Decalogue in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

Decalogue in Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the recitation of the Ten Commandments near the beginning of the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer order for Holy Communion. In that office it follows the Lord's Prayer and the Collect for Purity and precedes the Summary of the Law, Kyrie, Collect of the Day, Epistle, and Gospel. Its liturgical function is not bare moral instruction. It is a penitential rehearsal of God's law, answered by the Church's repeated prayer for mercy and sanctifying grace.

Place in the 1928 Communion Office

The 1928 rubric directs the priest to turn toward the people and read the commandments distinctly. It also states the people's response: they kneel, confess past transgression, and ask for grace to obey in the future.

Then shall the Priest, turning to the People, rehearse distinctly The Ten Commandments; and the People, still kneeling, shall, after every Commandment, ask God mercy for their transgressions for the time past, and grace to keep the law for the time to come.

This placement gives the opening of the Communion office a clear penitential movement. The Collect for Purity asks God to cleanse the thoughts of the heart; the Decalogue then names concrete forms of obedience; the response asks for mercy and inward renewal. In classical Anglican use, the people do not answer the commandments by claiming ability, but by praying that God will incline and write his law in their hearts.

The first commandment is introduced by the biblical preface, "God spake these words, and said," and the congregation answers with the characteristic Kyrie-based response:

I am the LORD thy God; Thou shalt have none other gods but me.
Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

The last response changes from "incline our hearts" to "write all these thy laws in our hearts." That final phrase connects the service's reading of the Law with Jeremiah's promise of an inwardly written covenant and with the New Testament's treatment of obedience as the fruit of grace rather than a ground of justification.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.

Omission and the Summary of the Law

The 1928 book does not require the Decalogue at every celebration. It may be omitted, but only under a rule that preserves its regular public use.

The Decalogue may be omitted, provided it be said at least one Sunday in each month. But NOTE, That when ever it is omitted, the Minister shall say the Summary of the Law, beginning, Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith.

The Summary of the Law is therefore not presented as a denial of the Decalogue but as Christ's own condensation of it into the twofold commandment of love. The Decalogue names the commandments one by one; the Summary interprets them under the love of God and neighbor.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

When the Decalogue is omitted, the office provides the lesser litany, "Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us," followed by a prayer for the direction and sanctification of "both our hearts and bodies." This keeps the same theological pattern: mercy, inward renewal, bodily obedience, and preservation through Christ.

O ALMIGHTY Lord, and everlasting God, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to direct, sanctify, and govern, both our hearts and bodies, in the ways of thy laws, and in the works of thy commandments; that, through thy most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Historical Development

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere identify the insertion of the Ten Commandments as a Reformation-era change in the English Communion office. They interpret the change in relation to the older Kyrie: the petition for mercy remained, but it was adapted as the people's response to each commandment.

The ten Commandments were prefixed to the Liturgy as a penitential preparation, and the old ninefold Kyrie was altered to serve as responses after the several Commandments: the old petition — in its English dress, ‘Lord have mercy upon us’ — was repeated after each Commandment, amplified by the addition of the words ‘and incline our hearts to keep this law’ after the first nine, and the words ‘and write all these thy laws in our hearts we beseech Thee’ after the tenth.

Procter and Frere also describe the Decalogue as part of a larger "Preparation" at the start of the Communion office. In their reading, the commandments are a permanent lection from the Law that stands with the Epistle and Gospel, rather than an unrelated interruption before the sacrament.

The first part of the Preparation incites the whole congregation to the exercise of repentance, by the Lord’s Prayer, the Collect for purity, and the Ten Commandments; of holy desires, by the Collects for the King, and of the day; of obedience, by hearing the Epistle and Gospel; of faith, by repeating the Creed; and of charity, by the Offertory, and the Prayer for the whole Church. If we consider the Commandments as a permanent lection from the Law, this portion of the office may be compared with the early Christian Service, containing lessons from the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the writings of the Apostles, followed by an instruction or exhortation in the sermon.

This history matters for the 1928 American book because the rite retains the inherited Anglican pattern while allowing pastoral omission under a monthly-use rule. The result is a Communion office in which the moral law remains audible, but the service also directs hearers immediately to Christ's Summary of the Law, the Kyrie, the Collect, Scripture readings, confession, absolution, and Communion.

Catechetical Meaning

The 1928 Catechism treats the Ten Commandments as part of the baptismal promise to keep God's will and commandments. It then interprets them as two duties: duty toward God and duty toward neighbor.

Question. What dost thou chiefly learn by these Commandments?
Answer. I learn two things; my duty towards God, and my duty towards my Neighbour.
Question. What is thy duty towards God?
Answer. My duty towards God is To believe in him, to fear him, And to love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength: To worship him, to give him thanks: To put my whole trust in him, to call upon him: To honour his holy Name and his Word: And to serve him truly all the days of my life.

The Catechism's treatment confirms that the Decalogue in Holy Communion belongs to Anglican formation as well as to Eucharistic penitence. The same commandments recited before Communion are taught to children and candidates as the shape of grateful obedience within the covenant life of the Church. The Catechism also guards against moralism by teaching that Christians cannot walk in God's commandments "without his special grace," which they must seek by diligent prayer.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler, a nineteenth-century Church of England catechetical writer, makes the same distinction between justification and sanctified obedience. His exposition is useful because it shows how Anglican catechesis could maintain the binding moral authority of the commandments without making them the means of acceptance before God.

we are not under the law as the means of our justification in God's sight; but the very grace which we receive is given to us to enable us to fulfil the law.

Sadler then states the moral-law point directly:

The ten commandments, as spiritually expounded by our Saviour, are the moral law, and God has given us no other.

Theological Interpretation

The 1928 Communion office uses the Decalogue neither as a replacement for the Gospel nor as a detached ethical reading. Its theology depends on sequence. First, the people pray the Lord's Prayer and Collect for Purity. Then they hear God's commandments and answer each with a plea for mercy and grace. Then they hear Christ's Summary of the Law, the Kyrie, the Collect of the Day, the Epistle, and the Gospel. Later in the rite they confess sin, hear absolution, receive the Comfortable Words, and come to the sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood.

This order makes three theological claims. First, God's law exposes sin concretely: idolatry, misuse of the divine Name, Sabbath neglect, dishonor, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and covetousness. Secondly, the people need mercy for "the time past" and grace "for the time to come"; obedience is sought as a gift, not asserted as a possession. Thirdly, the commandments are fulfilled in love, because Christ's Summary of the Law gathers them under love of God and love of neighbor.

For classical Anglican theology, the Decalogue's place before Communion is therefore pastoral and evangelical. It prepares communicants to receive grace by confessing need, asking for renewal, and hearing the moral shape of the life into which Communion strengthens them. For High Church and Anglican Catholic interpretation, the retained Kyrie and ordered preparation also show catholic continuity: the ancient cry for mercy remains at the threshold of the Eucharistic action, now joined to a public rehearsal of the moral law.

Use in Worship

In parishes using the 1928 BCP, the Decalogue may be read monthly or more often. Its full recitation is especially fitting in penitential seasons, catechetical settings, and celebrations where the congregation needs a clear corporate act of moral self-examination before the Eucharist. When the Decalogue is omitted, the Summary of the Law and Kyrie keep the office from losing its penitential and moral preparation.

The priest should read the commandments distinctly, as the rubric says, and the people should answer as prayer rather than performance. The repeated response teaches a simple pattern of repentance: God has spoken, the Church has fallen short, and obedience requires the mercy and grace of God.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Sacraments in the 1928 BCP
• Summary of the Law
• Ten Commandments in the 1928 BCP Catechism
• Kyrie Eleison in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Holy Communion text, Society of Archbishop Justus
• 1928 Catechism text, Society of Archbishop Justus
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XII
• Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction, Internet Archive