Collect for Good Friday (1928 BCP)

Collect for Good Friday (1928 BCP) is the first of the three collects appointed for Good Friday in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The prayer asks God to behold "this thy family" in the light of Christ's betrayal, surrender to wicked men, and death upon the cross. In the 1928 Good Friday office it stands with two further collects of solemn intercession, Hebrews 10:1-25, and St. John 19:1-37.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

The collect is addressed simply to "Almighty God." Its petition is not first for an explanation of the cross, but for God's gracious regard upon the people gathered under it. "This thy family" names the Church by relation and mercy: the congregation belongs to God because Christ has given himself for it. The relative clause then gives the ground of the petition. Christ is "contented" to be betrayed, handed over, and crucified; the word does not make the violence innocent, but confesses his voluntary obedience in the Passion.

The final clause keeps Good Friday within the whole paschal faith. The crucified Lord "now liveth and reigneth"; the prayer therefore does not stop at death, but prays to the Father through the living Son with the Holy Ghost, "one God, world without end."

The Three Good Friday Collects

The 1928 BCP prints this prayer under the heading "The Collects," followed by two additional Good Friday collects. The second widens the prayer from "this thy family" to "all estates of men in thy holy Church"; the third intercedes for those who do not know God as revealed in the Gospel of his Son.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

O MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold, that they may be made one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The three collects move in widening circles. First the Church is named as God's family purchased by the cross. Then the Church's vocations and ministries are placed under the government and sanctifying work of the Spirit. Finally the intercession turns outward, asking mercy for those who do not know God as he is revealed in Christ. Good Friday is therefore not a private meditation only; it is also the Church's public intercession through the crucified and living Lord.

The 1928 wording of the third collect revises the older American form printed in comparative Prayer Book sources. The older text prayed for "all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics"; the 1928 form prays instead for "all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son."

1928: O MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son.

Appointed Epistle and Gospel

The appointed Epistle, Hebrews 10:1-25, explains the Passion as Christ's once-for-all offering. The collect's "betrayed and given up" is therefore not a bare tragic memory; it is tied to the priestly and sacrificial argument of Hebrews.

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The same Epistle also connects Christ's sacrifice to the Church's approach to God. That connection helps explain why the first collect asks God to "behold this thy family": the people approach because Christ has opened the way.

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

The Gospel, St. John 19:1-37, supplies the narrative frame for the collect's language. Jesus is scourged, mocked, rejected, delivered to crucifixion, and finally gives up the ghost. The collect's phrase "given up into the hands of wicked men" is not abstract; it is prayed in the presence of this appointed Passion reading.

Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

John's Gospel also gives the climactic words by which the Passion is read as completed obedience rather than defeat.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Historical and Liturgical Context

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the Good Friday and Easter Even pattern as exceptional in the older Western liturgical tradition. Their account explains why the 1928 Good Friday office is dominated by Scripture, collects, and intercession rather than by an ordinary festal Communion.

Good Friday and Easter Even have always been distinguished from the rest of the days of the year by the fact that no celebration of the Eucharist took place on them: the church fasted because the Bridegroom was taken away.

Procter and Frere also interpret the Good Friday propers themselves. Their summary is useful because it links the appointed Epistle, the Johannine Passion, and the three collects into one theological movement.

The Epistle shows the insufficiency of Jewish sacrifices, and urges that they typified the one oblation of the Saviour, who made full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world: the Collects contain expressions of boundless charity, praying that the effects of His death may be as universal as the design of it.

Percy Dearmer, writing on Anglican ceremonial and seasonal observance, similarly identifies the Good Friday collects as preserved traces of older solemn intercession.

The great feature of the old service was intercession, and some of the solemn collects then used have been preserved in our service.

Dearmer's description of the older intercessions helps explain why the 1928 Good Friday collect set moves from Christ's family, to the Church, to those outside explicit knowledge of the Gospel.

The intercessions were for the King, bishops and clergy, confessors and all "the holy people of God," those in heresy or schism, the Jews and the heathen, the troubles and sickness in the world, and the catechumens.

E. J. Rowland gives a later Anglican explanation of Good Friday and Easter as one paschal mystery. His interpretation is not required to read the 1928 collect, but it clarifies why the collect ends with the living and reigning Christ.

Easter is the Christian Passover (or more exactly, Good Friday and Easter together are), for the Passover is a passing over from death to life.

Rowland also stresses the public and ecclesial character of Good Friday prayer. This supports a Prayer Book reading of the collect as the Church's common supplication, not merely an individual devotional text.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than on Good Friday when man, left to himself, falters before the enormity of the Cross; but, uniting himself to the Church's Liturgy, is able to give expression to his innermost sentiments and aspirations.

Theological Meaning

The first collect teaches Good Friday by concentrating doctrine into prayer. The Church is God's family because Christ has offered himself for it. The cross is both human wickedness and divine obedience: men betray, condemn, and crucify, but Christ is "contented" to suffer for the salvation of his people. The conclusion guards the prayer from isolating the cross from resurrection and lordship, since the one who suffered now lives and reigns.

The two companion collects keep the first collect from becoming inward or sentimental. Good Friday intercession is ecclesial and missionary: the Spirit governs and sanctifies the whole Church, each member must serve in vocation and ministry, and the saving mercy revealed in the Gospel is sought for those who do not yet know God in Christ.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

In parish teaching the collect can be read clause by clause with Hebrews 10 and John 19. "This thy family" leads naturally to Hebrews' language of entering the holiest by the blood of Jesus. "Betrayed and given up" is read beside John's Passion narrative. "Death upon the cross" is interpreted by Hebrews as Christ's once-for-all offering. "Now liveth and reigneth" points forward to Easter without softening the gravity of Good Friday.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Holy Week in the 1928 BCP
• Collect for Maundy Thursday (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Easter Even (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• The Collects for Good Friday

External Links

• Society of Archbishop Justus, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels from the 1928 BCP
• Society of Archbishop Justus, 1789 and 1892 propers with 1928 notes
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
• Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook, chapter VIII
• E. J. Rowland, Holy Week and Easter: The Services Explained