Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)

Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP) is the Declaration of Absolution, or Remission of Sins, pronounced after the General Confession in Morning Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It stands between confession and the Lord's Prayer, so that the congregation does not move from penitence into praise by its own confidence, but by receiving the Gospel promise of pardon declared in the Church's public worship.

In the 1928 BCP the absolution is not a private devotional reassurance and not a second confession. It is a ministerial declaration addressed to penitent believers. The priest or bishop stands, the people remain kneeling, and the text joins divine mercy, Christ's Gospel, ministerial office, repentance, the Holy Spirit, amendment of life, and eternal joy.

Place in Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer begins with Scripture, moves through an exhortation and corporate confession, and then appoints the absolution before the Lord's Prayer. The rubric gives the action a distinct liturgical shape:

To be made by the Priest alone, standing; the People still kneeling.

This posture matters. The congregation has just confessed sin while kneeling. The priest now stands to declare what God promises to penitent believers. The absolution is therefore neither a congregational wish nor the minister's private opinion. It is an ecclesial act within the ordered office of common prayer.

The 1928 book also gives the priest a pastoral option:

the Priest, at his discretion, may use, instead of what follows, the Absolution from the Order for the Holy Communion.

That rubric links the Daily Office to the eucharistic rite without confusing the offices. Morning Prayer normally uses the declaratory form appointed for the office, but it recognizes that the Communion absolution may also serve the same penitential movement from confession to pardon.

Text of the Absolution

The title of the form states its purpose:

The Declaration of Absolution, or Remission of Sins.

"Declaration" is important Anglican language. The priest declares God's pardon; he does not invent it. "Remission of sins" places the office within the biblical language of forgiveness, release, and restoration.

The absolution begins by naming God through Christ:

ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live,

This opening guards the whole rite from severity without mercy. The God who is addressed as Almighty is also the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his declared will is the sinner's conversion and life.

The next clause gives the declaration its ministerial form:

hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins.

The absolution is conditional in the Prayer Book's own words: it is declared "to his people, being penitent." Morning Prayer does not teach that words spoken by a minister pardon the impenitent apart from faith and repentance. It teaches that God uses the ministry of the Church to declare his promised forgiveness to those who turn to him.

The central sentence is direct:

He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.

The subject of the sentence is God. The priest declares; God pardons and absolves. Repentance and faith are not meritorious works that purchase forgiveness. They are the fitting reception of the Gospel promise already grounded in Christ.

Scriptural Foundations

The opening of the absolution draws on the prophetic witness to God's mercy:

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

By echoing Ezekiel, Morning Prayer frames absolution as God's own will to restore sinners. Confession is serious because sin is deadly; absolution is hopeful because God calls the wicked to turn and live.

The Prayer Book's language of ministerial declaration also belongs to the risen Christ's commission:

Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.

Anglican use of absolution rests on this evangelical commission. The minister's authority is not independent power over God, but service under Christ's word and promise.

St. Luke gives the same ministry its missionary content:

repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Morning Prayer makes that preaching liturgical. The congregation confesses, the priest declares remission to those who repent and believe, and the people then pray as pardoned worshippers.

The office also reflects the apostolic promise attached to confession:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The absolution therefore answers the General Confession without making forgiveness depend on emotional intensity. The confidence of the penitent rests on God's faithfulness, justice, and mercy in Christ.

Repentance, Faith, and the Holy Spirit

After declaring pardon, the absolution turns immediately to prayer:

Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit,

This sentence prevents a shallow reading of absolution. The Church asks God for the very repentance that receives the declaration and for the Holy Spirit who renews the life of the faithful. Forgiveness and sanctification are held together.

The petition continues:

that those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy;

The "present" action is the office itself: prayer, praise, Scripture, Creed, and intercession. Absolution prepares the congregation to continue Morning Prayer acceptably before God. The "rest of our life hereafter" extends the office beyond the church building or household prayer desk into the whole moral life of the Christian.

The final hope is eschatological:

so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Morning Prayer thus moves from daily confession to final joy. Absolution is not merely relief from guilt in the moment. It places the penitent life under the promise of eternal communion with God through Jesus Christ.

Anglican Doctrine of Ministerial Absolution

The Morning Prayer absolution expresses a characteristically Anglican balance. It is more than a bare reminder that God can forgive; it is an authorized declaration in the Church's public office. Yet it is not a claim that ministers forgive apart from God or apart from the Gospel. The text itself says that God "pardoneth and absolveth," while ministers "declare and pronounce."

This fits the Prayer Book's broader doctrine. The Articles of Religion distinguish the two Gospel sacraments from the five rites "commonly called Sacraments," including Penance. Morning Prayer therefore does not make absolution a separate sacrament in the same sense as Baptism and the Lord's Supper. It does, however, preserve the pastoral ministry of declaring forgiveness to the penitent.

For Reformed Episcopal and classical Anglican readers, the office safeguards justification by faith: the penitent believe the holy Gospel, and God pardons for Christ's sake. For High Church and Tractarian readers, the same text safeguards the Church's visible ministry: the declaration is not left to private inference, but is pronounced in the ordered worship of the Church by the priest.

Relation to Confession and the Lord's Prayer

The absolution cannot be understood apart from what precedes and follows it. It answers the General Confession's plea for mercy:

Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The absolution then declares the very promise for which the confession has asked. The office is not a sequence of unrelated devotional pieces; it is a coherent penitential and evangelical order.

Immediately after the absolution the minister kneels and begins the Lord's Prayer:

Then the Minister shall kneel, and say the Lord's Prayer; the People still kneeling, and repeating it with him.

This sequence is theologically rich. The people who have confessed sin and heard pardon now pray "Our Father" as forgiven children. The absolution therefore opens the way for filial prayer, not by removing the need for repentance, but by declaring God's mercy to those who repent and believe the Gospel.

Use in Worship and Teaching

In public Morning Prayer, the absolution should be pronounced audibly and distinctly. It is not a transition to hurry past. The congregation has confessed real sin, and the office now gives real Gospel comfort. The posture of priest standing and people kneeling helps the rite teach without explanation: mercy is declared to those who have humbled themselves before God.

In catechesis, the absolution can be taught through four phrases: God desires the sinner's life; ministers declare what God has promised; God pardons those who truly repent and believe; and the forgiven ask for true repentance, the Holy Spirit, holiness of life, and eternal joy. This makes the article a natural companion to Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), General Confession in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Lord's Prayer in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP), and Absolution in Holy Communion (1928 BCP).

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• General Confession in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Lord's Prayer in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Absolution in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Articles of Religion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer