Collect for St. Andrew's Day (1928 BCP)

Collect for St. Andrew's Day (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for Saint Andrew the Apostle on November 30 in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It asks that the Church, called by God's holy Word, may answer Christ with the same prompt obedience shown in the Gospel call of Andrew.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay; Grant unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy Word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer Book Setting

St. Andrew's Day opens the Holy Days section of the 1928 propers. The collect is followed by Romans x.9 and St. Matthew iv.18, so the day is not treated mainly as legendary commemoration but as a biblical feast of apostolic calling, preaching, and immediate discipleship.

The Church of England's 1662 text preserves the same collect substantially, showing the older Anglican form behind the American 1928 appointment:

Almighty God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay: Grant unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere explain the Prayer Book order for Holy Days: the saint's day propers follow the Sundays and fixed festivals, and many Reformation collects were newly written because the older prayers often asked for the saints' intercession. That observation matters for St. Andrew's Day, where the prayer asks God to make the congregation imitators of apostolic obedience:

In the services of the Holy Days the arrangement follows the order of the later Latin Service-books; when the course for the Sundays and fixed festivals of the ecclesiastical year beginning with Advent, has been completed, the Collects are given for those Saints' days, the position of which will continually vary with respect to the Sundays. When the Kalendar was reformed it was necessary to compose a considerable number of new Collects, since many of the old Collects were mainly prayers for the saints' intercession.

Clause by Clause

The address, "Almighty God," sets Andrew's obedience inside grace rather than natural temperament. The collect first remembers what God gave: "such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew." Andrew's response is therefore exemplary, but not autonomous. The congregation asks for the same divine initiative by which the apostle heard and followed Christ.

The phrase "readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ" is drawn from the appointed Gospel. The prayer does not merely honor Andrew's office as apostle; it fixes attention on the moment when Christ's call created obedient disciples.

JESUS, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

"Being called by thy holy Word" turns the Gospel scene into the Church's present prayer. Christ calls Andrew directly by the sea; the Church is called by the preached and written Word. The appointed Epistle makes that connection explicit by joining salvation, confession, preaching, hearing, and the sent messenger:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

The petition "may forthwith give up ourselves obediently" is deliberately whole-person language. The collect does not ask merely for admiration of Andrew, nor for bare outward conformity. It asks that the Church surrender itself to God's command with promptness. The last phrase, "to fulfil thy holy commandments," keeps apostolic devotion morally concrete: grace produces obedience, and obedience is directed to God's commandments through Jesus Christ.

Historical Development

Procter and Frere identify the St. Andrew collect as a direct Reformation revision. The first English Prayer Book had a collect focused on Andrew's traditional martyrdom; the 1552 book substituted the present collect, centered on the scriptural call of Andrew:

The Collect for S. Andrew's Day, composed in 1549, referred to the sufferings of his death: this was changed in 1552 for an entirely new Collect, making mention of his ready obedience to the calling of Christ.

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book prints the older collect in the margin beside the later form. The comparison shows how the earlier prayer treated suffering and adversity, while the later Anglican collect makes the biblical call itself the controlling theme:

ALMIGHTY God, Which hast given such grace to Thy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he counted the sharp and painful death of the cross to be an high honour and a great glory: Grant us to take and esteem all troubles and adversities which shall come unto us for Thy sake as things profitable for us toward the obtaining of everlasting life: through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Evan Daniel gives the same history but adds an interpretive summary of the present collect. He reads it as both commemoration and petition:

The present collect consists of--1. A commemoration of the readiness of St. Andrew to obey the call of Christ; 2. A prayer that we may show a like ready obedience to the call of God's Holy Word.

Daniel also explains why the 1552 revision fits the appointed Gospel and the beginning of Advent. The collect is not an antiquarian note about Andrew but a prayer for the Church's present response when Christ calls:

The reason for setting aside the old collect would appear to be that the account of the Apostle's martyrdom was only traditional, whereas the story of his call is recorded in Scripture. A further reason may be found in the fact that we can all imitate him in obedience to the call of God, but few of us are called upon to suffer persecution for the kingdom of God's sake. St. Andrew's Day heads the list of the Saints' Days, because he was the first of the Apostles called by our Lord. There is moreover a special fitness in observing his festival at the opening of Advent. St. Andrew is an example of the way in which we should act when Christ comes to us individually. Our first duty, when we have ourselves found Him, is to bring others to Him.

Theological Use

The collect teaches the communion of saints by imitation rather than invocation. Andrew is remembered because grace made him obedient to Christ's call; the Church prays that the same grace will make present hearers obedient to the Word. This is why the collect belongs naturally in the collect, epistle, and gospel pattern of the 1928 Prayer Book. The Gospel gives the narrative of call; the Epistle gives the missionary logic of preaching and hearing; the collect gathers both into a concise petition for obedience.

In parish use, the collect is especially fitting at the threshold of Advent. It places the Church before Christ's coming not first as spectators of sacred history, but as hearers summoned by the Word. Its key verbs--called, followed, give up, fulfil--make St. Andrew's Day a feast of prompt discipleship.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Saint Andrew's Day in Anglican Worship

External Links

• St. Andrew Propers (1928 BCP)
• Church of England, Saint Andrew's Day (1662 BCP)
• Procter and Frere, A History of the Book of Common Prayer
• Evan Daniel, The Prayer-Book: Its History, Language, and Contents