Margaret Coffin Prayer Book Society

The Margaret Coffin Prayer Book Society provides, upon request, free prayer books and hymnals to missions and institutions, and to parishes in emergencies and special need.

Requests may be directed to the society's president:

Betsy Ridge
PO Box 407, Essex MA 01929
betsy.ridge@gmail.com

The Book of Common Prayer defines the Anglican tradition in Christianity built upon biblical teaching. Through the years of usage, many churches are now having to replace their old copies of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. In addition, new congregations being established are not able to cover the cost of obtaining prayer books for their use. For those congregations unable to bear the cost of obtaining or replacing prayer books, the Margaret Coffin Prayer Book Society can help.

It all began with the determination and dedication of Margaret Coffin whose mission and purpose was to make The Book of Common Prayer available to as many people as possible. Margaret Coffin was born in Boston in 1769 and was confirmed by Bishop Samuel Seabury in Christ Episcopal Church, (Old North Church).

Devoting her life to the work of Christ and his church, she realized that the order and teaching of The Book of Common Prayer attracts many people to the Episcopal Church. In 1838, at the age of 49, Margaret Coffin began her ministry of distributing copies of The Book of Common Prayer purchased with her own funds. Upon her death in 1855, she left her modest estate to found a society to carry on her work of distributing copies of The Book of Common Prayer to congregations that could not afford them. Other benefactors have since augmented the society’s funds to make grants to missions, aided parishes and hospital and school chaplaincies unable to afford to purchase an adequate supply of prayer books and hymnals.

Copies of prayer books are currently available in French, Spanish, German and Italian, in addition to English.