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The Saint Benedict Medal

Continuing the Visual Tour of the Saint Aelfric Chapel at Grace Anglican Church (which I started last year but stalled), we’re looking next at the Saint Benedict Medal “Window”. There are two “windows” or picture frames which sit either in a window or on the side of the altar here – one is always of St. Aelfric, the chapel’s namesake, and the other rotates. For most of the month of January we’ve had Saint Peter there, but with the beginning of the Pre-Lent season we’re about to switch to this:

What it is

I first came to know of the Saint Benedict Medal in seeing it embedded into a crucifix, and as I looked up the meaning of its various letters I was impressed with the array of spiritual warfare verses employed. There may be a couple variations of the medal out there, but the one pictured here is fairly typical

In the center is the Cross, the letters reading downward are C.S.S.M.L. which stand for crux sacra sit mihi lux (the Holy Cross be my light). The letters left to right are N.D.S.M.D. – non draco sit mihi dux (let not the dragon be my guide). Both of these phrases have the same meter and they rhyme, making them a handy pair to memorize as a prayer against the devil’s temptations.

A circle surrounds the cross and forms the border of the medal. Four sets of letters arc around this circle, initially four more verses with which to reject Satan (and mostly from Scripture).

  • I.V.B. ipse venema bibas (drink your own poison)
  • V.R.S. vade retro Satana (get behind me, Satan)
  • N.S.M.V. non suade mihi vana (suggest not to me vanities)
  • S.M.Q.L. sunt mala quae libas (Evil are [the things that] you offer)

The word “Pax” (peace) sits atop the circle, and the four quadrants between the Cross and the circle contain the initials C.S.P.B. Crux Sancti Patris Benedicta (the Cross of the Holy Father Benedict).

Why it’s here

As an Anglican who loves the Prayer Book, I have a great fondness for St. Benedict. He is the Father of Western monasticism, codifying Early Church practice into a system that has been replicated in many ways across Western Europe ever since. And his approach to worship and liturgy, particularly centering on holy living and praying the Psalms, is extremely influential in the formation of the Anglican Prayer Book tradition. Our pattern of praying all 150 Psalms each month is a riff from the Benedictine pattern of praying all the Psalms in a week, for example.

More specifically, the Medal of Saint Benedict is a devotional tool that I think we have undervalued in 21st-century spirituality. We don’t always take the devil as seriously as we ought, and could benefit from reminders to reject his evil temptations.

As such, you’ll see it out in the chapel during the two-and-a-half weeks of Pre-Lent, and during the last two weeks of Lent (Passiontide & Holy Week). This serves a double purpose: first is the obvious emphasis on the doctrine of repentance that characterizes this time of year, and second is the tradition of veiling images in the church during the latter weeks of Lent. The Medal of Saint Benedict is not an image (like all the other entries in this “window”) and therefore doubly appropriate for these solemn moments in the Church Year.

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A brief glossary index for the BCP 2019

For those who are new to the Christian faith, or at least to Anglicanism in particular, simply handing them a Prayer Book can be a bewildering experience. This brief article has been written to serve as a sort of pamphlet to provide a brief topical introduction to the value and use of the Prayer Book (2019 version).

CONVERSION

The process of becoming a Christian is often portrayed as a moment of instant clarity and change.  While there certainly are break-through moments along the way, conversion is a process that can take a long time.  In the Prayer Book we summarize it as a three-fold taking off and a three-fold putting on.  It’s found on pages 164 (Baptism), 177 (Confirmation), 185 (both), and 194 (Renewal of Baptismal Vows).  We reject the world, the flesh and the devil (the proximate, personal, and cosmic dangers) and replace them with Jesus, the biblical faith, and God’s commandments.  The repetition of these baptismal vows at our subsequent confirmation and periodically thereafter reminds us that the Christian is both once and always converting from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God.

DOGMA

That which is absolutely required for true Christian faith is called dogma.  These are the non-negotiable points of belief which unite Christians of all stripes, the rejection of which identifies ancient (or renewed) heresies.  The holy Trinity and the two natures in the one person of Christ Jesus are the two primary centers of Christian dogma.  The full statements are called Creeds, of which we have received three: the Apostles’ (page 20 et al), the Nicene (page 109), and the Athanasian (page 769).

DOCTRINE

From the basic dogma of the Church spring a great many other teachings, also called doctrines, which are elucidated to safeguard the core biblical faith.  Sadly, different church traditions (or denominations) differ in doctrine to various degrees, yet despite this disunity it remains necessary for Christians to know what they are invited to believe and for ministers to remain faithful to the standards they have professed.  For Anglicans, our basic doctrinal statement is a set of Thirty Nine Articles of Religion (pages 772–790).  Other “documentary foundations” responding to more recent issues in the Anglican Church are provided on pages 766, 768, and 791–793.

LITURGY/WORSHIP

But the Christian faith is not primarily a set of points to believe or disbelieve, but rather a life that is lived, and expressed first and foremost through prayer and worship, not didactic statements.  As such, the Anglican tradition has retained the liturgical wisdom of the Early Church in the Prayer Book.  Rather than simply reciting points of doctrine, we express our beliefs through our very prayers and worship services.  Liturgy (literally, a ‘public work’) is thus an integral piece of Anglican identity, uniting our practice, faith, and ethos in a single volume.  Conforming to one another in Christ with the Prayer Book liturgy, we are thus given a common language of worship and belief, spiritually shaped and formed into One Body, and directed into our respective lives beyond the church’s walls.

SACRED TIME

With our inheritance of the liturgical tradition comes a conception of time itself that differs from that of the world’s.  Just as the Old Testament shows us that all of history is guided by God’s providence, so too do the Church’s liturgy and calendar show us that every hour, day, week, season, and year is oriented around the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There are prayers for morning (page 11), noon (page 33), evening (page 41), and night (page 57).  There are prayers for Sundays and Holy Days (page 104).  Within each of those liturgies are variations for different seasons of the year, and the calendar as a whole is explained beginning on page 687.  Seven principle holy days outline the Gospel throughout the year: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, and All Saints’.  The various seasons are built around these holidays, and a number of other feasts and fasts punctuate the year.  This reflects the biblical witness wherein the Law of Moses taught the observation Sabbath and the three main holidays, while allowing for the creation of additional holy day observations according to custom and need (cf. Esther 10).  A handful of special liturgies for certain holy days is also provided on pages 542–595.

PSALMS

Arguably the very heart of all Christian liturgy are the Psalms.  This book of the Bible contains 150 song-prayers which have been on the lips of the people of God for thousands of years, and they are so vital to the Christian spiritual life that the Psalms in their entirety have always been printed as a part of the Book of Common Prayer – indeed, the longest section of the book (cf. pages 267–467)!  All attempts to learn the Daily Office of prayers in any liturgical tradition ought to begin with the Psalms: learning to read God’s word, praying it as man’s word, and thus pursuing union with Christ in spirit and soul.  Along with the Lord’s Prayer, there is no liturgy in the entire Prayer Book that omits at least something from the Psalms.  The Anglican tradition invites the worshiper to pray through the Psalms every month (page 735).

BIBLE

Also known as the sacred scriptures, holy writ, the word of God, the Bible is the full compendium (or library) of authoritative texts which the Church upholds and guards according to the direction of the Holy Spirit.  It has three parts: the Old Testament (written before Christ), the New Testament (written after Christ) and the Ecclesiastical Books (also known as the Apocrypha or Deuterocanon, also written before Christ).  Each of these sections of the Bible have their own functions (cf. Articles VI and VII on pages 773–775) and are further divided into smaller specific groupings.  Every Prayer Book has come with its own daily lectionary (Bible-reading plan); ours is introduced on page 736, and detailed on the subsequent pages.

BAPTISM

The Anglican tradition is sacramental.  This means that we receive the historic teaching regarding certain rites and ceremonies of the Church wherein God blesses us with his grace in real and tangible ways, as he promised in sacred scripture.  The first and fundamental of these sacraments is Holy Baptism (pages 160, 781–782).  In this sacrament, God regenerates the recipients, giving them birth into a new life, his Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and entrance into the covenant community of faith.

CONFIRMATION

Where Baptism is the beginning, Confirmation is a continuation, a strengthening, a personal affirmation that the faith persists in the recipient (cf. page 174).  Typically an Anglican is baptized as an infant and confirmed as a young adult once he or she has taken personal hold of the faith.  Confirmation is also the Church’s acknowledgment of the individual’s sincerity of faith, marking him or her with the laying-on of hands by the bishop (the pastor’s pastor who thereby represents the universal church rather than merely the local).  This rite is very much like one’s ordination to mature Christian service, receiving new gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer merely to cling to faith but also to pass it on to others (page 176).

COMMUNION

The highest mystery, or sacrament, of the Church is the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, or the Eucharist.  In the species of bread and wine God’s people feed upon Christ’s own body and blood for their own life and salvation.  Where Holy Baptism is the new birth into a new life, Holy Communion is the food that nourishes that new life towards eternity.  The worshiper is exhorted to approach the Lord’s Table with reverence and thorough repentance (pages 147–148).  Two versions of the Communion service are provided in this Prayer Book (starting on page 105 and page 123); the first is the more historic form and the second is more modern.  Additional directions permit further variations to the order of service to match even more historical Prayer Book orders, but it should be emphasized that amidst this diversity of form lies a unity of doctrine.

HEALING

Although the Lord’s Supper has traditionally been termed “the medicine of immortality”, the Church has received two other ministrations for the work of healing in individual Christians’ lives.  The first is the power of the keys (Matthew 16:19 & John 20:21-23) to forgive sins.  Although the primary worship services do include the people’s confession and the priest’s absolution of sins, an additional rite for ministering to the penitent is provided on pages 222–224.  Alongside this ministration to the sin-sick soul is a second pair of rites for ministering to illness of the body (pages 225–235) involving both anointing oil and the laying-on of the priest’s hands, as taught in James 5:13-15.  There are additional prayer resources to minister to the dying, for when the time comes (page 236–242).

FAMILY LIFE

The propagation of life is one of the very first commandments of God in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.  The sacred call to furthering life is provided for in the Prayer Book tradition.  The primary liturgy to this end is Holy Matrimony (page 198 et al), which now includes a betrothal statement to help couples prepare for marriage (page 213).  Another rite that supports family life is the Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child (pages 215–221).  Often overlooked in today’s culture is the need not only to live well but to die well.  The Prayer Book therefore provides prayers for a wake or vigil and for the funeral and burial itself.  Pages 246 and 248 set out the basic parameters and directions that guide how Anglicans are to handle end-of-life memorials.

CHURCH LIFE

Just as human biological life is propagated through families and safeguarded in marriage, so is the Church’s spiritual life propagated through Baptism and safeguarded by specially ordained ministers.  The Ordinal (beginning on page 470) sets out that requirements and manner in which ministers should be ordained.  As per New Testament witness and Early Church practice, Anglicans have three ordained offices: Deacons (servers), Priests (presbyters, elders), and Bishops (overseers).  Each order of ministry has its own liturgy for ordination with specific requirements, instructions, and examinations, as well as distinct Scripture lessons and prayers.  Deriving from this are additional rites for the Institution of a Rector (page 513) and the Consecration and Dedication of a Place of Worship (page 523 et al).

PRIVATE PRAYERS

Alongside the liturgical tradition guiding the way Anglicans prayer when together is, of course, the need for individual devotion, worship, and prayer.  The daily liturgies of Morning, Midday, and Evening Prayer, and Compline (night prayer) are certainly robust and valuable resources for private devotion but can also be time-consuming and non-portable (online resources such as dailyoffice2019.com notwithstanding).  The Prayer Book tradition has therefore developed over the course of time various resources to aid and equip families and individuals to pray.  The Daily Offices in miniature are provided on pages 66–75, and over 100 prayers and thanksgivings are catalogued on pages 642–645.  One frequent tradition throughout Anglican history has been for laymen to take up a handful of such brief prayers and use them in various situations: before and after church, during Holy Communion, at mealtimes, at work, and so forth.

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Balancing Stability and Variety in the Eucharistic Rite

This can be a touchy subject. Some people are very passionate about their liturgical sensibilities; some people literally couldn’t care less. Some people insist that variety is the spice of life and the worship service must be constantly changing lest it become stale and mindlessly regimented. Others insist that variety is vanity and stability in the liturgy is superior, providing consistent discipleship and formative value that would be undermined by constant changes. And of course there are ways that others still attempt to balance these conflicting poles of thought.

On the whole I am largely in the “stability” camp, and I don’t want a given church to be constantly reinventing its liturgy. I do believe that repetition is essential to growth – this is how we exercise for physical fitness, this is how artists get better at their art, this is how students learn things. Inconsistent worship breeds an inconsistent approach to theology, as worship is really the front line of theology – how we approach and interact with God in prayer is the first step of articulating actual doctrine and teaching. Thus I am very much a Prayer Book loyalist: stick to the text, and keep variation to a minimum.

But therein lies an awkward question: stick to which text?

I’ve heard it joke that the Joy of Anglicanism is getting to argue about worship for the rest of your life. And the potentiality is certainly there: every province has its own version of the Book of Common Prayer, and some are more different than others. And besides the Prayer Book there have been many edits, supplements, occasional services, missals, and alternative lectionaries, such that 100 congregations could each have a different eucharistic service order. Not to say that this is a unique feature: there are multiple versions of the Roman Rite, both historically and in the present day; the Lutherans have long since branched out from Luther’s original German Mass; Presbyterians rarely offer more than “guidelines” for structuring a worship service, and the rest of the Protestant world is largely in do-whatever-you-want mode, which usually means the congregation is at the mercy of their pastor’s private sensibilities.

So if I want a stable, formative, orthodox, and coherent Anglican Prayer Book service every Sunday morning, where do I turn? How do I decide what is best?

STEP ONE: Conformity

“Conformity” is such a bad word in modern American culture, but in terms of church worship it’s very much a value. It is good for churches to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ and to be on the same page as one another. If we are indeed one body then we really ought to be growing together in roughly the same ways. Conformity in my case means using the edition of the Prayer Book that my province of the church (the Anglican Church in North America) has promulgated, the Prayer Book of 2019. 

STEP TWO: Utilizing the Basic Options

In that book there are two Communion rites (the Anglican Standard and the ‘Renewed Ancient’), and of that book there are two version (contemporary language and traditional liturgical English). Therefore there are four choices for Holy Communion. Here’s how I treat them:

To explain, the Anglican Standard Text is the first Communion Rite in the book, and should be understood to be our standard (hence the name), so I give it pride of place. The second rite, somewhat anachronistically called the Renewed Ancient Text, is a consolidation of the liturgical experimentation of the 1960’s and 70’s which became regnant in the Episcopal church, so its place in the Anglican tradition is widespread yet still very recent. I currently only use it on the Sundays from Christmas through Epiphanytide, largely on account of the fact that the eucharistic prayers mention the Virgin Mary, and that’s the time of year most suited to emphasizing the incarnation of our Lord. I also have it down for holy days commemorating relatives of Jesus (Joseph, Mary, her parents, John the Baptist, and his parents).

STEP THREE: Tastefully Dipping into our History

There’s another feature in our Prayer Book which is easily missed, but of great significance: older orders of service are permitted, using the material in the 2019 Prayer Book. The order of events in the Anglican Communion service got revamped quite a bit in the 1970’s: the Creed and Sermon switched places, the Fraction (or breaking of the bread) was given its own place between the Communion prayers and the distribution, the Gloria in excelsis Deo moved from being an anthem at the end to a hymn of praise near the beginning (as in the Roman Rite), the Offertory moved after the Prayers and Confession. And so, in deference to the majority of our history, the 2019 Prayer Brook allows us to re-order the Anglican Standard Text to match the order of a previous authorized Prayer Book. This gives a few major options:

  1. The order of the first prayer book (1549)
  2. The standard English prayer book (1662)
  3. The first & second American prayer books (1789 & 1892)
  4. The third American prayer book (1928)

There are a few other historical options from England and Canada and Scotland, but they are almost identical to others already listed here.

Would I ever want to make use of this permission? And if so, what would be the justification for such meddling? The downsides are obvious:

  • People get tripped up easily when familiar material gets rearranged
  • I, the celebrant, am much more prone to making mistakes when I do something different from the norm
  • Parents trying to manage small children during the service have a harder time keeping up when their full attention isn’t able to be on the order of service

So if we choose to utilize these other options, it needs to be for a very good reason. After all, the rubrics permitting this change exists primarily to service those parishes that are already used to a different order and want to keep it, despite switching over to the 2019 Prayer Book.

I have two main reasons for wanting to make occasional use of the historic orders.

  1. INSTRUCTION: Both in terms of personal awareness as well as historical honesty, I think it’s good for ordinary worshipers to be exposed to samples of “the way things were” on occasion. It’s good to know that the Modern Way is not the Only Way, and to appreciate at least some of the differences that have arisen in the details of our patterns of worship over the centuries.
  2. FORMATION: Despite my preference for stability over variety, there is a value to “shaking things up” a little bit from time to time. Re-arranging a little bit of the worship service according to an historic pattern forces people to pay attention in a way that they normally may not. Hearing and saying familiar prayers in a different sequence than usual can help bring out different emphases that would be missed otherwise.

To implement the inclusion of these alternative orders, though, it struck me as too arbitrary to assign certain orders to certain Sundays of the year. So instead I assigned them to certain groups of minor feast days:

  1. The 1662 Order is for British Saints
  2. The 1549 Order is for other Western Saints
  3. The 1789/1892 Order is for Eastern Saints
  4. The 1928 Order is for Angels, Eve of All Saints, the Faithful Departed

The general logic behind this is that the 1662 order is the most uniquely English liturgy, so it befits the British Saints, the 1549 Eucharistic Rite is more generically Western, the early American Prayer Books (influenced by the Scottish order) has a slight Eastern element to it, and the 1928 prayers give a little more attention to the departed than its predecessors. Plus, by tying these alternative arrangements of the service order to minor saints days, we get a special way of acknowledging these commemorations when they happen to land on a Sunday without actually directly observing them and interrupting the calendar year.

So for example earlier this year August 20th was on a Sunday, and that was the commemoration of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. So on that day we used the 1549 order of service to denote his commemoration, though the Scripture lessons and sermon remained in the regular Sunday sequence (I was preaching through Romans at the time). The next time this’ll happen for my church is on January 28th, on which day we’ll again use the 1549 order this time to celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas, a giant of Western Medieval theology. And then in March we’ll use this method to denote St. Patrick’s Day as well!

This approach gives you maybe three or four Sundays per year with historic orders, which is rare enough that it’s not destabilizing the congregation’s ability to follow the regular liturgy, but often enough that they kinda-sorta remember “I think we’ve done this before”. That way it’s a little jarring (“oh right, I have to pay careful attention to follow this”) but not overwhelming and having-to-start-from-scratch each time.

SUMMARY THOUGHT

So that’s generally how I go about trying to balance variety and stability. I’m not saying this is a perfect system that everyone should try to emulate, but I think these are sound ideas that provide just enough variation without throwing people off too much. It really matters to me that people get to know our liturgy, grow to cherish its prayers, and make them their own – and sometimes you need both familiar repetition as well as fresh encounters to make that happen.

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Introducing the Reconciliation of Penitents

The Reconciliation of a Penitent is, in one sense, an ironic inclusion in a Book of Common Prayer.  Liturgy, by nature is corporate, involving as much of the gathered church as will assemble.  The private confession of sins to a priest, however, is not public worship.  In this light it is no surprise that classical Prayer Books did not include this rite in full text, and only pointed to it in rubrics and exhortation.  However, the fully-printed inclusion of this rite in modern times speaks to another sense of what Common Prayer is.  Not only does “common” refer to what the Church does together, but also to what the Church does in common, yet separately.  Just as many individuals pray the Daily Office without a gathered congregation are nevertheless participating in the greater Prayers of the Church, so too is the use of the Reconciliation of a Penitent a participation in the Church’s liturgical ministry.

The presence of this rite in the Prayer Book itself was first enacted in 1979.  The practice of private confession to a priest, however, has always been authorized in the Prayer Book tradition.  In the Exhortation to Holy Communion (BCP 148) the congregation is invited to come to the priest to “confess your sins, that you may receive godly counsel, direction, and absolution.”  This invitation, in turn, is taken from the third Exhortation in all the classical Prayer Books.  The absolution of sins is also one of the special roles and duties of the priest, as stated in the Ordinal (both classical and modern).

Furthermore, the historic rites for the Visitation of the Sick direct the priest to ask the sick person if “he repents him truly of his sins”, and if his conscience feels troubled he should be moved to make “a special confession of sins”.  The priest’s absolution is provided, the 1662 version reading thus:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offenses: And by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Thus the inclusion of a form for the reconciliation of penitents, apart from the context of the visitation of the sick, is entirely within the scope of historic orthodox Anglican practice regardless of party or churchmanship. 

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This our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving

I: Story Time

Before I became an Anglican, I was doing my seminary-required units of mentored ministry at a congregational church. It was the church of my childhood; we were not a part of any official denomination (nor are they still), and there was no standard confession of faith apart from a fairly typical statement on the website that pointed to the infallibility of Scripture and the content of the Apostles’ Creed. Thus when it came to many points of doctrine, there was a great deal of wiggle room and it really came down to how much the senior pastor promulgated or enforced his views in and through the board of elders and the various volunteers who taught Sunday School and led Bible studies.

And so it came to pass, towards the end of my tenure there, as I was growing towards Anglicanism, I was invited to assist the senior pastor with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It was done monthly there, which is a lot more frequent than your typical non-denom evangelical church, but there was still no consistent form of prayer. It was not seen as a sacrament there, anyway, so the liturgy didn’t really matter as such, so long as the words of institution were quoted along the way. So I, for my portion of the prayers, decided to pick up the Prayer Book and try out a section of it. (Full disclosure, it was the Episcopalian book of 1979, which is all I knew at the time, and probably the best fit anyway since some of its eucharistic prayers are fairly generic and inoffensive across denominational lines.) But I ran into a problem with the pastor when he was proofreading what I’d prepared: “And we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord of all…” The word “sacrifice” was a problem, and it was axed.

II: The Sacrifice(s) of the Mass

The fear, of course, was that we’d be falling into the errors of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the “Sacrifice of the Mass” and all those other scary terms that evangelical protestants are supposed to be wary of. What this pastor didn’t realize (and what I was yet too untrained to understand either, let alone explain) is that the term sacrifice has quite a broad meaning, whereas the Roman error is quite specific.

The issue which the Reformers raised regarding Roman teaching centered around the notion that the Eucharist is a propitiatory sacrifice that in its very celebration is efficacious toward the remission of sins and relief for the souls in purgatory. The Reformers rightly axed the efficacy of the Sacrament for those in purgatory because they knew Purgatory itself was a false medieval development, and they rightly recentered the efficacy of the Sacrament for the living upon the Cross of Christ, wherein our one, true, propitiation is found.

As a result, the Lutheran Book of Concord asserts

There are chiefly two kinds of sacrifices, and no more, in which all others are comprehended. The one is a propitiatory sacrifice, by which expiation is made for guilt and punishment, God is reconciled, his wrath appeased, and remission of sins obtained for others. The other is a sacrifice of thanksgiving, not to obtain forgiveness of sin or reconciliation, but made by those who are already reconciled, in order to give thanks for the remission of sins, and for other favors and gifts they received.

Augsburg Confession XXIV(XII):19

This exact same distinction was taken up in the English Prayer Books, which describe Holy Communion as “this our Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving“. It is a phrase which pointedly rejects the Roman notion of Eucharistic sacrifice being propitiatory ex opere operato (from the work itself), and instead highlights that the sacrifice we make is one of praise and thanksgiving before God (hence the name eucharist, meaning thanksgiving).

Another sacrifice that is made at Holy Communion is an oblation or self-offering:

And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively [living] sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that all we who are partakers of this holy Communion, may be fulfilled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.

Book of Common Prayer

This prayer, also found in every Anglican Prayer Book shortly after the “sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” line, further enriches and expands and corrects our understanding of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Not only do we remember Christ’s own propitiatory sacrifice of himself upon the Cross, not only do we offer our own sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, but we also offer up our selves entirely unto God (directly quoting and applying Romans 12:1).

III: Summary Thoughts

In retrospect, I am still a little disappointed that my congregational pastor was not familiar with the biblical language of sacrifice, in its broadness, to recognize that there is ample room for right (and fruitful, and even necessary) use of the term in Holy Communion, though I recognize that as one of the general blind spots of the modern evangelical tradition. I’m also aware that within Anglican circles we like to argue about liturgy to an incredible degree – in what order our prayers should be said, which translation to use, what the implied doctrinal logic is behind a given liturgical rite and form. But in any case, the language of a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” and the sacrifice of “ourselves, our souls and bodies” are common threads throughout our tradition, whether we say them before or after the ministration of Communion, whether we directly quote the Scriptures or paraphrase them in a modern-language rite.

With such richness of tradition and thoroughness of teaching at our disposal, we are amply equipped to form Christian worshipers with a robust biblical, creedal, and patristic faith precisely as the Reformers sought to restore. While I don’t doubt there is an end in sight to the hand-wringing we are prone to make over details, I firmly believe that we can be absolutely confident in the orthodoxy of our Prayer Book tradition’s handling of Holy Communion. For, when it comes to worship, we mean what we say, and we say what we mean.

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Beyond Sunday Communion part 3: Morning Prayer & Holy Communion

The Prayer Book tradition of worship is rich and robust, providing not only rites and rituals for individual worship services but indeed for an entire life of Christian worship. As a part of this ambitious large-scale schema, it should come as no surprise that there’s more to worship than simply going to Holy Communion every Sunday morning. There are the daily rounds of prayer, punctuated by the [Great] Litany a couple times per week, various pastoral offices for key stages in the natural and spiritual lives of a congregation and family, and pointers toward the development of private devotions to enable the individual worshiper to flesh out his or her own life of worship apart from the gathered Church.

What is often missed in today’s church culture, however, is that the original Prayer Book pattern for worship on Sunday morning was actually a three-part affair: Morning Prayer, The [Great] Litany, and the Holy Communion. Until relatively recent times, all three of these were appointed to be said in every church every Sunday and Holy Day. Granted, this was often shortened in actual practice, and by the late 19th century it was probably more common for people to attend just one service rather than all three in a row. Yet the full pattern of worship is still present even in our modern Prayer Books, and the typical malnourished Christian of today could benefit greatly from a retrieval of the spiritual rigor of our forebears. To that end, we’ll be looking at different combinations of worship services that you could carry out on Sunday mornings in your church.

Morning Prayer & Holy Communion

The most complicated pairing of traditional Prayer Book services is that of Morning Prayer and Holy Communion. The American Prayer Book of 1928 hints of the concept of running the two services together but provides no rubrics on how this is meant to be done. The 1979 Prayer Book finally followed that up with a set of instructions: cut the Morning Prayer service off after the collects and before the Prayer for Mission, and then start the Offertory of the Communion liturgy (1979 BCP page 142). Additional Prayers might be expected in between, however, to ensure the requirements for the Prayers of the People be fulfilled. The practical result of this schema is that the Daily Office serves as the “Liturgy of the Word” within the Communion service.

However, the framers of the 2019 Prayer Book consciously and intentionally did not repeat that rubric. They asserted that the integrity of the Daily and Communion offices should be maintained, and there was nothing to be gained by blending them together like that. So now we have an interesting situation, because on pages 24 and 50 of our Prayer Book we still have the same rubric as in 1979: “Unless the… Eucharist is to follow, one of the following prayers for mission is added.” So if you want to combine Morning Prayer and Holy Communion into one worship service, the Office ends at the same place as it does for switching to the Litany, which is the same place the original Office ended, which is the same place as the 1979 Book to move on to the Offertory in Holy Communion. Except in our case, the “Liturgy of the Word” in Holy Communion can’t be overwritten. This leaves us with a curious range of options.

First, literally start at the very beginning of the Communion service. You could smooth the transition a little by singing a hymn to be the hinge: functioning both as the Anthem near the end of the Office and the Opening Hymn of the Eucharist. Needless to say this is the longest option in terms of the worship service’s duration. Though the other options aren’t going to be all that much shorter.

Second, skip everything you’re allowed to skip. If you want to remain obedient to the rubrics, but try your hardest to shorten this combined service, here are the things you can skip:

  • The Confession in Morning Prayer
  • The Apostles’ Creed in Morning Prayer
  • The Gloria in Excelsis Deo in the Communion service
  • The Comfortable Words and certain other marked prayers during the celebration of Communion

This is often overlooked by liturgy planners, but the real key to “saving time” when you’re concerned about a worship service lasting too long is not about breezing through the Prayers and skipping sections of the liturgy. The biggest time-user is music. This is especially true in the modern charismatic-influenced evangelical tradition – those songs can go on much longer even than the old hymns! So if you’re the sort who’s concerned about attention span and a set “finish time”, look at how you can reel in the music, rather than cut corners with the actual canonical liturgy.

That said, there is something to be said for the spirit of the rubrics rather than just the letter. Along those lines, here are some other things to consider to smooth the transition from Morning Prayer to Holy Communion and make it feel a bit more unified and a bit less repetitive.

  • Use the Confession in Morning Prayer instead of the Communion (that way you can skip a bunch of the follow-up material, including that oft-time-consuming Peace!)
  • Trim the Prayers of the People (after all Morning Prayer does have some basic intercessions built in already)
  • Alternatively, chop off all the prayers from Morning Prayer (concluding it with the second lesson & canticle, and then moving on to the Communion. This way you get the benefit of the extra Scripture readings and none of the prayers thereafter which will get duplicated.)

In my early years as a priest, I tried out all three of those last ideas (possibly all at once). I did this on a couple festive Sundays of the year – Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, All Saints’ Sunday – for the benefit of getting two different collects of the day (in most of those cases) and extra Scripture lessons. I thought it’d be a good way to heighten the celebration of the high holy days in a way that was both Bible-centered and Prayer Book -honoring, analogous to how the especially penitential Sundays would be punctuated by the Great Litany.

Unlike my appointing of the Litany, however, the Morning Prayer + Holy Communion combo pack did not last. It’s significantly longer, it’s clunkier, and on the days that I appointed this there was usually a lot of wonderful music that we wanted to sing as well. It may be that the Office & Eucharist combination would work better in a low-music setting. It may be that this combination may better be achieved as two separated worship services with a time for Bible Study or Sunday School or Catechesis in between.

Or, hey, maybe you actually do want to plan a worship that’s 1½-2 hours long, and then a full Morning Office with a full Eucharist back-to-back is a perfectly Anglican way to achieve that!

Posted on by Fr. Brench

Beyond Sunday Communion part 1: The Litany & Communion

The Prayer Book tradition of worship is rich and robust, providing not only rites and rituals for individual worship services but indeed for an entire life of Christian worship. As a part of this ambitious large-scale schema, it should come as no surprise that there’s more to worship than simply going to Holy Communion every Sunday morning. There are the daily rounds of prayer, punctuated by the [Great] Litany a couple times per week, various pastoral offices for key stages in the natural and spiritual lives of a congregation and family, and pointers toward the development of private devotions to enable the individual worshiper to flesh out his or her own life of worship apart from the gathered Church.

What is often missed in today’s church culture, however, is that the original Prayer Book pattern for worship on Sunday morning was actually a three-part affair: Morning Prayer, The [Great] Litany, and the Holy Communion. Until relatively recent times, all three of these were appointed to be said in every church every Sunday and Holy Day. Granted, this was often shortened in actual practice, and by the late 19th century it was probably more common for people to attend just one service rather than all three in a row. Yet the full pattern of worship is still present even in our modern Prayer Books, and the typical malnourished Christian of today could benefit greatly from a retrieval of the spiritual rigor of our forebears. To that end, we’ll be looking at different combinations of worship services that you could carry out on Sunday mornings in your church.

The Litany & Holy Communion

Perhaps the simplest combination of Anglican traditional rites is the use of the Great Litany with the Communion service. The Litany is a longish prayer list with full congregational participation throughout. It’s repetitive to the modern sensibility, but instructively thorough and succinct – a real balm for the “Father God we just—” prayers that often ramble on too long in current popular evangelical practice. There are three main ways that the Litany may be appended to the Communion service.

The first and probably least desirable method of including the Litany in the Communion liturgy is to replace the Prayers of the People with the Great Litany – starting at its beginning (page 91) and ending it just before the Kyrie on page 96. This is not how the Litany was or is meant to be used, and this has no historical precedence. I mention this only because it is permitted by the Communion rubrics to replace the Prayers of the People with something else that meets certain standards, the Litany easily fulfills those standards, and a congregation who has never seen the Litany before in their entire lives might be most easily introduced to it in a familiar spot in the known Communion liturgy.

The second and third ways to bring the Litany into Sunday worship, connected to the Communion service, is by starting with the Litany itself and switching over to the Communion at a certain point.

One way to do this is to treat the Great Litany as if it were a “hymn, psalm, or anthem” at the start of the worship service. You go through as much of the Litany as you want, using whichever ending you prefer to choose (the rubrics on page 97 note what these two endings are), and after that begin the Communion service at the Acclamation. This has the benefit of simplicity and breadth of coverage: the congregation experiences the Litany in its full, nothing of the regular service is omitted, and (as a handy bonus) they’ll experience the two worship services most closely to how the historic Prayer Books intended for them to be observed. The downside, of course, is the length of all this. Plus the stop-and-start where Litany ends and Communion starts may be a jarring experience for a congregation unused to the larger breadth of Prayer Book worship.

Lastly, the other approach is to utilize the rubric on page 96, which direct that the Litany be terminated there at the Kyrie and the Communion liturgy picked up at the salutation leading into the Collect of the Day. This is the “combo-pack” invented for the 1979 Prayer Book, and honestly makes for a smooth transition from one service to the other, thanks especially to the Kyrie being a familiar component to both orders functioning as a hinge linking them together. The 1979 Prayer Book further allowed the Prayers of the People to be skipped when the Litany is used like this, though our 2019 Book has not retained that particular allowance.

In my own experience, I have used (parts of) the Litany in place of the Prayers of the People once or twice, but most often I go with the third, rubrical, choice. With occasional exception, I appoint the Litany seven times a year: Advent 1, Epiphany 3, Lent 1, Lent 5, Easter 6 (Rogation), Proper 10, and Proper 20. This way, my flock develops at least a little familiarity with the Litany without feeling overburdened by a lengthy devotion that “nobody else has to do!” You may find another pattern of use may suit your context better. The Additional Directions on page 99 provide a few suggestions to this end, also.

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Encountering the Scriptures in Anglican Worship

One of the modern tag-lines used to describe the Book of Common Prayer is that it is “The Bible arranged for worship.” Much can and has been said about the sheer bulk of its pages being that of Scriptures, verbatim or referenced, most particularly the full Psalter. What I thought I’d describe today is the range of ways in which this descriptor is proven true. We Anglicans boast, quite rightly I daresay, that ours is the most biblical of liturgies the Church has ever had – let’s take a moment here to defend that claim and explore the major ways in which this is so.

In brief, the Scriptures are (1) heard spoken aloud, (2) they are preached, and (3) they are paraphrased or synthesized in prayer.

The Scriptures are heard spoken aloud.

There are three primary ways in which the Scriptures are encountered audibly in our worship: there are lessons, sentences, and prayers.

The LESSONS are distinct times of Bible-reading during a worship service. All churches that retain a liturgical tradition have Bible readings, though many in the “free church” tradition have sadly lost this crucial staple of worship, relegating the reading of a sermon text to within the sermon. Modern Anglican liturgies most typically have three lessons at Holy Communion: an Old Testament text, an Epistle text, and a Gospel text. The classical Prayer Book tradition typically had two: an Epistle and a Gospel. The Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer also have two: typically one Old Testament and one New Testament. Exceptions to these patterns exist, but at a typical worship service that is what you can expect. In almost every case, though, these lessons are introduced with a citation of which book of the Bible they come from, and frequently which chapter, and even verses.

Sometimes simply one SENTENCE of Scripture is read, and it may or may not be introduced with a citation. This may be an “opening sentence” at the start of Morning or Evening Prayer, an Offertory Sentence before the collection, a Communion Sentence right after everyone has received the consecrated bread and wine, or a sort of mini-lesson in Midday Prayer or Compline. These are moments of devotional impact, not typically to be expounded further or given additional context or explanation. These are simply moments that are ornamented with the Word of God for beauty, for gravity, and for meaning.

And, of course, there are many ways in which we experience the Scriptures as PRAYERS. When we hear part of a Psalm at the Communion service – be it a traditional introit or gradual, or a responsory psalm after the Old Testament Lesson – we are praying that text. In the Daily Offices, often multiple Psalms are prayed in full! These are readings, but not lessons; we don’t sit back and listen, but we sit up (or even stand) and make those words our own in prayer. There are many traditions of chanting or singing the Psalms, also emphasizing this posture of prayer rather than only listening. Besides the Psalms there are other psalm-like texts which are also prayed. These are usually called Canticles, and various forms of the liturgical tradition call for different specific examples. There are a few from Isaiah and Exodus, and a couple from Revelation, but the three most significant canticles are from the Gospel of Luke: the Song of Zechariah, the Song of Mary, and the Song of Simeon.

The Scriptures are preached.

This is hardly unique to the Anglican tradition; all Christian churches include preaching in some manner in their worship services. But something that is relatively unique to the Prayer Book tradition is its collection of “exhortations” found in various liturgies. The famous “Dearly beloved…” speech at the start of the marriage ceremony is perhaps the most well-known example, which references several parts of Scripture and sets out a summary of the biblical doctrine of marriage – it is basically a two-minute sermon! There are a handful of such exhortations in the Prayer Book: some calling people to participate in Holy Communion, some shorter ones calling people to confess their sins before God, some outlining the duties of a bishop, or priest, or deacon at a service of Ordination. These are brief moments in which the minister is speaking to the congregation and expounding the Scriptures on one topic or another, providing biblical teaching to help them participate in the worship that is to follow.

The Scriptures are paraphrased or synthesized in prayer.

Like the several Exhortations in the Prayer Book, our tradition also bears a great many prayers that bring together biblical material to celebrate or proclaim various truths from the Word of God.

One of the greatest examples of this is the wealth of COLLECTS in the Prayer Book. Although not unique to the Anglican tradition, our liturgies do emphasize the use of these stylized prayers more than most other churches do. A collect is made up of an address to God which usually identifies something about his character or works, a petition which we ask, and a purpose undergirding that petition, often tying it back to the relevant thing about God’s character or works. Many of these collects quote or paraphrase Scripture, and all of them reflect on some biblical truth.

Besides the collects, many other prayers in the Book of Common Prayer contain biblical quotes, references, paraphrases, and allusions that together express a coherent theology built upon the Bible. The Prayers of the People make reference to some New Testament teachings on how the church should pray, and draw from biblical language in so doing. The Communion prayers include the Words of Institution (the words of Christ at the Last Supper) amidst a host of other biblical references. Other prayers at baptism, marriage, funerals, for the penitent, for the sick, prayers of thanksgiving, also bring together biblical material.

This is a double benefit.

For evangelicals who grew up with a heavy emphasis on Bible Study, discovering the traditional liturgy can be a great joy as they find a truly endless stream of biblical material in the prayers of the Church. This is a part of my own story. And it works the other way, too: those who grow up hearing the Prayer Book liturgy but received less instruction in the Bible find great joy in discovering the language of the liturgy in the Scriptures. As a priest and pastor I have seen folks in both positions experiencing the same joy of connecting biblical familiarity and liturgical familiarity. It is a joy and passion of mine to help people connect those dots.

I call this a double benefit because, rightly used, the Bible and the Liturgy reinforce one another in the lives of the worshipers. As we read the Bible and learn its words and teachings, and as we participate in the liturgy and learn from its content as well, we find that they reinforce one another. When the Church’s worship (or liturgy) is truly biblical, then it can be celebrated and enjoyed with confidence and joy, knowing that knowledge and study of the Bible will confirm its value. It also reminds us that worship and prayer are not arbitrary, disconnected from theology and Bible study. Rather, the doctrine and discipline of the Church is intertwined, synthesized, a coherent and unified whole. There should not be any competition or strife between the two, they are ultimately one and the same: the proclamation of the God who makes us, loves us, redeems us.

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The Preachiest Wedding Ever.

It’s been a long time, but today I’m bringing back Weird Rubric Wednesday with another wacky idea that could be done, though probably shouldn’t.

We all want a God-honoring, biblical, Christian wedding, don’t we? The state of marriage in the West is pretty dismal, and it’s an uphill battle reeducating our fellow believers in the scriptural doctrine of holy matrimony. So let’s take a look at what the Prayer Book says about the wedding service.

THE LESSONS

One or more of the following passages is read.

Between the Lessons, a Psalm, hymn, or anthem may be sung or said. Appropriate Psalms are 45, 67, 127, or 128.

BCP 2019 page 204

Along with these rubrics are listed fifteen Scripture readings to choose from.

So if we’re looking at designing the Most Biblical Wedding Ever (TM) without violating the Prayer Book rubrics, let’s choose the best readings. Let’s choose the longest readings! Let’s choose ALL TEH READINGZ!!!1!one!

And, like good Anglicans informed by the regular recitation of the Daily Office, we’re going to follow each lesson with a Psalm, hymn, canticle, or anthem. Ready? Here goes…

  • Genesis 1:25-28 (Male and female he created them)
  • Psalm 67
  • Genesis 2:4-9, 15-24 (A man holds fast to his wife and they become one flesh)
  • Psalm 127
  • Song of Solomon 2:10-13; 8:6-7 (Many waters cannot quench love)
  • Psalm 45
  • Tobit 8:5b-8 (That she and I may grow old together)
  • Psalm 128
  • 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (Love is patient and kind)
  • Hymn: Though angel tongues adorn my human voice (Magnify the Lord #590)
  • Ephesians 3:14-19 (The Father from whom every family is named)
  • Hymn: Lord of Glory, who hast bought us (Magnify the Lord #594)
  • Ephesians 5:1-2, 21-33 (Walk in love, as Christ loved us)
  • Pascha Nostrum (BCP 16)
  • Colossians 3:12-17 (Love which binds everything together in harmony)
  • Hymn: Blest be the tie that binds (Magnify the Lord #494)
  • 1 John 4:7-16 (Let us love one another, for love is of God)
  • Hymn: O perfect Love (Magnify the Lord #306/307)
  • Matthew 5:1-10 (The Beatitudes)
  • Te Deum (BCP 17)
  • Matthew 5:13-16 (You are the light… Let your light shine)
  • Nunc Dimittis (BCP 46)
  • Matthew 7:24-29 (Like a wise man who built his house on the rock)
  • Hymn: Seek ye first the kingdom of God (Magnify the Lord #625)
  • Mark 10:6-16 (They are no longer two but one)
  • Hymn: Love, fixed before the worlds were framed (Magnify the Lord #589)
  • John 2:1-11 (The wedding at Cana)
  • Hymn: O Father, all creating (Magnify the Lord #308)
  • John 15:9-12 (Love one another as I have loved you)

And of course a nice long sermon must follow, being sure to tie together this rich breadth of teaching on the nature and duties of Christian marriage.

In actual seriousness, this is obviously overkill for a normal wedding service. However, if you’re planning a wedding and need help lining up Scripture lessons with psalms or musical responses, much of this list is actually pretty thought-through; feel free to draw from it. Alternatively, if a special service of prayer is desired – perhaps for a special day of teaching or celebration or intercession on the subject of holy matrimony, this order can be a good resource for public worship and devotion.

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Why is that missing from the Daily Office Lectionary?

From time to time, people who use a Prayer Book for daily prayers and Scripture reading notice that something has been skipped in the course of Bible-reading and wonder why. What have they missed? Why does the Prayer Book book omit whole chapters of sacred scripture? Is the Church trying to suppress or water down the truth?

I cannot answer that question for every Daily Office Lectionary in the world – some are more comprehensive than others, some have particular agendas or purposes, some were honestly just plain bad. But I can point you to two major principles that guide the formation of a given Bible-reading plan.

#1 The lectionary needs to be repeatable year by year

This is critical but easy to overlook. If the pace is too rigorous, only the most stalwart worshiper will get through it, and then it’ll be an exercise in elitism rather than a beneficial practice for the whole congregation. Similarly, this means that the lectionary has to be relatively simple to follow, and contain minimal changeable features from year to year. With only 365 days to work with, and this need for a reasonable pace (typically up to 4 chapters per day, one each of OT and NT in both Morning and Evening), something has to be cut.

The American lectionary of 1979, for example, defaults to a two-year cycle of reading which is easily sustainable but still manages to be lighter than ever in terms of biblical coverage (strangely not even covering the whole New Testament in that time). The American of lectionary of 1892 provided a special section of readings for the forty days of Lent, interrupting the usual continuous flow of reading – a complication that barely lasted thirty years!

#2 The lessons need to be suitable for public reading

It must be recalled that the Daily Office is not a private devotion, but a public office. It is, ideally, what is read in every church before all the worshipers present every day. This also means that these texts will be read without the benefit of a sermon following. Thus, when considering which passages of Scripture to include and which to leave out, this suitability for public reading is necessary. Some chapters of the Old Testament will be more suitable than others – a genealogy in 1 Chronicles or the land allotments in Joshua and Ezekiel will be inferior value and clarity than the riches of the historical accounts or the preaching of the prophets.

This is not a rejection of the God-breathed nature of all Scripture, of course. As St. Paul boldly asserted, all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Yet at the same time we are justified in evaluating the comparative value of different parts of Scripture. The four Gospels are of especial value, so we always read from one at every Communion service as the last (the apex) of the Scripture readings. The New Testament is of special significance as it proclaims Christ more directly than the Old; thus we read from it in equal measure as the Old, even though that means reading the NT more than once a year in the Daily Office Lectionary. And within the Old Testament, as I noted above, some readings will be more profitable to the hearer than others. We could go so far as to say that some passages of Scripture are sufficiently obscure that their most proper context for reading is in a study group or as a sermon text.

What’s missing in the 2019 Daily Office Lectionary?

There was a trend, for the past 100 years, of lectionaries getting shorter and shorter readings and getting more and more complex to follow. In the face of those trends, the 2019 lectionary stands against the tide, returning to the widest scope of biblical coverage since 1662 (in fact covering more of the Old and New Testaments than its original forebear, at the expense of the Books Called Apocrypha). Nevertheless, there are plenty of Old Testament chapters that are not included. Here’s a quick run-down on that.

Although more of the Book of Leviticus is read in this lectionary than in any previous Prayer Book, more than half of the book is still omitted. You can read more about that here. The same can be said for the Book of Numbers.

Nearly half of Joshua is omitted (notes on that here), and a couple chapters of Judges are also missing.

One of the most noteworthy omissions from the oldest Prayer Book lectionaries are the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles. In more recent times, select chapters of the Chronicles have been interspersed with 1 & 2 Kings, which is what the 2019 lectionary also does. You can read about that here.

Ezekiel, too, is a book that has been largely skimmed through in the past but now sees a bit more coverage. I’ve written on that here.

It’s also worth noting that the earliest Prayer Books omitted all but two chapters of Revelation. Recent books have restored it to full inclusion, and I’ve written a little about that history here, in case you’re interested.

The Ecclesiastical Books (more commonly known as the Apocrypha) have suffered the most chopping and omission in the 2019 lectionary. Where in the past the full books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) were read in their entireties, plus most or all of Baruch, they are now given only summary treatment. And among these remnants is also added a crash summary of 1 & 2 Maccabees.

What if I *really* want to read everything?

Some people are completionists, or at least aspire to be completionists in Scripture-reading. If you have such a burning desire, and the time to give to extra reading of the “harder” or more obscure texts of sacred writ, I have put together a Midday Lectionary that supplements the 2019 Daily Lectionary with all the Old Testament chapters and Ecclesiastical Books omitted from Morning & Evening Prayer. You can find that here.