Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the principal eucharistic rite of the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It orders the Church's celebration of the Lord's Supper through Scripture, confession, absolution, praise, intercession, consecration, sacramental reception, thanksgiving, and blessing.

The rite is deliberately doctrinal as well as devotional. It teaches that Christ's sacrifice is once offered and sufficient, that the sacrament is received with repentance and faith, and that the Church's eucharistic worship is a memorial, thanksgiving, and communion with the crucified and risen Lord. Its language stands within the classical Anglican formularies while also preserving the richer Scottish-American pattern of oblation and invocation.

Shape of the Rite

The 1928 Communion Office begins by placing worship before the searching holiness of God:

ALMIGHTY God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit.

From there the rite moves through the Decalogue or Summary of the Law, the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Creed, sermon, offertory, intercession, exhortation when appointed, confession, absolution, Comfortable Words, Sursum Corda, Sanctus, Prayer of Consecration, Prayer of Humble Access, administration, post-communion thanksgiving, Gloria in Excelsis, and blessing. This sequence shows that Anglican eucharistic worship is not an isolated moment at the altar. It is the whole Church hearing the Word, confessing sin, receiving grace, and being sent out under blessing.

Prayer Book Texts

The Prayer of Consecration explicitly connects the sacrament to the institution of Christ and to his once-for-all offering:

All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption.

The same prayer asks that communicants may receive what Christ instituted:

Grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood.

The Prayer of Humble Access guards the same doctrine pastorally. Communicants come not by merit, but by mercy:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.

Scripture and Liturgical Logic

The apostolic warrant for Holy Communion is the Lord's institution and the Church's continued proclamation of his death:

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

Paul also describes the sacrament as communion or participation:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

These texts explain the Prayer Book's balance. Holy Communion is remembrance, but not bare recollection. It is thanksgiving, but not human religious achievement. It is participation in Christ, but not a repetition of Calvary. The liturgy therefore joins institution, memorial, oblation, invocation, reception, and thanksgiving under the authority of Scripture.

Anglican Doctrine

Article XXVIII states the classical Anglican doctrine of the Lord's Supper:

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death.

This Article rejects transubstantiation and any carnal interpretation of Christ's presence, but it also refuses to reduce the sacrament to a mere badge of profession. The 1928 rite is best read in that same theological register: Christ is truly given and received sacramentally, and the faithful receive him by faith through the appointed signs of bread and wine.

Historical and Anglican Context

The American Communion Office descends from both the English Prayer Book tradition and the Scottish-American eucharistic tradition. Compared with the 1662 English rite, the 1928 American form gives fuller expression to oblation and invocation. This is why it is often discussed alongside Scottish Communion Office and the American Prayer Book, Nonjuror Liturgical Theology, and Eucharistic Sacrifice in Anglican Theology.

Classical Anglican and Reformed Episcopal use of the rite should keep three truths together:

• Christ's sacrifice upon the Cross is full, perfect, sufficient, and never repeated.
• The Church offers praise, thanksgiving, alms, and the memorial Christ commanded.
• The faithful receive the sacrament with repentance, charity, and living faith.

Use in Worship and Teaching

In parish teaching, Holy Communion should be explained from the order of the rite itself. The people hear God's law and Gospel, confess their sins, receive absolution and scriptural comfort, lift up their hearts, remember Christ's saving death, receive the consecrated bread and wine, and give thanks.

This keeps catechesis close to the Prayer Book and helps avoid two distortions: treating the Eucharist as a bare mental memorial, or treating it as a sacrifice detached from Christ's once-for-all oblation. The 1928 BCP teaches eucharistic reverence by making doctrine pray.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Prayer of Humble Access (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Consecration (1928 BCP)
• Sacraments in the 1928 BCP
• Real Presence in Anglican Theology
• Eucharistic Sacrifice in Anglican Theology
• Scottish Communion Office and the American Prayer Book

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer