Collect for Trinity Sunday (1928 BCP)
Collect for Trinity Sunday (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for Trinity Sunday in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It stands at the beginning of Trinity Season and gathers the first half of the Christian year into worship of the one God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Text of the Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; We beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.
The collect begins with God as "Almighty and everlasting," the one who gives grace before the Church confesses. Its first petition is not for speculation but for faithful worship: to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and, in that same act, to worship the Unity. The second petition asks that the same God would keep the Church "stedfast in this faith" and defend it from adversities. Trinity Sunday is therefore doctrinal and pastoral at once: the confession of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost becomes a prayer for perseverance.
The collect's clauses also answer the day's appointed readings. The Epistle shows heavenly worship before the throne; the Gospel speaks of new birth by water and the Spirit, and of the Son who came down from heaven. The prayer asks that these scriptural witnesses may be received as "a true faith" and held in worship.
Appointed Epistle and Gospel
The 1928 proper appoints Revelation 4 "For the Epistle." In the Standard Book text, the older word "beasts" is replaced by "living creatures," and the passage culminates in the Sanctus-like praise that also appears as a Morning Prayer sentence for Trinity Sunday:
And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The Epistle keeps the collect from treating the Trinity as an abstract topic. The Church confesses the Trinity in adoration: glory, honour, thanksgiving, and created being are directed to the Lord God Almighty. The collect's phrase "to acknowledge the glory" is therefore enacted in the appointed reading itself.
The Gospel is John 3:1-16. Its selected portion includes Christ's words on birth "of water and of the Spirit" and the Son of man who came down from heaven:
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
This Gospel gives the collect a baptismal and evangelical shape. The faith confessed is not merely a formula to recite; it is the faith into which Christians are born by water and the Spirit and by which they look to the lifted-up Son for eternal life.
Trinity Sunday in the Offices
The 1928 book marks Trinity Sunday not only in the Communion propers but also in the Daily Office. Morning Prayer may open with Revelation 4:8:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The same office gives Trinity Sunday its own invitatory antiphon before the Venite:
On Trinity Sunday. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God; O come, let us adore him.
Evening Prayer appoints Isaiah 6:3 as the seasonal sentence:
Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
These Office texts show how the collect belongs to a whole day of worship. Morning Prayer begins with Revelation's thrice-holy praise; the Venite summons worship of "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God"; Evening Prayer answers with Isaiah's seraphic hymn. The day teaches doctrine by repeated doxology.
Holy Communion and Proper Preface
The Communion office also marks Trinity Sunday as a major feast. The Nicene Creed is required on the day, even when the Apostles' Creed might otherwise be used:
Provided, That the Nicene Creed shall be said on Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.
The Proper Preface for Trinity Sunday states the doctrine in Eucharistic praise:
Who, with thine only-begotten Son, and the Holy Ghost, art one God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Substance. For that which we believe of thy glory, O Father, the same we believe of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, without any difference of inequality.
This preface is the eucharistic counterpart of the collect. The collect prays to be kept in "this faith"; the preface says what this faith confesses in worship: one God, one Lord, Trinity of Persons, Unity of Substance, without inequality.
Historical and Theological Interpretation
Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere explain why Trinity Sunday concludes the first half of the ecclesiastical year. From Advent through Whitsunday, the Church has rehearsed the works of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; Trinity Sunday gathers that course of teaching into worship of the Triune God:
The object of the Epistles and Gospels during this time is to remind us of the benefit which we receive from God the Father, through the mediation and atonement of God the Son, and through the ministration of God the Holy Ghost. Hence this part of the Church's course of teaching is fitly ended with the Commemoration of the Blessed Trinity.
They also trace the festival's historical emergence from the octave of Pentecost and its older Western setting:
from this arose the festival of Trinity Sunday, designed to sum up all the dogmatic teaching of the first half of the year in a solemn commemoration of God the Blessed Trinity.
This is why the 1928 article cannot treat the collect apart from the day. The prayer is brief, but it belongs to a liturgical climax: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsunday have displayed the saving work of the Triune God; Trinity Sunday answers with confession and worship.
Procter and Frere connect the appointed readings directly to the feast:
Yet they are well suited to the festival, under its more modern name of Trinity Sunday: for the three Persons of the Godhead are mentioned in the Gospel; and the portion appointed for the Epistle contains the Hymn of the Angels, with its threefold ascription of praise to God.
M. F. Sadler's catechetical treatment shows how nineteenth-century Anglican teaching could read the collect as a guide to worship rather than as a detached doctrinal formula. He quotes the collect explicitly when asking whether Christians can worship the Trinity without grace:
No: God has given to us grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity (Collect for Trinity Sunday).
Sadler also explains why the doctrine matters pastorally. For him, Trinitarian faith is not an optional abstraction but the Christian confession of God's eternal love:
Unless we believe in the Ever-Blessed Trinity, we cannot realize that "God is love."
Percy Dearmer, writing about the Prayer Book's practical use, likewise treats Trinity Sunday as one of the chief feasts marked by a Proper Preface at Holy Communion:
Some special days are further marked out. The Great Festivals (Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday) have Proper Prefaces at Holy Communion.
Use in Worship and Catechesis
In parish use, the collect can be taught clause by clause. "Grace, by the confession of a true faith" teaches that the Church's confession is itself a gift. "Acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity" joins doctrine to adoration. "In the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity" prevents a divided worship of the Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are worshipped as one God. "Keep us stedfast in this faith" turns doctrine into perseverance. "Defend us from all adversities" makes the collect pastoral: the Church asks protection not apart from the faith, but precisely in the faith it has confessed.
The appointed Gospel also makes Trinity Sunday useful for baptismal catechesis. John 3 joins new birth, water, the Spirit, the heavenly Son, and faith in the lifted-up Christ. The day therefore teaches the baptized to worship the God into whose Name they have been baptized, and to seek steadfastness in that confession.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
- Trinitytide in the 1928 BCP
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Collect for Trinity Sunday, "Trinity Sunday," p. 186; facsimile hosted by 1928 Common Prayer, 1928 Standard Book PDF. Complete collect compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; PDF spacing artifacts normalized.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), "Trinity Sunday," For the Epistle, Revelation iv. 1, p. 187; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), "Trinity Sunday," Gospel, St. John iii. 1, pp. 187-188; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), Morning Prayer, opening sentences, p. 5, Trinity Sunday sentence from Revelation iv. 8; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), Morning Prayer, seasonal antiphons before the Venite, p. 8; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), Evening Prayer, opening sentences, p. 22, Trinity Sunday sentence from Isaiah vi. 3; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), Holy Communion, rubric after the Gospel, p. 70; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928 Standard Book), Holy Communion, Proper Prefaces, "Trinity Sunday," p. 80; 1928 Common Prayer facsimile, 1928 Standard Book PDF.
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907), chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holy Days," p. 522; Internet Archive, "A new history of the Book of common prayer, with a rationale of its offices".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907), chapter XIII, p. 549; Internet Archive, "A new history of the Book of common prayer, with a rationale of its offices".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907), chapter XIII, pp. 549-550; Internet Archive, "A new history of the Book of common prayer, with a rationale of its offices".
- ↑ M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction: Being the Church Catechism Expanded and Explained in Question and Answer, 3rd ed. (London: Bell and Daldy, 1872), "Scripture Proof of the Doctrine of the Trinity," shorter catechism, p. 187; Internet Archive, "The church teacher's manual of Christian instruction".
- ↑ M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction, 3rd ed. (London: Bell and Daldy, 1872), "Scripture Proof of the Doctrine of the Trinity," p. 184; Internet Archive, "The church teacher's manual of Christian instruction".
- ↑ 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"; Project Canterbury, "The Prayer Book, by Percy Dearmer".