Burial of the Dead (1928 BCP)

Burial of the Dead (1928 BCP) is the funeral office in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It gives the Church a scriptural and doctrinal form for burying the faithful departed: grief is acknowledged, death is named as an enemy, the body is committed to the earth, and Christian hope is fixed on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the general Resurrection at the last day.

Place in the Prayer Book

The office belongs to the Occasional Offices (1928 BCP), following the ministries of Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Visitation of the Sick, and Communion of the Sick. In that sequence it completes a pastoral arc: the baptized person is received into the covenant, instructed, strengthened, cared for in sickness, fed with the sacrament when possible, and finally buried in the hope confessed by the Church.

The 1928 order includes a procession or meeting of the body, psalmody, one or more lessons, optional prayers before the Blessing, a grave-side office, committal, prayers, and special provision for burial at sea and for the burial of a child. It is neither a bare memorial service nor a canonization of the departed. Its words are directed to God and formed by Scripture.

Opening Sentences

The minister begins with three biblical sentences from John 11, Job 19, and 1 Timothy 6 joined with Job 1. These sentences place the whole office under resurrection faith before any personal remembrance or family consolation.

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.

The next sentence, "I know that my redeemer liveth," gives the office an explicitly bodily horizon: "though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God." The third sentence, "We brought nothing into this world," teaches humility before providence. Together they refuse both unbelieving despair and sentimental avoidance. The minister does not begin by explaining death away; he begins by confessing Christ.

Psalms and Lessons

After the opening sentences, the office appoints selections from the Psalter, including Psalms 39, 90, 27, 46, 121, and 130. The range matters theologically. Psalm 39 and Psalm 90 teach human frailty and penitence; Psalm 27 and Psalm 46 teach confidence in God; Psalm 121 teaches divine keeping; Psalm 130 teaches mercy and redemption.

The principal lesson is from 1 Corinthians 15. The 1928 office prints an extended resurrection passage, beginning with Christ as "the firstfruits of them that slept" and ending with the victory over death through Jesus Christ. Optional lessons from Romans 8 and John 14 add adoption, intercession, inseparable divine love, and Christ's promise of the Father's house.

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

The appointed propers for "At the Burial of the Dead" reinforce the same pattern. The Epistle from 1 Thessalonians 4 teaches that Christians "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope," while the Gospel from John 6 binds consolation to the Son's promise: "I will raise him up at the last day."

Commendation and Committal

At the grave the Burial office turns from churchly proclamation to the concrete act of committing the body. The words are deliberately physical: "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Yet the same sentence is also eschatological, because the body is committed "in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life."

Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our brother departed, and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is classical Anglican pastoral theology in liturgical form. The office distinguishes the soul commended to God from the body committed to the ground, yet it does not treat the body as disposable. The final hope is not merely the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection and transformation of the body "made like unto his own glorious body," echoing Philippians 3:21 and 1 Corinthians 15.

The anthem from Revelation follows the committal: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Its placement is important. The Church speaks blessing after the body has been committed, so that the last word at the grave is not dissolution but rest in Christ.

Prayers for the Departed and the Living

The 1928 office includes prayers that express thanksgiving, supplication, and hope without adopting later medieval doctrines of purgatory as required dogma. One prayer asks God to accept prayers "on behalf of the soul of thy servant departed" and to grant entrance into "the land of light and joy." Another gives thanks for the faithful departed and asks that the Church, with them, may receive perfect consummation and bliss.

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity.

The best Anglican reading of these prayers keeps together what the text itself keeps together: confidence in God's mercy, thanksgiving for holy examples, prayer for final consummation in body and soul, and the Church's continuing pilgrimage. This fits the Articles' concern to reject abuses while allowing the Prayer Book's biblical language of communion, rest, and final resurrection to do its proper work.

Burial of a Child

The office also provides a distinct form for the burial of a child. It retains the opening declaration from John 11, adds Christ's words about little children, appoints Psalm 23 and Psalm 121, and uses Matthew 18 as the lesson. This rite is tender without becoming vague: the comfort is not in innocence abstracted from Christ, but in the Good Shepherd and in the kingdom promise spoken by the Lord.

Anglican Theological Use

The Burial of the Dead is a concise example of how the 1928 BCP teaches doctrine by ordered prayer. It gathers Scripture, creed-like resurrection hope, pastoral realism, and ecclesial intercession into one public act. It is useful for catechesis because it shows several Anglican convictions at once:

• Death is a real judgment and enemy, not merely a natural transition.
• The Christian hope is grounded in Christ's resurrection and promised return.
• The body matters, because redemption includes bodily resurrection.
• Grief is permitted, but it is disciplined by the promises of God.
• The communion of saints is expressed through thanksgiving, prayer, and hope for final consummation.

For Reformed Episcopal and classical Anglican use, the office is especially significant because it holds evangelical clarity and catholic liturgical fullness together. The comfort offered is not speculation about the departed, but the Gospel prayed over the body and confessed before the living.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)

External Links

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