Lord's Prayer after Communion (1928 BCP)

Lord's Prayer after Communion (1928 BCP) is the Lord's Prayer said in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer within the Holy Communion rite after the Prayer of Consecration and before the Prayer of Humble Access and the Administration of Communion. The page title preserves a common AnglicanWiki naming pattern, but the 1928 liturgical point is precise: this prayer is not the post-communion thanksgiving after reception. It is the congregation's Christ-given prayer of filial confidence, placed between the consecratory doxology and the communicants' humble approach to the Lord's Table.

Text in the 1928 Rite

In the 1928 Holy Communion office, the prayer follows immediately after the conclusion of the Prayer of Consecration. Its introduction interprets the prayer as obedience to Christ's teaching and as a boldness received from him rather than presumed by the worshipper:

And now, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say, Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The invitation matters as much as the familiar prayer. The consecration has just ended with "all honour and glory" to the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. The people then address God as "Our Father" before kneeling in the Prayer of Humble Access and receiving the sacrament. The sequence joins adoration, adoption, humility, and communion.

Scriptural Foundation

The 1928 text follows the Matthean form of the Lord's Prayer, including the doxology. In the Authorized Version, Christ gives the prayer within the Sermon on the Mount:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Prayer Book's "trespasses" wording reflects the received English liturgical form rather than a new translation of Matthew 6. Liturgically, the petitions are heard in eucharistic context: daily bread is prayed immediately before sacramental feeding, forgiveness is prayed before humble access, and deliverance from evil is prayed before receiving Christ's Body and Blood "with thanksgiving."

Article XXVIII supplies the doctrinal boundary within which this eucharistic use is understood. The communicants do not pray the Lord's Prayer as a substitute for sacramental reception, but as those about to receive by faith:

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ.

This is why the prayer's boldness is not casualness. In the 1928 order, the baptized approach the altar as children of the Father, but they do so through Christ's command, after consecration, and with the faith and repentance required for worthy reception.

Anglican Liturgical Development

The 1549 English Communion office placed the Lord's Prayer immediately after the eucharistic prayer and before the Prayer of Humble Access. That sequence is a close ancestor of the 1928 American arrangement:

As our saviour Christe hath commaunded and taught us, we are bolde to saye. Our father, whyche art in heaven, halowed be thy name. Thy Kyngdome come. Thy wyll be doen in yearth, as it is in heaven. Geve us this daye our dayly breade. And forgeve us our trespaces, as wee forgeve them that trespasse agaynst us. And leade us not into temptacion. The aunswere. But deliver us from evill. Amen.

The 1552 revision changed the placement. In that rite the Lord's Prayer follows after all have communicated and introduces the post-communion prayers:

Then shall the Priest saye the Lordes prayer, the people repeating after him every peticion. After shalbe sayde as foloweth. O LORDE and heavenly father, we thy humble servaunts entierly desire thy fatherly goodnes, mercifully to accept this our Sacrifice of prayse and thanksgeving...

The 1662 English book kept this post-reception placement. Its rubric explicitly says the prayer is said "when all have communicated":

When all have communicated, the Minister shall return to the Lords Table; and reverently place upon it what remaineth of the consecrated Elements, covering the same with a fair Linnen cloth. Then shall the Priest say the Lords Prayer, the People repeating after him every petition.

The 1928 American placement is therefore a deliberate return toward the earlier position after consecration and before reception. It makes the Lord's Prayer part of the immediate approach to communion, while 1552 and 1662 make it part of the thanksgiving and oblation after reception.

The 1928 Revision

E. Clowes Chorley, writing shortly after the 1928 book was adopted, noted the revised position of both the Prayer of Humble Access and the Lord's Prayer:

The Prayer of Humble Access now stands after the consecration of the Elements, and before the Lord's Prayer is now said, "And now, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say 'Our Father which art in heaven.'"

Chorley's sentence is compact but important. It identifies the 1928 change as part of the Communion office's revised order: consecration, Lord's Prayer, Humble Access, Communion. That order gives the Lord's Prayer a transitional role. It gathers the consecratory prayer into the filial address taught by Christ, then leads communicants into the penitential humility of the Prayer of Humble Access.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere help explain why this location was historically attractive to Anglican revisers. In their account of early eucharistic structure, the Lord's Prayer is not an incidental devotion but one of the fixed liturgical elements:

The Sursum corda, the Sanctus, the words of Institution, the Lord's Prayer, are cases in point. They are elements common to most early liturgies and are attested by early writers as prominent points in the service. They were principal parts of the structural skeleton of the early days, which later became variously clothed with differing features, just as they are still the main joints on which the Liturgy articulates.

Procter and Frere are not describing the 1928 American book directly, but their liturgical rationale explains the kind of historical reasoning behind a placement after the anaphora. The Lord's Prayer can function as one of the great joints of the eucharistic action: not merely a familiar prayer inserted anywhere, but a recognized point at which the Church moves from consecratory praise toward communion.

They also summarize the ancient anaphoral outline in a way that places the Lord's Prayer near the fraction before Communion:

In virtue of this, The Oblation of the elements and the Invocation of God's power to consecrate them. The Fraction, Lord's Prayer, and final Amen. The Invitation and the Communion. The Thanksgiving and dismissal.

This supports a modest historical claim: the 1928 rite's position is not an arbitrary rearrangement. It places the prayer where much older liturgical analysis expected it to stand, between the completed eucharistic prayer and the people's communion.

Theological Use

Clause by clause, the Lord's Prayer prepares communicants for sacramental reception. "Our Father" names the grace of adoption; "thy kingdom come" prays that God's reign, not private devotion, governs the altar; "thy will be done" submits the communicants to obedience; "daily bread" is heard beside the eucharistic gift; "forgive us our trespasses" requires reconciliation and mercy; "deliver us from evil" asks preservation as the faithful approach holy things; and the doxology returns the whole action to God's kingdom, power, and glory.

The 1928 sequence also guards two opposite errors. It prevents a merely individualistic Communion by making communicants pray "Our Father" together. It also prevents anxious self-reliance by placing that prayer immediately before the Prayer of Humble Access. The people come boldly because Christ has taught them to pray, and humbly because they come by mercy rather than merit.

Pastoral and Catechetical Significance

For clergy and catechists, this prayer is a useful point for explaining how Anglican eucharistic theology is embedded in order as well as wording. The congregation has heard Scripture, confessed sin, received absolution and Comfortable Words, joined the Sanctus, and heard the consecration. The Lord's Prayer then gives the communicants the Son's own address to the Father before they kneel and receive.

In parish use, the prayer should therefore be taught as both familiar and specifically eucharistic. It is the same prayer Christians use daily, but in this place it becomes the Church's corporate preparation for sacramental communion: the children of God pray for bread, forgiveness, deliverance, and the Father's glory before receiving the gifts of Christ.

See Also

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

External Links

• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Communion, 1549
• Communion, 1552
• Original Manuscript of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: Holy Communion
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New Prayer Book: Revision
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XII