Committal in the Burial Office (1928 BCP)

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Committal in the Burial Office (1928 BCP) is the grave-side act in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer by which the Church commends the departed to God and commits the body to burial "in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life." It is the office's most compact confession that the body is returned to the earth, yet remains ordered toward Christ's coming and the general Resurrection.

Place in the Burial Office

The committal comes after the lesson and prayers, when earth is cast upon the body. Its action is concrete: the Church speaks over a real body at a real grave. Its hope is also concrete, because the sentence joins burial to Christ's return and the resurrection of the body.

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.

[1]

Text and Meaning

The sentence has three movements. First, the soul is commended to Almighty God. Second, the body is committed to the ground with the ancient words "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Third, the grave is interpreted by promise: Christ will come in glory, the earth and sea will give up their dead, and the corruptible body will be changed.

At whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body.

[2]

The committal is therefore not merely a farewell formula. It names death, dust, judgment, and resurrection together. It also keeps soul and body distinct without separating Christian hope from the body that is buried.

Biblical Hope at the Grave

The 1928 office places the committal after 1 Corinthians 15 and before an anthem from Revelation. St. Paul's lesson gives the doctrinal basis: Christ is risen, death is defeated, and the dead shall be raised. The anthem then teaches how the faithful departed are regarded in the Lord.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[3]

I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours.

[4]

These texts keep the rite from becoming either denial or despair. The grave is named as a grave, yet its meaning is governed by Christ's victory and by the blessing of those who die in the Lord.

Historical Anglican Interpretation

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the Prayer Book burial rite as a reduced but recognizable adaptation of older Western funeral offices. Their account helps explain why the committal is both spare and theologically dense: procession, psalmody, lesson, and burial action remain, while the medieval cycle was greatly simplified.

Compared with this the provision made in the Prayer Book is very meagre. A series of three antiphons represents the procession to the Church: the psalms and lesson, as now placed, may represent the Office of the Dead.

[5]

Frederick W. Faber's Tractarian reading is useful here not because it controls the 1928 American text, but because it states clearly what the committal itself says liturgically: the burial service witnesses to the resurrection of the body and reverence for the bodies of Christ's departed members.

The light in which I want you to view the Burial Service is this;--as containing a great catholic truth, which breathes out in all its prayers, as well as in its psalms and lesson, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

[6]

The 1662 English committal is also a close antecedent. Its wording shows the shared Anglican pattern of committing the body to the ground in hope of resurrection, while the 1928 American book expands the eschatological language by adding the earth and sea giving up their dead.

We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[7]

Scriptural Foundations

The committal draws especially on 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 14:13, and the opening burial sentences from John 11 and Job 19. Its clause "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" acknowledges Genesis 3:19, but the final grammar is not dust returning to dust alone. The sentence ends with Christ, judgment, resurrection, and transformation.

Historical Development

The 1549 Prayer Book already joined the act of committing the body to the earth with prayer for final perfection through Christ's resurrection. The 1662 form removed some explicit prayers for the departed, but retained the committal in sure and certain hope. The 1928 American form preserved the Anglican grave-side action while strengthening the eschatological expansion after "through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The optional prayers after the Lord's Prayer continue the same doctrinal pattern. They pray for mercy, final consummation, and the fellowship of the saints, but the article's focus remains the committal itself: the Church buries a body under the promise that the body belongs to Christ's future.

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.

[8]

Use in Worship

In parish use, the committal should not be rushed as a closing formula. It is the public moment when Christian doctrine is spoken over the body itself. Clergy and catechists can explain it clause by clause: commendation to God, bodily burial, truthful acknowledgement of dust, sure hope of resurrection, Christ's return, judgment, and the promised change of the faithful body.

The words are especially pastoral because they do not require the mourners to pretend that death is light. The rite says "dust to dust" with full seriousness, and then immediately says "in sure and certain hope." That is the Anglican balance of grief and faith in this office.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," committal at the grave; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 394-405, and fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm; italicized variable pronouns normalized.
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," continuation of the committal; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 400-405, and fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," lesson from 1 Corinthians 15; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 260-270, and fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," anthem after the committal; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 407-411, and fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  5. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 631, section "The Burial of the Dead"; Internet Archive scan and OCR, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer. Quotation checked against fetched OCR copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/procter-frere-new-history-djvu.txt, lines 58780-58785; line-break artifacts normalized.
  6. ↑ Frederick W. Faber, The Burial Service, Its Doctrine and Consolations, second edition enlarged (London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1840), "On the Burial Service"; Project Canterbury edition AD 2002, The Burial Service, Its Doctrine and Consolations. Quotation checked against extracted research text tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/faber-tract11.txt, lines 110-114; OCR spacing normalized.
  7. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), Cambridge University Press 2006 online edition, "The Burial of the Dead," committal at the grave; Church of England, The Burial of the Dead. Quotation checked against fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1662-burial.html, line 8803; conditional pronoun markup normalized.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," prayer after the Lord's Prayer; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 462-470, and fetched research copy tmp/revision-research/committal-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.

External Links

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