Holy Communion Rubrics (1928 BCP)

Holy Communion Rubrics (1928 BCP) are the directions in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer that govern the public order, ministerial roles, posture, preparation, administration, and reverent completion of Holy Communion. They are not incidental stage directions. In the 1928 rite, rubrics teach how the Church prays: who speaks, who receives, when the people kneel or stand, how Scripture is heard, how communicants are prepared, and how the consecrated elements are treated.

The rubrics therefore belong to Anglican doctrine as well as Anglican order. They keep the service scriptural and intelligible, protect reverence without multiplying private ceremonies, and bind eucharistic devotion to repentance, faith, charity, and actual communion.

Rubrical Shape of the Rite

The opening rubrics establish Holy Communion as ordered common prayer at the Holy Table. The priest stands reverently before the Table, the people kneel, the Lord's Prayer may be omitted at the priest's discretion, and the Decalogue is either rehearsed or replaced by the Summary of the Law according to the stated rule:

At the Communion time the Holy Table shall have upon it a fair white linen cloth, and the Priest, standing reverently before the Holy Table, shall say the Lord's Prayer and the Collect following, the people kneeling; but the Lord's Prayer may be omitted at the discretion of the Priest.

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.

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.

These directions make the Communion office both penitential and evangelical from the beginning. The people are not spectators at a clerical action; they kneel, pray, hear God's commandments, and ask for mercy and grace. The priest's discretion over the Lord's Prayer and the monthly rule for the Decalogue show that the 1928 book allows pastoral judgment, but within an explicit Prayer Book pattern.

The same pattern continues in the ministry of the Word. The Collect of the Day, Epistle, Gospel, and Creed are all regulated by rubric, with the people standing for the Gospel and the Nicene Creed required on the chief feasts:

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.

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.

Then shall be said the Creed commonly called the Nicene, or else the Apostles' Creed; but the Creed may be omitted, if it hath been said immediately before in Morning Prayer; Provided, That the Nicene creed shall be said on Christmas-day, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, and Trinity-Sunday.

This is why the Holy Communion rubrics cannot be separated from Scripture. The office appoints a public sequence of prayer, biblical reading, Gospel proclamation, creed, sermon, offertory, intercession, confession, consecration, reception, thanksgiving, praise, and blessing. The rubrics give that sequence its enacted form.

Preparation and Discipline

The immediate preparation of communicants is also rubrical. The invitation is addressed to those who come to receive, and the General Confession is made by the priest and all intending communicants:

Then shall the Priest say to those who come to receive the Holy Communion,

Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to Almighty God, devoutly kneeling.

Then shall this General Confession be made, by the Priest and all those who are minded to receive the Holy Communion, humbly kneeling.

The invitation joins sacramental comfort to faith and confession. The communicant is not told to approach because he is spiritually sufficient, nor is he told to stay away because he is unworthy in himself. He is called to draw near in faith, confess sin, hear absolution and the Comfortable Words, and receive the sacrament as mercy.

Saint Paul's command to self-examination stands directly behind this Prayer Book discipline:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

The general rubrics after the blessing then spell out pastoral discipline. A deacon may read the ante-communion in the absence of a priest; the ante-communion may be used on Sundays and holy days even without Communion; the consecrated elements must not be carried out of church; and those known as notorious offenders or unreconciled persons are to be warned from the Lord's Table until repentance and amendment are manifest:

In the absence of a Priest, a Deacon may say all that is before appointed unto the end of the Gospel.

Upon the Sundays and other Holy-days, (though there be no Sermon or Communion,) may be said all that is appointed at the Communion, unto the end of the Gospel, concluding with the Blessing.

And if any of the consecrated Bread and Wine remain after the Communion, it shall not be carried out of the Church; but the Minister and other Communicants shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same.

If among those who come to be partakers of the Holy Communion, the Minister shall know any to be an open and notorious evil liver, or to have done any wrong to his neighbours by word or deed, so that the Congregation be thereby offended; he shall advertise him, that he presume not to come to the Lord's Table, until he have openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former evil life...

The discipline rubric is also an application of Christ's teaching about reconciliation before offering at the altar:

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

The rubric is therefore pastoral before it is punitive. It protects the congregation from scandal, warns the offender toward repentance, requires reconciliation where malice reigns, and preserves the Lord's Table as a communion of charity rather than a religious act detached from amendment of life.

Consecration and Administration

The rubrics around the Prayer of Consecration and administration show the same balance of order and reverence. The priest orders the Bread and Wine for the manual acts, the priest first receives in both kinds, the people receive in order and kneeling, and insufficient consecrated elements require a return to the prescribed form:

When the Priest, standing before the Table, hath so ordered the Bread and Wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the Bread before the People, and take the Cup into his hands, he shall say the Prayer of Consecration, as followeth.

Then shall the Priest first receive the Holy Communion in both kinds himself, and proceed to deliver the same to the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in like manner, (if any be present,) and, after that, to the People also in order, into their hands, all devoutly kneeling. And sufficient opportunity shall be given to those present to communicate.

If the consecrated Bread or Wine be spent before all have communicated, the Priest is to consecrate more, according to the Form before prescribed; beginning at, All glory be to thee, Almighty God, and ending with these words, partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood.

The doctrine is not hidden behind the directions. The elements are not treated as common bread and wine after consecration, and the minister is not free to improvise another form if more is needed. Yet the rule also serves pastoral fullness: "sufficient opportunity" must be given to those present to communicate.

The Articles of Religion give the doctrinal boundary within which these rubrics are received. The Sacrament is to be used, not gazed upon; Christ is received after a heavenly and spiritual manner; and the Cup is not to be denied to the laity:

The Sacraments are not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them.

The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith.

The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people: for both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.

This explains the 1928 rubrical restraint. The rite reverently consecrates, administers, covers, and consumes according to order, but it does not turn the sacrament into an object for detached contemplation. It is given to be received by faith in the gathered Church.

Historical Interpretation

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the English Reformation's rubrical method as restrained rather than exhaustive. In their account, the early Prayer Book reduced private preparatory material and supplied only necessary rubrical direction, assuming inherited customs where they were consistent with the revised service:

The preparatory prayers were reduced to a minimum and almost all the semi-official devotions disappeared; the celebrant and his ministers were left almost entirely to themselves for their prayers at the offertory, communion and other times noted above: they were also provided with only a bare minimum of rubric, and even that was not generally provided except in places where a change was made, and where therefore the old customs needed to be superseded: since these were otherwise assumed to continue so far as was consistent with the new service.

They also interpret the rubrics on notorious evil livers and unreconciled persons as discipline ordered through the Church rather than private clerical arbitrariness:

The second Rubric refers to the case of notorious evil livers, or persons who have done wrong to their neighbours by word or deed, to the offence of the congregation. The third likewise refers to malicious persons. These rules, implying an efficient system of corrective discipline, are wisely retained for self-reproof, and as a means of showing what the Church requires in her members... The ecclesiastical rule is, according to the addition made in 1661 to the third Rubric, to signify the case of one who will not be admonished to the Bishop.

On the consecrated elements, Procter and Frere identify the later historical origin and theological purpose of two rubrics that remain important for the 1928 rite:

The rubric directing a second consecration, if required, was added in 1661. It was already customary, a similar rubric had been inserted in the Scottish Book, and the attempt of a Puritan to administer unconsecrated bread and wine, when more was required, without proceeding to a second consecration, had been definitely condemned in 1574... The rubric following as to the placing and covering of what remains of the consecrated elements upon the Lord's table, also dates from 1661, and is part of the provision then made for greater reverence to the Holy Sacrament.

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book gives a complementary account of why Prayer Book rubrics can be concise without being trivial. He argues that the Reformation Prayer Book reduced the number of rubrics and left some usages to inherited tradition:

The reconstructors of our devotional offices acted wisely in reducing the number of Rubrics, and generally moderating the ceremonial system of the Church of England... They went upon the principle of expressing only the most essential things in the Rubric, and left many others to tradition. As Bishop Cosin states it, "The book does not every where enjoin and prescribe every little order, what should be said or done, but takes it for granted that people are acquainted with such common, and things always used already."

This historical point is important for 1928 use. The rubrics name what must be public, common, and accountable. They do not answer every ceremonial question by detailed legislation, but they do set the controlling order of the rite.

Pastoral and Catechetical Use

In parish teaching, the Holy Communion rubrics are a practical guide to Anglican sacramental theology. They show that worship has a given order, that Scripture and creed precede the sacramental action, that communicants approach through repentance and faith, that Communion is received in both kinds, and that the consecrated elements are handled reverently after use.

The rubrics also guard against opposite mistakes. Against casual minimalism, they require reverence, order, discipline, and faithful administration. Against ceremonial excess, they keep attention on the common action of the Church: Word, prayer, consecration, Communion, thanksgiving, praise, and blessing. Against individualism, they order the people as communicants in one body. Against mechanical sacramentalism, they require confession, self-examination, charity, and faith.

The 1928 rubrics therefore teach clergy and laity to read the Communion office as a whole. The words prayed and the actions directed belong together. Anglican doctrine is not merely stated beside the liturgy; it is enacted through the Prayer Book's ordered common prayer.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Sacraments in the 1928 BCP
• Administration of Communion (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Consecration (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Humble Access (1928 BCP)
• Articles of Religion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Articles of Religion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Procter and Frere: The Communion Service
• John Henry Blunt: The Annotated Book of Common Prayer