Ascensiontide in the 1928 BCP

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Ascensiontide in the 1928 BCP is the Prayer Book keeping of Ascension Day and the days that lead from the risen Christ's forty-day appearing to the promise of the Holy Ghost at Whitsunday. In the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer, the comparative propers source marks this part of the Christian year with the added heading "ASCENSIONTIDE," gives Ascension Day its own collect, Epistle, and Gospel, orders the collect to be said daily through the octave, and appoints the same Ascension Day propers through the weekdays until the Sunday after Ascension. The season therefore prays both Christ's exaltation and the Church's waiting for power from on high.

Ascension Day

The Ascension Day collect is the governing prayer of the season. Its clauses move from confession to participation: the Church believes that the only-begotten Son has ascended into the heavens; therefore it asks that the faithful may ascend "in heart and mind" and dwell continually with him. This is not escape from creation, but the lifting of desire, worship, and hope to the enthroned Christ.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

This Collect is to be said daily throughout the Octave.

[1]

The appointed Epistle, Acts 1, supplies the Prayer Book's chronology and its missional direction. The Ascension follows forty days of resurrection witness; it does not cancel the coming earthly mission, because the same passage commands the apostles to wait for the Father's promise and then bear witness to the ends of the earth.

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

[2]

The 1928 Gospel is Luke 24 rather than the older American Mark 16 Gospel printed in the comparative source for 1786, 1789, and 1892. Luke's account emphasizes blessing, worship, joy, and continued praise in the temple, so Ascensiontide is not framed as absence alone.

Jesus said, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

[3]

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere connect the Ascension propers with the older Western offices and with the Psalms traditionally appointed for the day. Their interpretation is especially useful because it shows why the Prayer Book prays Christ's ascended humanity, not merely a change of location.

Of the Proper Psalms and Lessons appointed for the day of the Ascension, Ps. viii. is a song of praise for creation, and the appointment of man to be lord of this world; but in a prophetical sense it sets forth the mercy of God in exalting our human nature above all creatures, which was fulfilled when the Son of God took our nature and ascended with it to heaven.

[4]

Daily Office and Holy Communion

The 1928 Daily Office marks Ascensiontide at the opening of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. Morning Prayer gives Hebrews 4 as a seasonal sentence and an Ascension invitatory antiphon after the Venite rubric; Evening Prayer gives Hebrews 9, identifying Christ's heavenly intercession as the ground of worship.

Seeing that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

On Ascension Day and until Whitsunday. - Alleluia. Christ the Lord ascended into heaven : O come, let us adore him. Alleluia.

[5]

Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

[6]

At Holy Communion, Ascension Day is one of the feasts on which the Nicene Creed must be said. Its Proper Preface states the doctrine in eucharistic praise: the risen Lord appeared to his apostles, ascended in their sight, and prepared a place for his people so that they may ascend and reign with him in glory.

Then shall be said the Creed commonly called the Nicene, or else the Apostles' Creed; but the Creed may be omitted, if it hath been said immediately before in Morning Prayer; Provided, That the Nicene creed shall be said on Christmas-day, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, and Trinity-Sunday.

[7]

THROUGH thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who, after his most glorious Resurrection, manifestly appeared to all his Apostles, and in their sight ascended up into heaven, to prepare a place for us; that where he is, thither we might also ascend, and reign with him in glory.

[8]

Percy Dearmer's brief survey of the Prayer Book identifies Ascension among the great festivals marked at Holy Communion by a proper preface. This supports the 1928 pattern in which Ascensiontide is not only a calendar heading but a eucharistic confession.

Some special days are further marked out. The Great Festivals (Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday) have Proper Prefaces at Holy Communion.

[9]

Sunday After Ascension

The Sunday after Ascension changes the accent from Christ's exaltation to the Church's waiting. The collect calls God "the King of glory," confesses that the Son has been exalted with triumph, and asks that the Church not be left comfortless. Its final petition connects the gift of the Holy Ghost with the same heavenly destiny named in the Ascension Day collect.

O GOD, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

[10]

The Epistle, 1 Peter 4, makes the waiting practical. The nearness of the end is answered by sober prayer, charity, hospitality, and faithful stewardship of gifts.

The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

[11]

The Gospel, John 15-16, explains why the collect asks for comfort. The Church bears witness under pressure, but the Comforter testifies of Christ and enables the apostles' witness.

When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

[12]

Procter and Frere call the interval between Ascension and Whitsunday "Expectation Tide" and identify the Sunday collect as a 1549 composition taken from an older Ascension Evensong anthem. That history explains the 1928 Sunday after Ascension: it is not a separate theme tacked onto the calendar, but the Church's continued prayer inside the Ascension octave.

The ten days after the Ascension are sometimes called Expectation Tide: they commemorate that anxious period during which the Apostles tarried at Jerusalem, in earnest expectation of the promised gift of the Comforter.

[13]

A new Collect was composed in 1549 for the Sunday after Ascension Day, taken from an Anthem which had been sung at Evensong on Ascension Day; but the old Epistle and Gospel were kept.

[14]

Percy Dearmer's ceremonial and pastoral handbook presses the parish implication of the feast: Ascension Day should be observed as a real holy day, not left as a barely noticed weekday.

Ascension Day. Everything should be done to make Holy Thursday as much a holiday as Christmas, and the people strongly urged to observe it according to the custom of Holy Church.

[15]

Prayer Book Use

Ascensiontide should therefore be taught as the hinge between Easter and Whitsunday. Easter proclaims the risen Lord; Ascensiontide confesses that the risen Lord reigns in heaven with our humanity; the Sunday after Ascension teaches the Church to wait, pray, love, and witness; and Whitsunday answers the waiting with the gift of the Holy Ghost. In parish worship, the 1928 BCP gives this doctrine through repeated collect, appointed Scripture, Daily Office sentences, required Creed, and Proper Preface rather than through a single explanatory rubric.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Ascension Day," collect and octave rubric; wording checked against local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 52-76, and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text in tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/Propers.pdf, PDF pages 45-46. Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  2. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Ascension Day," Epistle, Acts i. 1; wording checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 75-101, and corrected against extracted 1928 Standard PDF text, PDF pages 45-46, where the local HTML artifact "whom be had chosen" is corrected to "whom he had chosen." Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  3. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Ascension Day," Gospel, St. Luke xxiv. 49; wording checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 128-145, and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text, PDF page 46. Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  4. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 546, chapter XIII, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels"; wording checked against tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 760-785; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII.
  5. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Morning Prayer, Ascension sentence from Hebrews iv. 14, 16 and seasonal Venite antiphon; wording checked against local source sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 138-142 and 315-328. Morning Prayer - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  6. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Evening Prayer, Ascension sentence from Hebrews ix. 24; wording checked against local source sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 118-121. Evening Prayer - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  7. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, rubric before the Creed; wording checked against local source sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 226-231. Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  8. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, Proper Preface for Ascension, "Upon Ascension-day, and seven days after"; wording checked against local source sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 505-513. Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  9. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Prayer Book: What It Is and How We Should Use It, Churchman's Penny Library No. 4 (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd., 1907), p. 31, "The Ideal Before Us"; wording checked against tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/dearmer-1907.html, lines 238-253; Project Canterbury transcription, The Prayer Book, by Percy Dearmer.
  10. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Sunday after Ascension Day," collect; wording checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 156-166, and corrected against extracted 1928 Standard PDF text, PDF page 46, which reads "the same Holy Ghost." Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  11. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Sunday after Ascension Day," Epistle, 1 St. Peter iv. 7; wording checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 167-178, and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text, PDF page 46. Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  12. ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," "The Sunday after Ascension Day," Gospel, St. John xv. 26 and part of chapter xvi; wording checked against sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 179-190, and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text, PDF page 46. Society of Archbishop Justus, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels".
  13. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 546, chapter XIII; wording checked against tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 798-801; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII.
  14. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 546, chapter XIII; wording checked against tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/procter-frere-ch13.html, lines 806-812; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII.
  15. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook, chapter VIII, "Notes on the Seasons" (London: Grant Richards, 1899), p. 219; wording checked against tmp/revision-research/ascensiontide-in-the-1928-bcp/dearmer-handbook-ch8.html, lines 273-275; Project Canterbury transcription, The Parson's Handbook: Notes on the Seasons.

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