Ember Days (1928 BCP)

Ember Days (1928 BCP) are the quarterly days of fasting and prayer appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the Church's ministry. In the 1928 book they are not merely seasonal fasts: the calendar names them among days of fasting and abstinence, while the proper for "The Ember Days" gives a collect, epistle, and gospel centered on reconciliation, missionary preaching, and the anointing of Christ by the Holy Ghost.

Calendar Rule

The 1928 calendar places Ember Days among the "Other Days of Fasting," distinct from Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but still requiring abstinence suited to extraordinary devotion. Their fourfold pattern follows the older Western "four seasons" scheme: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the First Sunday in Lent, Pentecost, September 14, and December 13.

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.

The same table explains why Ember Days do not appear as fixed red-letter dates in the monthly calendar. They are occasions for which a collect, epistle, and gospel are provided, but because their dates depend on movable feasts and fixed reference days, they are listed in the rules rather than inserted as ordinary fixed days.

A TABLE OF THOSE DAYS OR OCCASIONS FOR WHICH COLLECT, EPISTLE, AND GOSPEL ARE PROVIDED IN THIS BOOK AND WHICH, NOT BEING FIXED DAYS, DO NOT APPEAR IN THE CALENDAR.

The Ember Days
The Rogation Days
Thanksgiving Day

Prayer Book Proper

The proper printed under "The Ember Days" gives the theological center of the observance. The collect begins with God's act of committing "the ministry of reconciliation" to human hands, then asks the Holy Spirit to move many to offer themselves for that ministry, and ends with the missionary end of the petition: that mankind may be drawn to God's kingdom through Christ.

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.

The phrase "ministry of reconciliation" echoes 2 Corinthians 5, but the 1928 proper interprets it through appointed lessons rather than through a bare proof text. The epistle begins at Acts 13:44, where Paul and Barnabas preach first to Israel and then turn to the Gentiles under the command that God's servant be a light to the nations.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

The gospel, Luke 4:16, places all ministry under Christ's own anointing. The Church prays for bishops, priests, deacons, and candidates for Holy Orders because Christ is the one anointed to preach, heal, deliver, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Ember Days therefore train the congregation to pray for ministry as participation in Christ's mission, not as clerical self-maintenance.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Public Worship

The Holy Communion office assumes that fasting days are to be announced to the people. This matters for Ember Days because their observance is not private antiquarianism; the congregation is to know when such days occur and to pray accordingly.

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.

In parish use, Ember Days are therefore suited to the Daily Office, Holy Communion when appointed, parish intercession, and catechesis about vocation. Their fasting is ordered toward prayer: for candidates for Holy Orders, for those who examine and ordain, for clergy already serving, and for the missionary work of the Church.

Historical Development

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe Ember Days as the Christianized "Four Seasons" or Quatuor tempora. Their account is historically cautious about origins but clear on the three-day weekly shape, the move from three seasons to four, and the later association with ordination.

The same instinct, which led the Roman Church, as seems probable, to fix the feast of Christmas upon a pagan festival, led also to the establishment of the Four Seasons (Quatuor tempora) or Ember Days in place of the heathen agricultural festivals. At first they were three seasons, not four, and corresponded with the winter sowing, the summer reaping, and the autumn vintage.

The English Reformation retained Ember Days, Rogation Days, and vigils, but simplified their liturgical use. This background explains why the 1928 book can preserve the fasting days in the calendar while giving them a concise proper rather than a full separate office.

The Ember days, Rogation days, and Vigils, were retained, but without any variation in their services.

Procter and Frere also record the 1662 settlement as a turning point in Prayer Book prayer for Ember seasons. In that revision, two Ember prayers were added among the occasional prayers.

Among the Occasional Prayers were introduced the two Ember prayers, the Prayer for the High Court of Parliament, the Prayer for all Conditions of Men, also the General Thanksgiving, and a Thanksgiving for the Restoration of Public Peace at Home.

E. Clowes Chorley, writing on the 1928 American book soon after its adoption, gives the same 1662 fact in his survey of Prayer Book development. His account helps place the American 1928 proper within the longer Anglican history of Ember prayer rather than treating it as an isolated American invention.

Many occasional prayers and thanksgivings were added, notably the beautiful Prayer for all Sorts and Conditions of Men written by Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and the General Thanksgiving. Two collects were added for the Ember Days and new ones for the third Sunday in Advent and Saint Stephen's Day; also an entirely new one for Easter Eve.

Anglican Interpretation

Percy Dearmer summarizes the Prayer Book use of Ember Days as part of the Church's public system of worship. His explanation is brief but direct: the days are marked four times a year so that the people may pray for those about to be ordained.

Four times a year there are three Ember Days, which have special Collects, so that people may pray for those who are to be ordained on the following Sunday.

An early Tractarian tract makes the same point devotionally. It argues from apostolic examples of prayer and fasting before ministry, then applies that pattern to the Church's Ember observance. Its stress on united prayer is useful even for readers who do not share all later Tractarian assumptions, because it reads Ember Days through Scripture, ordination, fasting, and the public discipline of the Prayer Book.

In conformity to this Apostolical custom, the Church of England views with peculiar solemnity the times at which her Ministers are ordained; and invites all her members to join, at these sacred seasons, in prayer and fasting in their behalf.

The same tract gives a practical account of the appointed times and the object of the prayers: wise episcopal choice and grace for those called to ministry. That description lines up closely with the 1928 collect's petition that the Holy Spirit would move many to offer themselves for the ministry of reconciliation.

These days are as follows; the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent; after the Feast of Pentecost; after Sept. 14; after Dec. 13; as may be seen by referring to the Prayer-Book. And particular prayers are ordered during the whole of the weeks, in which these days occur; that the Bishops may make a wise and faithful choice, and that those who are to be called to the Ministry, may especially be blessed with GOD'S grace and heavenly benediction.

Theological Reading

The 1928 BCP gives Ember Days a disciplined Anglican shape. The calendar calls them fasting days; the proper prays for vocations to the ministry of reconciliation; Acts 13 sets that ministry in missionary proclamation to Jew and Gentile; Luke 4 places all Christian ministry under the Spirit-anointed mission of Christ; and the Communion rubric requires fasting days to be announced to the people.

This pattern is both evangelical and ecclesial. It is evangelical because the petition is that mankind may be drawn to God's kingdom through Jesus Christ, not that ecclesiastical office be preserved for its own sake. It is ecclesial because the Church prays corporately for those who will preach, administer sacraments, reconcile sinners, and serve under episcopal order. Ember Days therefore belong naturally with ordination, but their benefit is wider: they teach the whole parish to ask the Lord of the harvest for faithful laborers and to hold ministers and candidates before God with fasting, prayer, and sober hope.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Ordination of Deacons (1928 BCP)
• Ordination of Priests (1928 BCP)
• Consecration of Bishops (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Ember Days

External Links

• Calendar and Tables from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Propers for various occasions from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter IX
• Internet Archive scan of Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter I
• Percy Dearmer, The Prayer Book
• Tracts for the Times, No. 14, "The Ember Days"