entered the Berkeley Divinity School, also in New Haven. There he began his study of the liturgy and worship that became his expertise.

He received his master’s in theology from New York City’s General Theological Seminary in 1952 and a doctorate from Oxford University in 1954. He became the first tenured professor of liturgy at General, the Episcopal Church’s oldest theological seminary.

Porter’s graduate program there attracted the best and the brightest of a new generation of Episcopalians. Many of his former students went on to become leaders in the church and later worked with him when it became time to reassess the church’s role in American life.

Part of this process of renewal meant revising the 1923 version of the Book of Common Prayer, the language of which had remained basically unchanged since its publication in 1662.

The work was done by a committee headed by Porter, and the changes were extensive and often controversial.

The new text not only polished the old rite of Communion, Rite I, with its historic language, but added a Rite II, which uses more contemporary terminology. The inclusion of both in the text gave the option to parishes to use either. It is not uncommon to find the historic rite used at a church’s early service Sunday morning and the more contemporary one employed at the main service.

Boone wrote many of the prayers for the 1979 edition, which was only the fourth to be published since the founding of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1776.

As was his style, Porter took an active role in the church’s renewal process, moving to Middle America in 1970 to become director of the National Town and Country Institute in Kansas City, Mo.

During the next seven years, while he was directing the work on the Book of Common Prayer, he was also instrumental in reaching out to blacks, Native Americans and women. He helped foster an atmosphere that allowed for increased participation in church worship by the laity.

In the late ‘70s, Porter moved to Milwaukee to become editor of Living Church, the oldest independent magazine of the Episcopal Church. He used his post to help refocus his earlier reform efforts and presented a vision of what the church could be. During this period, he was a prolific writer, producing several books and numerous articles on liturgy.

After retiring from the active ministry at the age of 71, Porter went back to school, studying forestry at Yale.

He received a master’s degree in environmental studies in 1995, Just weeks before his death, Porter had been busy planning a national conference on the life and mission of rural churches.

He is survived by Violet, his wife of 52 years, three daughters, three sons, a stepbrother, a stepsister and eight grandchildren.