These changes were reflected in June and July 1858,[5] when the House of Lords and House of Commons respectively passed resolutions making loyal addresses to Queen Victoria to remove certain "occasional forms of prayer" from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

[9][10] After some delay for legal advice,[11] on 17 January 1859 the queen issued a new warrant removing the prayers.

[12] However, the observances which the prayers fulfilled were mandated by various acts of Parliament; so a bill, initially called the Occasional Forms of Prayer Bill, was introduced in February 1859 to repeal the provisions which were no longer being enforced.

[17] In the House of Lords, the 1858 resolution was supported by most bishops;[7][18] John Bird Sumner Archbishop of Canterbury and Archibald Campbell Tait, Samuel Wilberforce and Robert Daly (bishops of London, of Oxford, and of Cashel respectively) spoke in favour, while Christopher Bethell Bishop of Bangor opposed it.

[6] The Anglo-Catholic liturgist Vernon Staley in 1907 described the deletions as ultra vires[19] because they were done without first obtaining the consent of the Convocations of Canterbury and York; he called them "a distinct violation of the compact between Church and Realm, as set forth in the Act of Uniformity which imposed the Book of Common Prayer in 1662".