Independence Day Proper (1928 BCP)

Independence Day Proper (1928 BCP) is the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer provision for July 4. It gives Independence Day a collect, an Epistle from Deuteronomy 10, and a Gospel from Matthew 5. The proper is therefore not a civil observance imported without theological control: the Church thanks God for liberty, asks grace to maintain liberty in righteousness and peace, hears Moses command love for the stranger under the impartial judgment of God, and hears Christ command love of enemies.

Text of the Collect

The 1928 collect is the article's controlling text. It begins with providence, but its petition is moral rather than triumphalist: liberty must be maintained "in righteousness and peace." The wording below has been compared word for word with the local Justus 1928 propers source and with the rendered Standard Book facsimile page.

O ETERNAL God, through whose mighty power our fathers won their liberties of old; Grant, we beseech thee, that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Clause by clause, the collect keeps civic memory under Christian petition. "O eternal God" refuses to make the nation ultimate. "Through whose mighty power" locates deliverance in providence, not merely in political skill. "Our fathers won their liberties of old" remembers inherited liberties without turning inheritance into self-justification. "Grant ... grace" makes continuance of liberty dependent on divine help. "We and all the people of this land" widens the prayer beyond the worshiping congregation. "In righteousness and peace" states the moral condition of rightly maintained liberty. "Through Jesus Christ our Lord" places the whole civic thanksgiving inside Christian mediation.

Appointed Scripture

The appointed Epistle is Deuteronomy 10:17-21. The passage does not praise national greatness as such. It first names the Lord as impartial judge, then commands care for the fatherless, widow, and stranger. In the 1928 proper, liberty is interpreted by divine justice and mercy toward the vulnerable.

THE Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

The Gospel is Matthew 5:43-48. It is an especially sharp choice for a national day because Christ forbids defining righteousness by love of one's own side. The collect's "peace" is thus not a vague civic mood; it is tied to the Sermon on the Mount's command to bless, do good, and pray for persecutors.

JESUS said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Together, the collect and lessons make Independence Day an exercise in moral thanksgiving. The collect remembers liberty; Deuteronomy binds liberty to impartial justice and love of the stranger; Matthew binds it to enemy-love. The proper therefore resists both resentment and civil self-congratulation. It teaches the congregation to pray for national liberty as a trust answerable to God.

Civil Authority in the 1928 BCP

The Independence Day proper stands beside the book's ordinary prayers for rulers. Morning Prayer asks God to bless the President and all in authority and to replenish them with the Holy Spirit so that they may will and walk in God's way.

O LORD, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; Most heartily we beseech thee, with thy favour to behold and bless thy servant THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and all others in authority; and so replenish them with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that they may always incline to thy will, and walk in thy way.

Evening Prayer uses stronger language of delegated authority. Rulers are prayed for as servants who bear authority under God, while the people are taught to honor lawful authority "according to thy blessed Word and ordinance." This background helps interpret July 4: the proper is not a replacement for daily intercession for civil government, but a fixed civic thanksgiving disciplined by the same doctrine of divine sovereignty.

ALMIGHTY God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite; Have mercy upon this whole land; and so rule the hearts of thy servants THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, The Governor of this State, and all others in authority, that they, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek thy honour and glory; and that we and all the People, duly considering whose authority they bear, may faithfully and obediently honour them, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Litany makes the same point in petition form. It prays first for the Church, then for the President, then for Christian rulers and magistrates. The order is important: civil authority is real, but it is not the Church's first allegiance.

WE sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God; and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universal in the right way; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That it may please thee so to rule the heart of thy servant, The President of the United States, that he may above all things seek thy honour and glory; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and preserve all Christian Rulers and Magistrates, giving them grace to execute justice, and to maintain truth; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

American Prayer Book History

An Independence Day service had appeared in the 1786 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, but it did not survive into the 1789 American Prayer Book. The 1786 title shows how explicit the earlier office was: it was a yearly Fourth of July form of prayer and thanksgiving for religious and civil liberty.

A FORM OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING TO ALMIGHTY GOD, For the inestimable Blessings of Religious and Civil Liberty; to be used yearly Fourth Day of July, unless it happen to be on Sunday, and then on following.

The earlier proposed collect was longer and more explicit about providence. It also shows continuity with the later 1928 instinct: public liberty is to be received as mercy and returned to God in praise, not treated as an autonomous civic possession.

Almighty God, who hast in all ages shewed forth thy power and mercy in the wonderful preservation of thy church, and in the protection of every nation and people professing thy holy and eternal Truth, and putting their sure trust in thee; We yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise for all thy public mercies, and more especially for that signal and wonderful manifestation of thy providence which we commemorate this day; Wherefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be ascribed all honor and glory, in all churches of the Saints, from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

E. Clowes Chorley, writing as Historiographer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, explains the 1785-1786 context. The proposed American revisions altered the state prayers after the Revolution, removed royal observances, and supplied a Fourth of July thanksgiving. Chorley's account is the key historical interpretation for the 1928 proper because it shows that July 4 had been a contested liturgical question from the beginning of American Prayer Book revision.

A service was provided for the Fourth of July to be observed as a day of thanksgiving "for the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty vouchsafed to the United States of America." It included this Collect:

Chorley immediately adds that the service was not retained in 1789. That fact keeps the 1928 proper from being misunderstood as an uninterrupted survival from the first American book. It is better read as a later restoration or re-framing of a question that the 1789 book had avoided.

The service thus adopted was directed "to be used in this Church for ever." It called forth, however, sharp difference of opinion in the convention and was not retained in the Prayer Book of 1789.

Bishop William White's memoir gives a contemporary insider's reason for the controversy. White accepted prayer for the commonwealths and for rulers, but he judged the proposed Fourth of July office imprudent because it introduced a political test into a church still being organized after the Revolution.

The next material question, to the best of the recollection retained, was on a motion for framing a service for the Fourth of July. This was the most injudicious step taken by the convention. Might they not have foreseen, that every clergyman whose political principles interfered with the appointment, would be under a strong temptation to cry down the intended book, if it were only to get rid of the offensive holiday?

White's qualification is equally important. His objection was not to prayer for civil prosperity or rulers as such. That had already been done by remaining clergy, including those politically alienated by the Revolution. This distinction explains the 1928 book's more restrained provision: it prays for liberty under righteousness and peace, and it does so with Scripture that limits national feeling by justice and enemy-love.

Had the question been concerning the praying for the prosperity of the commonwealths, and for the persons of those who rule in them, the argument would have been conclusive; and, indeed, this had been done by all the remaining clergy, however disaffected they might have been.

Theological Interpretation

The 1928 Independence Day proper is best read as thanksgiving under judgment. Its collect does not ask God to ratify every national act; it asks for grace to maintain liberty rightly. Its Old Testament lesson makes love of the stranger part of national righteousness, and its Gospel makes love of enemies part of Christian perfection. In a classical Anglican reading, the day belongs to common prayer only when civic gratitude is converted into repentance, intercession, justice, and peace.

That theological balance also explains why this proper fits the wider Prayer Book. The Daily Office and Litany already pray for rulers; July 4 adds a particular memory of civil liberty. But the proper does not allow the congregation to confuse liberty with autonomy. Liberty is preserved by grace, measured by righteousness, guarded by peace, and finally offered through Jesus Christ.

Use in Worship

In parish use, the proper may be used to teach the difference between Christian thanksgiving for temporal goods and uncritical civil religion. The collect supplies the prayer; Deuteronomy supplies the social test of the prayer; Matthew supplies the evangelical test of the prayer. Sermons and catechesis can therefore connect Independence Day with prayer for rulers, justice for strangers and vulnerable people, reconciliation with enemies, and thanksgiving for lawful liberty.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Prayers and Thanksgivings (1928 BCP)
• The Litany (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, Independence Day proper
• EpiscopalNet, Independence Day Propers (1928 BCP)
• 1786 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, Independence Day
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter III
• William White, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America