Collect for St. Simon and St. Jude (1928 BCP)
Collect for St. Simon and St. Jude (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles, on October 28 in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It asks God to make the Church one, not by an undefined religious feeling, but by the apostles' and prophets' doctrine, with Jesus Christ himself as its cornerstone.
Text of the Collect
O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The collect moves in three clauses. First, it confesses that God has already built the Church; secondly, it names the apostolic and prophetic foundation while preserving Christ's unique place as “the head corner-stone”; finally, it asks that this received doctrine may make a visible, Spirit-given unity. The petition is therefore neither an appeal to private preference nor a claim that Christians manufacture the Church's unity.
The appointed Epistle
The 1928 Prayer Book appoints Ephesians 2:19–22. Its language supplies the collect's principal images—household, foundation, cornerstone, temple, and the Spirit's habitation—and makes clear that “unity of spirit” is not merely institutional agreement.
NOW therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house-hold of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.
The collect changes “chief corner-stone” to “head corner-stone,” but does not shift the argument: Christ is not a decorative part of the building. He is the one in relation to whom the foundation and the whole joined structure have their coherence. Thus the feast does not honor apostles as alternatives to Christ; it gives thanks for the apostolic witness by which believers are brought into Christ's household.
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
This is the collect's final petition in biblical form. To be “joined together” is to be joined in Christ; to become “an holy temple acceptable” is not self-congratulation but the Spirit's work of making God's people his dwelling. The grammatical movement from “built” to “groweth” also prevents the Church from being treated as a completed human monument.
The appointed Gospel
The Gospel, John 15:17–27, places the unity for which the collect prays within Christ's commandment of love and his warning that apostolic witness will meet the world's opposition.
THESE things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
The collect's “unity of spirit” is therefore not peace at the cost of truth. The doctrine handed on by the apostles belongs with Christ's commandment of love; and the appointed Gospel refuses to describe the Church's unity as a way of escaping the world's hatred.
But 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.
The Gospel supplies the theological force of “unity of spirit.” The Spirit is “the Spirit of truth” who testifies to Christ, while the apostles bear witness to what they have received from him. Accordingly, the collect asks for unity by their doctrine: unity is inseparable from the testimony which the Spirit gives to the Son.
Prayer Book inheritance and 1928 use
The wording is not a novelty of the American revision. The Church of England's authorized presentation of the 1662 Prayer Book prints the same collect for October 28, identifying it as part of the inherited English Prayer Book tradition.
O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The historical source table published by New Every Morning identifies this collect as “1662, from 1549,” which situates the prayer in the Reformation-era English collection rather than among the 1928 revision's newly composed collects.
Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles — 1662, from 1549.
E. Clowes Chorley, historian of the Protestant Episcopal Church, distinguishes the inherited collect from the revision's change of lesson: in his contemporary account of the 1928 revision, Simon and Jude are among the days receiving new Epistles. That is precisely what the local 1928 propers show: the older Epistle from Jude gives way to Ephesians 2, the passage whose architecture governs the collect.
New Epistles for St. Thomas' Day and for S.S. Simon and Jude and a new Collect for St. Luke's Day.
This revision history sharpens the article's liturgical point. The 1928 editors retained a collect whose clauses draw on Ephesians 2 and then appointed that same passage as the Epistle, making the relation between prayer and lesson unusually explicit.
Use in worship
At Holy Communion on October 28, the collect gathers the feast's readings into one petition. In the Daily Office it may also be used as the collect of the day according to the Prayer Book's calendrical order. Its devotional use should preserve its corporate grammar—“thy Church,” “us,” and “we”—because the prayer is for God to build a people as his holy temple, not merely to improve isolated individuals.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
External Links
- 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Standard Book
- Church of England: Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles
- E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter VII
References
- ↑ Collect for St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles; Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,” Saint Simon and Saint Jude [October 28], printed pp. 254–255; 1928 Common Prayer, “The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Standard Book”. Complete collect compared word for word, through “Amen.”, with local source
sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, Saint Simon and Saint Jude section, lines 1328–1337. The local transcription’s display capitalization has been normalized, but its words and punctuation have been retained. - ↑ Epistle for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Ephesians 2:19–20, Authorized Version text as appointed in Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,” Saint Simon and Saint Jude, printed p. 255; 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book. Quotation verified against
sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1371–1379. - ↑ Epistle for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Ephesians 2:21–22, Authorized Version text as appointed in Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,” Saint Simon and Saint Jude, printed p. 255; 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book. Quotation verified against
sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1376–1379. - ↑ Gospel for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, St. John 15:17–18, Authorized Version text as appointed in Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,” Saint Simon and Saint Jude, printed p. 255; 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book. Quotation verified against
sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1389–1410. - ↑ Gospel for Saint Simon and Saint Jude, St. John 15:26–27, Authorized Version text as appointed in Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,” Saint Simon and Saint Jude, printed p. 255; 1928 Common Prayer, Standard Book. Quotation verified against
sources/justuspropers/ReadingsD.htm, lines 1403–1410. - ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662; Cambridge University Press, 2006 edition), “Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles,” October 28, “The Collect”; Church of England, “Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles”. Quotation verified against the official text on 2026-10-15. The 1662 text uses a colon after “corner-stone,” where the 1928 American Standard Book prints a semicolon.
- ↑ New Every Morning Anglican Fellowship, “Sources of the Seasonal Collects,” BCP Reference, section IX, “The Order for Holy Communion,” entry “Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles”; New Every Morning, “Sources of the Seasonal Collects”. Quotation verified against the cited source on 2026-10-15.
- ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, D.D., The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan Company, 1929), chapter VII, “The New Prayer Book: Revision”; Project Canterbury transcription, “The New Prayer Book: Revision”. Quotation verified against the cited transcription and local copy
tmp/revision-research/collect-for-st-simon-and-st-jude/chorley1929-07.html, chapter VII, paragraph beginning “There are many important changes,” on 2026-10-15.