Absolution of the Sick (1928 BCP)

Absolution of the Sick (1928 BCP) refers to the ministry of pardon and reconciliation provided within the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer offices for the Visitation of the Sick, the Litany for the Dying, and Communion of the Sick. The 1928 book does not simply repeat the older English direct formula, "I absolve thee." It places absolution in a pastoral sequence of faith, repentance, charity, special confession when conscience is troubled, assurance of God's mercy, prayer for pardon, and priestly declaration of remission in God's Name.

Place in the Visitation Office

The 1928 Visitation office moves from Christ's Cross to conscience. Immediately before the minister addresses the sick person, the office prays, "O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and precious Blood hast redeemed us; Save us, and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord." The absolution material that follows is therefore not a detached juridical act. It is set under Christ's redeeming death and directed toward the sick person's reconciliation with God and neighbor.

The key rubric is conditional and pastoral. Confession is not required as a routine discipline for every illness, but the sick person is to be moved to special confession when conscience is troubled; the minister then assures the penitent of divine mercy on evidence of repentance:

Then shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any matter; after which confession, on evidence of his repentance, the Minister shall assure him of God's mercy and forgiveness.

This wording matters. The minister is not told to pry into every conscience, nor to give blanket reassurance without repentance. The rubric names a troubled conscience, repentance, and assurance. In Anglican terms, absolution here is pastoral medicine: it addresses sin directly, but in order to comfort and restore a penitent member of Christ's Church.

Prayer After Confession

The prayer following the rubric explains what the assurance means. It asks God to put away sins, renew what has decayed, preserve the sick member in the unity of the Church, accept contrition, strengthen by the Holy Spirit, and receive the person into God's favour if death comes.

O MOST merciful God, who, according to the multitude of thy mercies, dost so put away the sins of those who truly repent, that thou rememberest them no more; Open thine eye of mercy upon this thy servant, who most earnestly desireth pardon and forgiveness. Renew in him, most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by his own carnal will and frailness; preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church; consider his contrition, accept his tears, assuage his pain, as shall seem to thee most expedient for him. And forasmuch as he putteth his full trust only in thy mercy, impute not unto him his former sins, but strengthen him with thy blessed Spirit; and, when thou art pleased to take him hence, take him unto thy favour; through the merits of thy most dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The prayer is clause-by-clause theology. "According to the multitude of thy mercies" grounds pardon in God's mercy, not in the minister's personality. "Those who truly repent" echoes the condition named in the Daily Office absolution. "This sick member" keeps the penitent inside the visible fellowship of the Church. "Full trust only in thy mercy" guards the assurance from presumption. "Through the merits" of Christ names the sole ground of forgiveness.

Absolution for the Dying

The Litany for the Dying contains the most explicit absolution printed in the 1928 Visitation office. It follows petitions for deliverance from evil, pardon of sins, refreshment, and peace. The form is a prayerful grant of pardon and remission, said by the priest:

The Almighty and merciful Lord grant thee pardon and remission of all thy sins, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This absolution is intentionally brief. It joins "pardon and remission" to "the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit." The sick or dying Christian is not left with an abstract idea of forgiveness; the rite asks for the Spirit's comfort at the point where body, conscience, and mortality meet.

Communion of the Sick

The shortened Communion of the Sick gives a related confession and absolution. Its confession is simple enough for a sickroom and comprehensive enough for sacramental preparation: sin is confessed "in thought, word, and deed," and cleansing is asked "for Jesus Christ's sake."

O ALMIGHTY Father, Lord of heaven and earth, we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought, word, and deed. Have mercy upon us, O God, after thy great goodness; according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away our offences and cleanse us from our sins; for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

The corresponding absolution is close to the shorter form also permitted in Morning and Evening Prayer, but here it is embedded in Communion for a sick person:

The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you Absolution and Remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. Amen.

The sickroom absolution therefore holds together pardon, repentance, amendment, and consolation. It is not merely a legal declaration before Communion; it is part of preparing a communicant to receive Christ with a quiet conscience.

Priesthood and Absolution

The 1928 book's own catechetical material identifies absolution as part of priestly ministry. In the offices of instruction printed near Confirmation, the office of a priest is described in terms of pastoral care, preaching, baptism, Communion, absolution, and blessing:

The office of a Priest is, to minister to the people committed to his care; to preach the Word of God; to baptize; to celebrate the Holy Communion; and to pronounce Absolution and Blessing in God's Name.

That answer prevents a merely psychological reading of absolution. The minister comforts the sick person by counsel and prayer, but also by exercising an office the Prayer Book says belongs to priestly ministry. At the same time, the 1928 Visitation rubric keeps the exercise tied to repentance, faith, and God's mercy.

Scriptural Foundations

The Prayer Book's pattern rests especially on John 20, James 5, Mark 2, Psalm 103, and 1 John 1. John 20 is the classic text behind the Church's ministry of remission and retention; James 5 joins sickness, prayer, forgiveness, and confession; Mark 2 shows Christ forgiving the paralytic and then healing him; Psalm 103 praises the Lord who forgives sin and heals infirmities.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him ... And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thy sin, and healeth all thine infirmities.

These texts do not make bodily sickness and personal sin identical. They do show why the Prayer Book treats sickness as a time when forgiveness, faith, prayer, and bodily need must be held together. The minister may pray for healing, but must also address conscience when conscience is burdened.

Earlier Anglican Form

The 1662 English Prayer Book printed a direct absolution after special confession. Its rubric required the priest to absolve the sick person after confession if the sick person humbly and heartily desired it:

Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter. After which confession, the Priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort.

The form itself was explicit:

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 offences: 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.

The 1928 American office is therefore continuous with the Anglican tradition of special confession and priestly absolution, but it expresses the Visitation sequence differently. It emphasizes assurance of God's mercy after repentance, then uses prayers and shorter absolution forms rather than the older first-person formula.

Historical Interpretation

E. Clowes Chorley, historiographer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, described the 1928 revision of the Visitation office as one of the book's major pastoral changes. He argued that the older office had fallen into disuse partly because of its tone, and he explicitly noted the new confession and absolution:

The Office for the Visitation of the Sick has been so changed as to be hardly recognizable in its new form. As it appeared in the old Prayer Book it was so gloomy, so medieval in its theology and so utterly lacking in any understanding of the psychological approach to sick persons, that it had almost ceased to be used in the church.

The old Collect in the Communion of the Sick with the note: "who dost correct those whom thou dost love, and chastise every one whom thou dost receive," gives place to one with the note of "loving-kindness," and the Epistle speaking of "the chastening of the Lord" is displaced by one more hopeful in tone. There is also a new and shorter Confession and Absolution.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere help explain the earlier debate behind the older English form. In their account of the Savoy Conference, Puritan objections sought a declarative and conditional formula; Procter and Frere answer that the giving of absolution is governed by penitence, not ministerial whim:

In the "Order for the Visitation of the Sick" they desire a greater liberty in the prayer as well as in the exhortation; and that the form of the Absolution be declarative and conditional, as "I pronounce thee absolved," instead of "I absolve thee," and "If thou dost truly repent and believe"; and that it may only be recommended to the minister to be used or omitted as he shall see occasion. The giving of absolution must not depend upon the minister's pleasure, but on the sick man's penitence. The form is closer to S. John xx. than the amendment.

M. F. Sadler's catechetical manual gives a nineteenth-century Anglican theological reading of the same ministry. Sadler treats confession to a minister as occasional rather than systematic, and grounds absolution in Christ's commission and the pastoral care of souls:

On principles of common sense: for, first of all, a minister of Christ being one whose business is the saving and oversight of souls, is most likely to guide us aright; and, secondly, the ministers of Christ are the commissioned ministers of reconciliation, who have the power of absolution committed to them.

There are two: Absolution and Holy Communion.

Theological Reading

The 1928 absolution material should be read with four distinctions. First, God forgives sins; priestly absolution ministers God's promise and comfort in God's Name. Second, the sick person's body and conscience are both addressed, but sickness is not simplistically identified with a particular sin. Third, special confession is provided for troubled conscience, not made a universal schedule. Fourth, pardon is joined to repentance, amendment, and the Holy Spirit's consolation.

This makes the 1928 form both catholic and restrained. It keeps the Anglican ministry of absolution, cites the priestly office as one that pronounces absolution and blessing, and retains special confession for the sick. Yet it avoids coercion and directs the penitent back to God's mercy, Christ's merits, and the Church's prayer.

Use in Pastoral Ministry

In parish use, this rite belongs wherever illness has raised questions of conscience, fear, estrangement, or preparation for death. The minister should attend carefully to the Prayer Book sequence: speak peace to the house, pray through Christ's Cross, address the meaning and use of sickness, inquire about faith and charity where appropriate, move the troubled conscience to confession, assure the penitent of God's mercy, and use the appointed prayers or absolution.

The article should not be confused with a general article on healing prayer or unction. Anointing of the Sick and Anglican Tradition concerns the separate 1928 provision for anointing or laying on of hands. Absolution of the Sick concerns the remission of sins, reconciliation of conscience, and priestly comfort of the sick or dying within the Prayer Book office.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)
• Visitation of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Visitation of the Sick Exhortation (1928 BCP)
• Anointing of the Sick and Anglican Tradition
• Communion of the Sick (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation and Communion of the Sick
• The Church of England: The Visitation of the Sick
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter VII
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer
• M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction