An English-Arabic Service Book (1930)

An English-Arabic Service Book (1930)

Author: Gwynne, Llewellyn Henry

Year: 1930

An English-Arabic Service Book: Forms of Service Sanctioned for Use in the Church of S. Mary, Wadi Halfa, by the Bishop in Egypt and the Sudan. Cairo: Printed at the Nile Mission Press, c. 1930. This adaptation and translation of parts of the Book of Common Prayer was prepared for use at the Church of Saint Mary, Wadi Halfa—then part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but now near the border between Egypt and Sudan. Llewellyn Henry Gwynne (1863-1957) was sent to the Sudan by the Church Missionary Society in 1899; he was the first Bishop in Egypt and the Sudan, serving in this capacity from 1920 to 1946. The bishop notes in his Foreword to this volume that "The object of this little prayer book is to provide a simple form of bilingual service in which both English and Arabic-speaking peoples in Wadi Halfa can join." An extraordinary aspect of this book is its inclusion of a memorial service with set prayers in honor of Charles George Gordon. This title is not listed in David Griffiths, The Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer 1549-1999 (London: The British Library; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2002). It was digitized in August 2010 by Richard Mammana from a personal copy.