Gospel in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

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Gospel in Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the appointed Gospel lesson read after the Epistle and before the Creed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer order for Holy Communion. In the 1928 rite it is the climactic reading in the Communion office's ministry of the Word: the Church prays the Collect of the Day, hears the Epistle, stands for the Holy Gospel, acclaims Christ, confesses the faith in the Creed, and then proceeds through sermon, offertory, intercession, confession, absolution, consecration, Communion, thanksgiving, and blessing.

1928 Communion Rubric

The 1928 Holy Communion office places the Gospel after the Epistle and after the optional hymn or anthem. The change of posture is explicit: the people stand for the Gospel.

Then, all the People standing, the Minister appointed shall read the Gospel, first saying, The Holy Gospel is written in the — Chapter of —, beginning at the — Verse.

[1]

The same rubric gives the Gospel acclamations. These short responses distinguish the reading from the Epistle: the Gospel is heard as the public proclamation of the words and works of Christ.

Glory be to thee, O Lord.

[2]

Praise be to thee, O Christ.

[3]

The Gospel is followed immediately by the Nicene Creed, or in some circumstances the Apostles' Creed. This sequence matters theologically: Christ is proclaimed in the Gospel and then confessed in the Creed before the sermon and sacramental action.

Appointed Propers

The Gospel belongs to the Prayer Book's cycle of proper Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. The opening rubric for the propers says that the Sunday proper continues through the 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

[4]

This rule keeps the Gospel from being treated as an isolated Sunday text. It is part of the week's proper: the Collect gathers the prayer of the day, the Epistle gives apostolic instruction, and the Gospel presents Christ's own teaching, action, passion, or resurrection as the centre of the Church's hearing.

Representative 1928 Gospels

The First Sunday in Advent appoints Matthew 21. The Gospel begins the Christian year not with abstraction but with the Lord's royal entry into Jerusalem:

Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

[5]

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity appoints Luke 14. The Gospel places humility at the table beside Christ's healing mercy on the sabbath:

When thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher

[6]

The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity appoints Matthew 9. Its Gospel joins resurrection hope and bodily healing in the person of Christ:

My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

[7]

These examples show the Gospel's range in the 1928 cycle. It gives the congregation Christ entering as King, Christ teaching humility, Christ healing, Christ forgiving, Christ raising the dead, Christ suffering, Christ rising, and Christ sending the Spirit. The Gospel is therefore not only a reading slot but the Church's ordered encounter with the Lord whose body and blood are received in the same office.

Liturgical Meaning

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the first part of the Communion office as preparation ordered by repentance, desire, obedience, faith, and charity. In that structure, the Epistle and Gospel form the obedient hearing of Scripture before Creed and 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.

[8]

They also connect this portion of the Prayer Book office with ancient Christian patterns of readings 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.

[9]

The Gospel is thus part of a larger act of preparation for Communion. The congregation does not approach the Lord's Table apart from the Lord's Word. It hears the Law, the apostolic witness, and the Gospel; then it confesses the faith and receives preaching before the offertory and sacramental prayers.

Historical Development

Procter and Frere trace the Prayer Book's Sunday and holy day propers through the structure of the ecclesiastical year. From Advent through Trinity, the Epistles and Gospels are 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.

[10]

For Trinitytide, they identify a practical and moral pattern in which the Gospels often illuminate the Epistles:

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.

[11]

Anthony Sparrow makes the same pastoral connection from the side of the Collect. The Collect of the Day asks grace for the matter set before the congregation in the Epistle and Gospel:

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.

[12]

The Gospel's heightened ceremony also has historical roots. Procter and Frere note that separate service books once corresponded to separate liturgical ministers:

On the same principle, a 'Gospel-book' was written for the deacon who read the Gospel, and an 'Epistle-book' for the subdeacon who read the Epistle

[13]

Percy Dearmer likewise reads the Gospel as a distinctive liturgical act. His directions emphasize the intelligibility and reverence of the reading:

Both the Gospel and Epistle should be sung to the old tones, with due regard to their rhythm and meaning, or else recited on a note.

[14]

Dearmer also comments on the concluding acclamation preserved in Anglican use:

At the conclusion of the Gospel the choir, still facing east, sing 'Praise be to Thee, O Christ,' or 'O Lord.' This usage, though in no English missal, can be traced in England to the seventeenth century, and probably had come down to us by tradition.

[15]

Theological Use

In classical Anglican theology, the Gospel in Holy Communion enacts the sufficiency and public authority of Holy Scripture. Article VI teaches that Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation; the Communion office embodies that claim by placing scriptural proclamation before Creed, sermon, and sacrament. The Gospel is not a devotional ornament around the Eucharist. It is the living testimony to Jesus Christ, whose saving work the Eucharist declares and applies.

The 1928 order also keeps Word and Sacrament together. Reformed and evangelical Anglican interpretation emphasizes that Christ's people must hear his Word with understanding and faith before receiving the sacrament. High Church and Anglican Catholic interpretation emphasizes continuity with the older proper cycle, the reverence shown to the Gospel, and the catholic pattern of standing, acclamation, Creed, and Eucharistic action. The 1928 rite holds these together by making the Gospel both intelligible public Scripture and reverent liturgical proclamation.

Because the Gospel follows the Epistle and precedes the Creed, it also governs preaching and catechesis. Sermons on the appointed proper should normally read Collect, Epistle, and Gospel together. The Collect asks; the Epistle instructs; the Gospel reveals Christ's person, word, and work; the Creed answers with the Church's confession.

Use in Worship

The appointed minister should introduce the Gospel clearly with the Prayer Book formula and the appointed book, chapter, and verse. The people stand for the reading and may answer with the prescribed acclamations. The Gospel should not be hurried, because it is the final reading before the Creed and the sermon.

For parish instruction, the Gospel is best taught in relation to the whole proper. Advent Gospels proclaim Christ's coming and judgment; Christmas and Epiphany Gospels reveal the incarnation and manifestation of the Son; Lent and Passiontide Gospels draw the Church into repentance and the Passion; Easter and Ascension Gospels proclaim resurrection and exaltation; Trinitytide Gospels teach the life of grace through Christ's parables, miracles, and conversations.

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 Gospel, p. 70; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 207-213.
  2. ↑ 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," Gospel acclamation before the reading, p. 70; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 214-219.
  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," Gospel acclamation after the reading, p. 70; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justus1928/HC.htm, lines 220-223.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The First Sunday in Advent," Gospel, St. Matthew 21:1-13; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm, lines 150-170; OCR punctuation in the surrounding Justus text was checked manually against the biblical wording before quotation.
  6. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Luke 14:1-11; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 1492-1514.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928, "The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity," Gospel, St. Matthew 9:18-26; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Collects, Epistles and Gospels - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Local comparison: sources/justuspropers/ReadingsC.htm, lines 1858-1864; the OCR split in "worshipped" in the surrounding Justus line was identified and avoided in the quoted text.
  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 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.
  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 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.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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 II, "The Service-Books," section on the differentiation of service-books; Internet Archive scan and text, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with local text extraction checked in tmp/revision-research/gospel-in-holy-communion/procter-frere-1907-djvu.txt, lines 1529-1536.
  14. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook (London: Grant Richards, 1899), chapter VI, "The Holy Communion," p. 151; Project Canterbury transcription, The Parson's Handbook: Chapter VI.
  15. ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Parson's Handbook (London: Grant Richards, 1899), chapter VI, "The Holy Communion," p. 152; Project Canterbury transcription, The Parson's Handbook: Chapter VI.

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