Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)

Evening Prayer (1928 BCP) is the appointed evening office in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. Together with Morning Prayer, it forms the ordinary public rhythm of the Daily Office: the Church ends the day under Scripture, confession, absolution, psalmody, lessons, canticles, creed, collects, and intercession.

Evening Prayer is not simply Morning Prayer repeated at a later hour. Its biblical sentences, evening canticles, and final collects give the office a distinct pastoral character. It gathers the day into repentance and thanksgiving, hears the Word of God, answers Scripture with the songs of Mary and Simeon, and asks for the peace and protection that only God can give.

Place in the Daily Office

In the 1928 BCP, Evening Prayer follows the same evangelical and catholic order as Morning Prayer. The office begins with Scripture, moves through confession and absolution, prays the Psalms, appoints lessons from Scripture, responds with canticles, confesses the Apostles' Creed, and concludes with suffrages, collects, and prayers. This stable order keeps evening worship from becoming either private sentiment or mere instruction. The congregation is taught to close the day by receiving God's Word and returning the day to God in prayer.

The office also gives Anglican homes, schools, missions, and parishes a common form for daily worship when the Eucharist is not celebrated. It is especially suited to public weekday prayer because it joins brevity, doctrinal fullness, and scriptural breadth. Its shape assumes that Christian formation is learned by repeated common prayer, not by novelty.

Opening sentences and repentance

The opening sentences of Evening Prayer are drawn from Scripture and place the people before God before any confession is spoken. They may be penitential, doxological, or seasonally appropriate, but their function is consistent: the minister begins by letting Scripture interpret the congregation's approach to prayer.

When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

The sentence from Ezekiel keeps repentance from being treated as a merely inward feeling. The sinner turns, does what is lawful and right, and receives life from the mercy of God. Evening Prayer therefore reviews the day in the light of God's holiness and promise. The office does not presume that the worshipper comes to God with an untroubled conscience.

The General Confession names sin with the same direct language used in Morning Prayer. This common confession matters liturgically. The congregation does not end the day by excusing its failures or hiding behind general religious language. It asks mercy for what has been done and left undone.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.

The confession's "lost sheep" image connects Evening Prayer with Scripture's account of human waywardness and divine restoration. It asks that penitent sinners may live a godly, righteous, and sober life "to the glory of thy holy Name." The goal of forgiveness is not religious relief only, but restored obedience.

Absolution and Gospel promise

The absolution is central to the office's theological order. In the 1928 BCP it is not a casual reassurance. The priest or bishop declares God's pardon according to the Gospel, while the people are called to true repentance and sincere faith.

He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.

This wording gives Evening Prayer an evangelical grammar. Pardon is God's act; repentance and faith are the appointed way in which sinners receive the promise. The service then moves from absolution into the Lord's Prayer and praise. Anglican worship therefore places penitence and praise in proper order: the forgiven people call upon the Father before they proceed to psalmody and lessons.

Psalms, lessons, and the Word of God

The Psalter is the prayer book within the Prayer Book. Evening Prayer assigns Psalms as the Church's inspired language at the end of the day: lament, thanksgiving, trust, judgment, penitence, and hope are all brought before God. The Gloria Patri gives this Old Testament prayer a Trinitarian frame.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The lessons then place the congregation under the continuing public reading of Scripture. Evening Prayer shares in the apostolic pattern of a Church gathered around teaching and prayer.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The Daily Office is one of the Prayer Book's chief instruments for this apostolic continuity. It does not detach prayer from doctrine or Scripture from worship. The lessons are heard in course, the Psalms are prayed, and the canticles teach the Church how to answer the Word.

Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Evening Prayer is marked especially by the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis. These canticles give the office its evening voice. They are not decorative songs inserted after readings; they are biblical responses to God's saving work in Christ.

The Magnificat places the Church beside the Blessed Virgin Mary as she magnifies the Lord for mercy, covenant faithfulness, and the reversal of proud human power.

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

This canticle teaches the Church to interpret the day through the mercy promised to Israel and fulfilled in Christ. Mary's song is therefore both personal praise and ecclesial confession. It names God as Saviour, exalts his mercy, and remembers his promise to Abraham and his seed.

The Nunc dimittis answers the second lesson with Simeon's peace. It is especially apt for evening because it teaches the worshipper to end the day in readiness before God.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

Simeon's canticle joins peace, Scripture, and the sight of Christ. The office therefore closes the day not by looking inward for assurance, but by receiving the salvation God has shown in his Son. The line "according to thy word" is important: Evening Prayer rests peace on divine promise rather than on the worshipper's achievement.

Creed, suffrages, and collects

After the lessons and canticles, Evening Prayer confesses the Apostles' Creed. The Creed gathers the Church's biblical hearing into the baptismal rule of faith: Father, Son, Holy Ghost, creation, incarnation, death, resurrection, judgment, forgiveness, and everlasting life.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.

The suffrages then turn confession into petition. Evening Prayer asks for peace, purity, defence, and deliverance. The Collect for Peace is one of the office's most characteristic prayers because it names the peace of God as something the world cannot produce.

O GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give.

The collect connects moral desire, wise counsel, just action, and peace to God as their source. It also echoes the promise of Christ: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." Evening Prayer therefore teaches that Christian peace is not merely quietness after activity. It is the ordered peace of those defended by God's power and reconciled by his mercy.

The Collect for Aid against Perils continues this evening theology by asking for protection from the dangers of the night.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night.

The prayer is simple, but doctrinally rich. Darkness is both literal and spiritual; defence is asked through mercy; the night is entrusted to the Lord. For this reason the office has long served as a pastoral form for households, chapels, and parishes closing the day in dependence on God.

Anglican theological significance

Evening Prayer shows how the 1928 BCP joins Reformation doctrine, catholic form, and pastoral discipline. Its penitential opening is evangelical because it confesses sin plainly and hears pardon according to the Gospel. Its psalmody, lessons, canticles, Creed, and fixed collects are catholic because they locate the congregation inside the Church's inherited public prayer. Its evening collects are pastoral because they address ordinary human vulnerability: weariness, darkness, fear, unfinished duty, and the need for peace.

The office also protects Anglican theology from abstraction. Doctrine is not merely described; it is prayed. Sin is confessed, forgiveness is declared, Scripture is heard, the Incarnation is sung in the Gospel canticles, the Creed is confessed, and the night is commended to God. A parish that regularly prays Evening Prayer is catechized in the grammar of repentance, Scripture, praise, catholic faith, and trust.

For Reformed Episcopal and traditional Anglican readers, Evening Prayer also displays the Prayer Book's reformed catholic balance. It gives primacy to Scripture without reducing worship to a lecture. It uses fixed forms without making them empty formalism. It honors the ancient canticles without detaching them from the Gospel. It teaches the congregation to close the day in the mercy of God, the peace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost.

Use in worship and teaching

Evening Prayer may be used as a principal public office, a weekday parish service, a school or chapel office, or a household form of prayer. It is particularly useful where the Church needs a stable service of Scripture and prayer without celebration of Holy Communion. Its full form is strongest when the Psalms, both lessons, the Magnificat, the Nunc dimittis, the Creed, and the evening collects are retained.

In teaching, Evening Prayer is best explained by following the order of the service. The opening sentences teach biblical summons; confession teaches repentance; absolution teaches Gospel promise; the Psalms teach inspired prayer; the lessons teach public submission to Scripture; the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis teach biblical response to Christ; the Creed teaches catholic faith; and the collects teach peace and protection at the end of the day.

This textual method connects Evening Prayer to related 1928 BCP topics such as Opening Sentences in Evening Prayer (1928 BCP), Magnificat (1928 BCP), Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP), Collect for Aid Against Perils (1928 BCP), Collect for Peace in Evening Prayer (1928 BCP), The Psalter (1928 BCP), Daily Office Lectionary (1928 BCP), and Scripture in the 1928 BCP.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office Lectionary (1928 BCP)
• Opening Sentences in Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Magnificat (1928 BCP)
• Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Peace in Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Aid Against Perils (1928 BCP)
• Scripture in the 1928 BCP

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer