Days of Fasting and Abstinence (1928 BCP)

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Days of Fasting and Abstinence (1928 BCP) are the penitential and devotional days identified in the calendar tables of the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 book they are not a separate office with a single service text. They are a rule of Christian time: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are named as fasts; Lent, Ember Days, and most Fridays are marked by fasting or abstinence; and Rogation Days are set apart as days of solemn supplication.

1928 Prayer Book Rule

The controlling text is printed in the front matter among the tables for feasts, fasts, precedence, and movable holy days:

A TABLE OF FASTS.

Ash Wednesday. Good Friday.

OTHER DAYS OF FASTING, ON WHICH THE CHURCH REQUIRES SUCH A MEASURE OF ABSTINENCE AS IS MORE ESPECIALLY SUITED TO EXTRAORDINARY ACTS AND EXERCISES OF DEVOTION.

I. The Forty Days of Lent.

II. The Ember Days at the Four Seasons, being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent, the Feast of Pentecost, September 14, and December 13.

III. All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas Day, and The Epiphany, or any Friday which may intervene between these Feasts.

DAYS OF SOLEMN SUPPLICATION.

The three Rogation Days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or the Ascension of our Lord.

[1]

The table makes several distinctions. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday stand under "A Table of Fasts." Lent, Ember Days, and Fridays are "other days of fasting" with a required measure of abstinence suited to extraordinary devotion. Rogation Days are adjacent but separately named as "Days of Solemn Supplication." The 1928 BCP therefore preserves a penitential calendar without prescribing a detailed dietary code inside the table itself.

The Daily Office rubrics also show that fasting and abstinence are not decorative labels. At Morning Prayer, a day of fasting or abstinence affects whether the minister may use the shorter opening:

On any day, save a Day of Fasting or Abstinence, or on any day when the Litany or Holy Communion is immediately to follow, the Minister may, at his discretion, pass at once from the Sentences to the Lord's Prayer, first pronouncing, The Lord be with you. Answer. And with thy spirit. Minister. Let us pray.

[2]

The Communion office assumes that these days are to be announced publicly. After the Nicene Creed, the minister is directed to declare the coming week's holy days and fasting days:

Then shall be declared unto the People what Holy-days, or Fasting-days, are in the week following to be observed; and (if occasion be) shall Notice be given of the Communion, and of the Banns of Matrimony, and other matters to be published.

[3]

Scriptural and Lenten Foundation

The 1928 Prayer Book does not present fasting as an end in itself. Its Lenten opening sentences call the Church to inward repentance rather than outward display:

Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

[4]

This is reinforced by the Gospel appointed for Ash Wednesday, where Christ teaches that fasting must be directed toward the Father rather than toward religious reputation:

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

[5]

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the historical growth of Lent as both a fast and a preparation for Easter. Their account explains why Ash Wednesday became the beginning of the forty-day Lenten reckoning:

The observance of Lent has had an intricate history: it probably grew out of two things, (i) a strict unbroken fast either on Good Friday only or for the time between our Lord's death and His Resurrection, a period which came to be estimated at forty hours: and (ii) a period of forty days of preparation for the festival of Easter and especially of training the catechumens for the Baptism on Easter Eve.

[6]

In this light the Forty Days of Lent are not merely a seasonal custom. They join repentance, preparation for Easter, catechesis, and remembrance of Christ's own fast in the wilderness. The 1928 table's "such a measure of abstinence" language leaves pastoral discretion, but it does not leave the season without a rule.

Ember and Rogation Days

The Ember Days are listed as fasting or abstinence days at the four seasons. In the 1928 American Prayer Book, they also receive a proper collect, Epistle, and Gospel, so the fast is tied to prayer for ministry:

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast committed to the hands of men the ministry of reconciliation; We humbly beseech thee, by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, to put it into the hearts of many to offer themselves for this ministry; that thereby mankind may be drawn to thy blessed kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[7]

The appointed Epistle for Ember Days begins in Acts 13, where prayer, fasting, and the sending of ministers are joined. This connection explains why the 1928 Prayer Book does not treat Ember abstinence as private austerity detached from the Church's mission.

Rogation Days are separated in the 1928 table as days of solemn supplication. Their proper collect shows the character of that supplication: prayer for land, fruitfulness, providence, and thanksgiving in the Church.

ALMIGHTY God, Lord of heaven and earth; We beseech thee to pour forth thy blessing upon this land, and to give us a fruitful season; that we, constantly receiving thy bounty, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[8]

E. Clowes Chorley, writing the year after the 1928 book was accepted, noted that the American revision supplied Communion propers for both Ember and Rogation Days:

Provision is made, with the necessary liturgy, for celebrations of the Holy Communion for the Feast of the "Dedication of a Church"; the "Ember and Rogation Days," the subjects respectively being the Ministry of Christ's Church and prayers for a blessing on the labors of the husbandman.

[9]

Historical Anglican Pattern

The 1928 American table stands in continuity with the older English Prayer Book pattern, while also simplifying it. The 1662 table included vigils before several feasts and placed Rogation among "Days of Fasting, or Abstinence":

DAYS OF FASTING, OR ABSTINENCE

i) The forty days of Lent. ii) The Ember Days at the Four Seasons, being the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after: 1. The First Sunday in Lent 2. The Feast of Pentecost 3. September 14 4. December 13. iii) The three Rogation Days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or the Ascension of our Lord.

iv) All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas Day.

[10]

Compared with this 1662 table, the 1928 American book omits the older vigil list from its fasting table, keeps Lent and Ember Days, retains Friday abstinence but excepts Christmas Day, the Epiphany, and intervening Fridays, and moves Rogation Days under solemn supplication. That shift should not be read as abolition of Rogation devotion; the 1928 proper collect, Epistle, and Gospel give Rogation a clear public liturgical expression.

Procter and Frere interpret the older fasting system as a retained and simplified part of the Prayer Book inheritance:

This elaborate system of fast and festival, referring both to periods of the year and to single days, confronted the Revisers of the Prayer Book at the outset. No thought seems to have been entertained of abolishing the whole in the drastic manner of most continental Reformers.

[11]

Anthony Sparrow's seventeenth-century rationale gives a classical Anglican interpretation of Good Friday as both the day of Christ's saving Passion and therefore a day of sorrow for the sins that caused it:

THis day holy Church keeps a most strict Fast; It is called GOOD-FRIDAY. For a good day it was for us, even the cause of all our good, and ground of all our joy.

[12]

Percy Dearmer, writing as an Anglican liturgical teacher in 1907, also treated the fasting table and the Communion notice rubric as part of the Prayer Book's ordinary discipline rather than an optional antiquarian detail:

Now, the Prayer Book gives a Table of Fasting Days after the Kalendar: and the rubric after the Creed at Holy Communion says that the parish priest is to announce every Sunday from the pulpit what Fasts are to be observed during the coming week.

[13]

Theological Meaning

For classical Anglican theology, the 1928 fasting table belongs under grace rather than merit. The rule teaches bodily and temporal discipline, but its appointed texts direct the Church toward repentance, prayer, mission, providence, and thanksgiving. The fasts of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday concentrate the Church's penitence around sin, judgment, mercy, and the Passion of Christ. Lenten abstinence trains desire toward repentance and Easter preparation. Ember Days turn restraint into intercession for ministers and vocations. Friday abstinence keeps the Passion before the Church throughout the year, while the Christmas and Epiphany exception protects festal joy. Rogation supplication teaches dependence on God for the created order, labor, harvest, and common life.

The Prayer Book does not define holiness by the severity of a diet. It gives a common calendar so that private devotion is not severed from the Church's public prayer. A parish using the 1928 BCP faithfully will therefore announce the coming fasts, connect them with Morning Prayer and Holy Communion, and teach them as ordered means of repentance, charity, prayer, and thanksgiving.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), "Tables and Rules for the Movable and Immovable Feasts, Together with the Days of Fasting and Abstinence, through the Whole Year," p. l; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF, 1928 Calendar and Tables PDF. Quotation checked against extracted text from tmp/revision-research/days-of-fasting-and-abstinence/Calendar_Tables_1928.pdf, page 3; OCR spacing artifacts normalized and "III" supplied where the PDF extraction duplicated "II".
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Order for Daily Morning Prayer," opening rubric; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Morning Prayer. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 57-62; HTML italics and line wrapping normalized.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion," rubric after the Nicene Creed; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 252-256.
  4. ↑ Joel 2:13, Authorized Version, as printed among the Lenten opening sentences in the 1928 BCP Morning Prayer office; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Morning Prayer. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 115-118.
  5. ↑ Matthew 6:16, Authorized Version; Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, Ash Wednesday, The Gospel; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels. Quotation compared with local source sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 1406-1411.
  6. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, third impression with corrections and alterations (London: Macmillan and Co., 1910), chapter IX, "Introductory Matter, Title, Prefaces, and Kalendar," section "Lent"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter IX. Quotation checked against tmp/revision-research/days-of-fasting-and-abstinence/procter-frere-ch9.htm, lines 721-727; HTML entity apostrophes normalized.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Ember Days. At the Four Seasons," The Collect; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. Quotation compared with local source sources/justuspropers/Readings1928.htm, lines 136-144; drop-cap styling normalized.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Rogation Days. Being the Three Days before Ascension Day," The Collect; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. Quotation compared with local source sources/justuspropers/Readings1928.htm, lines 175-185; drop-cap styling normalized.
  9. ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, D.D., The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan Company, 1929), chapter VIII, "The New Prayer Book: Enrichment"; Project Canterbury transcription, The New American Prayer Book, chapter VIII. Quotation checked against tmp/revision-research/days-of-fasting-and-abstinence/chorley1929-08.html, lines 210-214.
  10. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "A Table of the Vigils, Fasts and Days of Abstinence to be observed in the year"; official Church of England PDF, A Table of the Vigils, Fasts, and Days of Abstinence. Quotation checked against extracted text from /tmp/coe-1662-fasts.pdf.
  11. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, third impression with corrections and alterations (London: Macmillan and Co., 1910), chapter IX, section on fast and festival in the Prayer Book revision; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter IX. Quotation checked against tmp/revision-research/days-of-fasting-and-abstinence/procter-frere-ch9.htm, lines 862-866.
  12. ↑ Anthony Sparrow, D.D., A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1672), "Good-Friday"; Project Canterbury transcription, Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer: Lent.
  13. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Prayer Book: What It Is and How We Should Use It (London and Oxford: A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd., 1907), chapter IV, "The Prayer Book System"; Project Canterbury transcription, The Prayer Book, by Percy Dearmer. Quotation checked against tmp/revision-research/days-of-fasting-and-abstinence/dearmer-prayer-book1907.html, lines 217-218.
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