Harry Boone Porter, Jr.

Background

Harry Boone Porter Jr. was born on January 10, 1923, in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. He grew up in a wealthy family, which owned the Porter Paint Company.

Education

Porter was an alumnus of St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire). He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1947 and his S.T.B. from the Berkeley Divinity School in 1950.

In 1996, he received a master's degree in Environmental Studies from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Career

Porter was made deacon on April 12, 1950, and ordained to the priesthood on April 16, 1952. From 1950 until 1952, he was a fellow and tutor at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.

After completing Oxford, Porter was hired as an assistant professor at Nashotah House in Wisconsin but left in 1960 for a post in liturgies at General Theological Seminary. While there he designed the country's first doctoral program in liturgical studies. During those years he was a member of the Standing Liturgical Commission, which worked to make the holy communion service more easily understandable for the general servicegoer. The committee’s work was not always viewed favorably due to its extensive changes to the Book of Common Prayer, which had not been altered since 1928. The book had been basically unchanged since the 1600s. Porter worked mainly on the Eucharistic Prayer A and part of Prayer B, which provided a choice of prayers for parishes.

He became editor of The Living Church magazine in 1977, retiring in 1990.

Porter died in 1999, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Achievements

• Harry Boone Porter, Jr. was known as the editor of The Living Church magazine, a weekly publication of the Episcopal Church. In addition, Porter wrote numerous books of his own including The Day of Light, Growth and Life in the Local Church, and Keeping the Church Year. For many years he served on the Standing Liturgical Commission, and later, the General Board of Examining Chaplains and worked to make the holy communion service more easily understandable for the general servicegoer.

Works

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  • The Day of Light: The Biblical and Liturgical Meaning of Sunday 1960
  • A Song of Creation 1986
  • Keeping the church year 1977
  • Jeremy Taylor, liturgist (1613-1667) 1979
  • Samuel Seabury: Bishop in a new nation 1962
  • William Augustus Muhlenberg: Pioneer of Christian action 1959
  • Sister Anne: Pioneer in women's work 1960
  • The Law of the Prayer Book and the Authority of Worship 1962

Membership

Porter was a member of Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission, the Anglican Society, the Alcuin Club, and the Living Church Foundation, Inc.

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 181
  2000