Consecration of a Church or Chapel (1928 BCP)

Consecration of a Church or Chapel (1928 BCP) is the episcopal office in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for setting apart a church building or chapel for public Christian worship. The rite belongs to the Occasional Offices and may be used with Holy Communion, with Morning or Evening Prayer, or as a separate service. Its theology is not that stone and timber become magical objects, but that a particular place is solemnly dedicated to the worship of God, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the gathered prayer of Christ's Church.

Prayer Book Placement and Purpose

The office begins at the church door and moves toward the Holy Table. The bishop is received by wardens and vestrymen, and Psalm 24 is recited as the procession enters the building. That entrance psalm gives the rite its governing note: the whole earth already belongs to the Lord, yet those who enter his holy place must do so with clean hands, a pure heart, and reverent expectation.

The earth is the LORD'S, and all that therein is; * the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein.

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? * or who shall rise up in his holy place?

The rite therefore avoids two errors. It does not treat the consecrated building as a merely practical meeting hall, because it is set apart for divine worship. It also does not imply that God is contained in a local shrine, because the prayer explicitly confesses that the "heaven of heavens" cannot contain him. Anglican consecration is a liturgical act of ordered dedication: the Church asks God to bless a place for the ministries he has already appointed.

Act of Consecration

The bishop's address explains why Christians may set apart houses for worship. The office appeals to Scripture, the worship of the Church "under the Law" and "under the Gospel," natural reverence, and the pastoral effect of holy order upon worshippers. The church is separated from ordinary use so that prayer, praise, preaching, sacraments, and pastoral offices may be conducted there with reverence.

Let us not doubt but that he will also favourably approve our godly purpose of setting apart this place in solemn manner, for the several Offices of religious worship.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to be present with us, who are here gathered together with all humility and readiness of heart, to consecrate this place to the honour of thy great Name.

Separating it henceforth from all unhallowed, ordinary, and common uses; and dedicating it to thy service, for reading thy holy Word, for celebrating thy holy Sacraments.

This language shows the Prayer Book's practical sacramental order. The building is consecrated for the proclamation of Scripture, Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Matrimony, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and blessing. The rite gathers the parish's future life into a single act of prayer, so the dedication is not primarily architectural or sentimental. It is ecclesial: a place is entrusted to the Church's public ministry.

Word, Sacrament, and Pastoral Offices

After the act of consecration, the bishop prays for the particular ministries that will occur in the church or chapel. Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, the reading and preaching of Scripture, Matrimony, thanksgiving, confession of sins, and petitions for body and soul are named in turn. This sequence is a compact map of parish life in the 1928 Prayer Book.

Grant, O Lord, that whosoever shall receive in this place the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, may come to that holy ordinance with faith, charity, and true repentance.

Grant, O Lord, that by thy holy Word which shall be read and preached in this place, and by thy Holy Spirit grafting it inwardly in the heart, the hearers thereof may both perceive and know what things they ought to do.

The Scripture-and-Spirit petition is especially important for Anglican theology. The consecrated place is not holy because the congregation is inwardly strong, but because God is asked to make his appointed means fruitful: the Word read and preached, the sacraments rightly received, and prayer offered in faith. The phrase "grafting it inwardly in the heart" links the outward ministry of Scripture to inward grace and obedient life.

Communion Propers and Biblical Theology

When Holy Communion is celebrated with the consecration, the office appoints a collect, Revelation 21:2-5 as the Epistle, and John 2:13-17 as the Gospel. These readings hold together heavenly fulfilment and earthly purification. Revelation presents the holy city as God's dwelling with his people; John presents Christ's zeal for his Father's house. The church building is therefore interpreted in light of the new creation and under the judgment of Christ's holy presence.

Graciously accept the Dedication of this place to thy service; and grant that all who shall call upon thee here may worship thee in spirit and in truth.

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

The collect's phrase "worship thee in spirit and in truth" echoes John 4:24 and guards the rite from superstition. Consecration does not replace spiritual worship with place-based religion. Instead, it orders a place so that the congregation may worship the Father through Christ, in the Spirit, with reverence and truth.

Anglican Theological Interpretation

Classical Anglicanism treats visible order as a servant of evangelical worship. The 1928 office is episcopal, public, and juridical: a sentence of consecration is read and laid upon the Communion Table. Yet the prayers are consistently theocentric and pastoral. God is not localized by the rite; rather, the congregation asks him to bless the appointed use of the place.

Blessed be thy Name, O Lord, that it hath pleased thee to put it into the hearts of thy servants to appropriate and devote this house to thy honour and worship.

Grant, we beseech thee, that in this place now set apart to thy service, thy holy Name may be worshipped in truth and purity through all generations.

High Church and Tractarian readers naturally emphasize the office's catholic concern for episcopal order, visible reverence, and continuity with ancient Christian dedication. Evangelical and Reformed Anglican readers can receive the same rite because its prayers refuse any notion that God is confined to a temple made with hands, and because the stated purpose is the ministry of Word, Sacrament, prayer, repentance, and holy living. The rite's breadth is therefore characteristically Anglican: consecrated space is meaningful because it serves the gospel and the Church's common prayer.

Use in Parish Life

The office is most directly used when a bishop consecrates a newly built or newly acquired church or chapel. It also gives language for teaching parishioners how Anglican buildings are understood. The nave, font, pulpit, lectern, and Holy Table are not independent devotional objects. They belong together as a setting for Baptism, Scripture, Eucharist, prayer, discipline, thanksgiving, and blessing. A parish church is consecrated so that ordinary people may repeatedly be gathered into God's extraordinary promises.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Feast for the Dedication of a Church (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Consecration of a Church or Chapel
• 1928 Book of Common Prayer text