Epistle in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

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Epistle in Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the appointed New Testament lesson read after the Collect of the Day and before the Gospel in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer order for Holy Communion. It is part of the Communion office's public ministry of the Word: the Church prays the proper collect, hears the apostolic lesson, stands for the Gospel, confesses the faith in the Creed, and then proceeds through sermon, offertory, intercession, confession, absolution, and sacramental Communion.

1928 Communion Rubric

The 1928 Holy Communion office places the Epistle immediately after the Collect of the Day. The rubric also gives the introductory and closing formulae used by the appointed minister:

Then shall the Priest say the Collect of the Day. And after the Collect the Minister appointed shall read the Epistle, first saying, The Epistle is written in the — Chapter of —, beginning at the — Verse. The Epistle ended, he shall say, Here endeth the Epistle.

[1]

The same rubric distinguishes the Epistle from the Gospel by posture and acclamation. The Epistle is read after the Collect; then a hymn or anthem may intervene; then "all the People standing" hear the Gospel with "Glory be to thee, O Lord" and "Praise be to thee, O Christ." The Epistle is therefore scriptural proclamation in its own right, while the Gospel receives the traditional marks of heightened reverence.

Appointed Propers

The Epistle belongs to the Prayer Book's cycle of appointed propers. The opening rubric for the propers says that the Sunday Collect, Epistle, and Gospel continue through the following week unless the book appoints otherwise:

The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the Week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered

[2]

This rule makes the Epistle more than a detached Sunday reading. It is part of the week's proper: the collect gathers the occasion's prayer, the Epistle gives apostolic instruction, and the Gospel proclaims Christ's words and works.

Representative 1928 Epistles

The First Sunday in Advent shows the Prayer Book's moral and eschatological use of an Epistle. Romans 13 moves from love as the fulfilment of the law to the summons to awake because salvation is near:

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

[3]

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity appoints Ephesians 4. Its first sentence turns doctrine into ecclesial practice: vocation, humility, patience, charity, and unity belong together.

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

[4]

The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity appoints Colossians 1. The Epistle joins thanksgiving, faith, love, hope, gospel fruitfulness, and prayer for spiritual understanding:

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel

[5]

These examples show why the Epistle is not merely a transition between collect and Gospel. In the 1928 cycle, Epistles teach love, repentance, endurance, unity, resurrection life, sacramental doctrine, and the virtues of the Christian year. They often give the doctrinal or moral matter for the collect's petition and the sermon that follows.

Liturgical Meaning

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the first portion of the Communion office as "Preparation." In that structure, the Epistle and Gospel form the obedience-bearing hearing of Scripture before the Creed and the Offertory:

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.

[6]

They also compare this part of the office with early Christian patterns of lessons and exhortation:

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.

[7]

The Epistle therefore belongs to the Communion office's ordered formation of the hearer. The people do not move directly from penitence to the sacrament. They hear apostolic Scripture, stand for the Gospel, confess the Creed, receive preaching, offer alms and oblations, intercede for the Church, confess sin, hear absolution and Comfortable Words, and then approach the Lord's Table.

Historical Development

Procter and Frere trace the Prayer Book propers to older Western use, while also noting the theological shape given by the Christian year. The first part of the year, from Advent through Trinity, is doctrinally ordered around Christ's saving work:

The object of the Epistles and Gospels during this time is to remind us of the benefit which we receive from God the Father, through the mediation and atonement of God the Son, and through the ministration of God the Holy Ghost.

[8]

For Trinitytide, they identify a more explicitly practical sequence. The Epistles after Trinity commonly press the moral and ecclesial consequences of the gospel:

The Epistles are a series of exhortations to the practice of Christian virtues, and form part of that dislocated series of readings taken in order from S. Paul's Epistles which has already been noticed. The Gospels are selected from the parables, miracles, and conversations of our Lord, and in many cases are meant to be illustrative of the teaching of the Epistle.

[9]

Anthony Sparrow makes the same pastoral connection between collect, Epistle, and Gospel. The collect does not float free from the readings; it asks grace for the matter set before the people:

the first Collect reflects chiefly upon that, though sometimes more generally upon the whole matter of the Epistle and Gospel, desiring inspiration, strength and protection from God Almighty, in the practice and pursuance, of what is set before us.

[10]

Percy Dearmer's practical directions underline the same point from parish use. A Sunday or holy day normally calls for Communion when the Prayer Book provides a proper collect, Epistle, and Gospel:

The Lord's Supper should be celebrated at least on every Sunday and holy day, whenever there is a special collect, epistle, and gospel provided in the Prayer Book.

[11]

Dearmer also notes that the office of reading the Epistle has not always been restricted to the celebrant. This is relevant to the 1928 wording "the Minister appointed," which allows the Epistle to be read by an appointed minister rather than making the priest the only possible reader.

minor orders are not necessary for the epistler; custom long assigned to the clerk the reading of the first lesson and the epistle

[12]

Theological Use

In classical Anglican theology, the Epistle serves the sufficiency and public reading of Holy Scripture. It is not a private devotional excerpt but the Church's appointed apostolic witness in the Eucharistic assembly. Article VI's doctrine of Scripture is therefore enacted liturgically: what is necessary to salvation must be read in or proved by Holy Scripture, and the Communion office places Scripture before Creed, sermon, and sacrament.

The Epistle also keeps Eucharistic devotion from becoming detached from repentance and obedience. Procter and Frere's language of "obedience, by hearing the Epistle and Gospel" is not moralism. In the 1928 sequence, the people have already prayed for purity, mercy, and grace; then the apostolic reading teaches the life into which grace forms them. The Epistle is heard as Word before sacrament, instruction before confession of faith, and apostolic exhortation before Communion.

High Church and Anglican Catholic interpretation often emphasizes continuity with the older Western proper cycle: the collect, Epistle, and Gospel give each Sunday or feast its liturgical character. Reformed and evangelical Anglican interpretation emphasizes the public, intelligible proclamation of Scripture and the priority of the Word in the gathered Church. The 1928 rite holds these concerns together by embedding a stable cycle of apostolic lessons within a sacramental office ordered by common prayer.

Use in Worship

The reader should introduce the Epistle clearly, using the Prayer Book formula and the appointed book, chapter, and verse. The congregation hears the lesson seated or otherwise according to local custom, then receives its conclusion, "Here endeth the Epistle." Because the Gospel follows with a distinct standing rubric and acclamations, the Epistle should not be hurried or treated as filler; it is the apostolic reading appointed for the day.

For preaching and catechesis, the Epistle is best read with the Collect and Gospel of the day. The collect often asks the grace that the Epistle teaches; the Gospel frequently supplies the act or saying of Christ to which the Epistle bears apostolic witness. In this way, the appointed Epistle helps the whole Communion office speak as one coherent act of prayer, Scripture, doctrine, and sacramental fellowship.

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 Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion," rubric before the Epistle, p. 69; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 201-206; the same passage appears in tmp/revision-research/epistle-in-holy-communion/BCP1928.pdf, PDF page index 68.
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The Collects, Epistles and Gospels: To be used throughout the Year," opening rubric, p. 79; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 64-66; also checked against tmp/revision-research/epistle-in-holy-communion/Propers.pdf, PDF page index 1.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The First Sunday in Advent," Epistle, Romans 13:8-14, p. 79; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 130-149; also checked against tmp/revision-research/epistle-in-holy-communion/Propers.pdf, PDF page index 1.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, Ephesians 4:1-6; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 1482-1491.
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity," Epistle, Colossians 1:3-12; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 1839-1852.
  6. ↑ 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, 1902; transcribed from later Macmillan editions), chapter XII, "The Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion," p. 472; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XII.
  7. ↑ 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, 1902; transcribed from later Macmillan editions), chapter XII, "The Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion," p. 472; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XII.
  8. ↑ 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, 1902; transcribed from later Macmillan editions), chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holy Days," p. 522; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII.
  9. ↑ 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, 1902; transcribed from later Macmillan editions), chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holy Days," p. 550; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XIII.
  10. ↑ Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (London: Robert Pawlet, 1672), "Of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels"; Project Canterbury transcription, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer: Of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.
  11. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook (London: Grant Richards, 1899), chapter VI, "The Holy Communion," p. 133; Project Canterbury transcription, The Parson's Handbook: Chapter VI.
  12. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook (London: Grant Richards, 1899), chapter VI, "The Holy Communion," p. 141; Project Canterbury transcription, The Parson's Handbook: Chapter VI.

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