Marriage Blessing (1928 BCP)
Marriage Blessing (1928 BCP) is the priestly benediction that concludes the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. In the office it is not an isolated sentiment after the vows. It gathers the preceding consent, vows, ring, Lord's Prayer, nuptial prayer, and pronouncement into a Trinitarian petition that the married couple may receive 'spiritual benediction and grace' for their common life and final salvation.
Prayer Book Text
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favour look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. Amen.
The blessing has three movements. First, it invokes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, so that marriage is received before the triune God rather than treated merely as a private contract. Secondly, it asks that the Lord bless, preserve, and keep the couple, placing married life under divine protection and mercy. Thirdly, it joins the present household to the final end of Christian life: the couple are to so live together in this life that they may have life everlasting.
The blessing follows immediately after the minister has joined the couple's right hands, cited Christ's word against separation, and pronounced them husband and wife. Its placement matters: the Church first receives their promises and then prays over the new household.
Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.
Blessing, Covenant, and Ring
The 1928 rite places the blessing within a covenantal sequence. The ring is a token and pledge of the vow already made; the minister then prays that the couple may keep that covenant in love, peace, and obedience to God's laws.
O ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life; Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy Name; that they, living faithfully together, may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, (whereof this Ring given and received is a token and pledge,) and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The optional 1928 home prayer makes explicit what the final blessing assumes: Matrimony is ordered toward a shared Christian household, not only a lawful ceremony. It interprets married love through the union of Christ and his Church.
O GOD, who hast so consecrated the state of Matrimony that in it is represented the spiritual marriage and unity betwixt Christ and his Church; Look mercifully upon these thy servants, that they may love, honour, and cherish each other, and so live together in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that their home may be a haven of blessing and of peace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
Appointed Scripture and Prayer
The proper collect for a marriage asks God to behold the couple and grant grace as they seek first the kingdom. That prayer supplies the devotional frame for the office's blessing language.
O ETERNAL God, we humbly beseech thee, favourably to behold these thy servants now (or about to be) joined in wedlock according to thy holy ordinance; and grant that they, seeking first thy kingdom and thy righteousness, may obtain the manifold blessings of thy grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Gospel appointed for the occasion is the same Matthean text quoted inside the marriage office before the final blessing. The blessing therefore rests on Christ's teaching about creation, union, and the divine joining of husband and wife.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Classical Anglican Interpretation
Anthony Sparrow's seventeenth-century rationale explains why the blessing is more than ceremonial ornament. The vows bind the couple before God and the congregation, while the ring marks durable fidelity.
The Ring hath been alwayes used as an especial pledge of faith and fidelity. Nothing more fit to serve as a token of our purposed endless continuance in that which we never ought to revoke; and therefore fitly used in marriage, which is a contract not to be dissolved but by death.
Sparrow also describes the minister's act after the vow and contract: the priest seals the union with Christ's word and then blesses the couple. This directly illuminates the 1928 order, where the final blessing follows the joining of hands and pronouncement.
After the Priest hath prayed for grace and Gods assistence, for the married persons, to enable them to keep their solemn vow and contract, then does he as it were seal that bond and contract, by which they have mutually tied themselves, with Gods seal, viz. Those whom God hath joyned together, let no man put asunder.
Sparrow's historical claim also shows why the blessing can be treated as a received Anglican pattern: the Church's office blesses the married couple publicly and surrounds their household with prayer and thanksgiving.
The persons to be married were contracted by the Priest, the marriage was solemnly pronounced in the Church, the married couple were blessed by the Priest, prayers and thanksgivings were used, and the holy Communion administred to them.
The 1928 Revision
E. Clowes Chorley, historiographer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, identified the marriage office as one of the conspicuous revised services in the 1928 book. His account helps distinguish the inherited final blessing from the new or altered elements around it.
The most significant change is that the vows and promises of the man and the woman are made exactly alike by the omission of the word "obey." They both undertake precisely the same obligation.
Chorley also notes the new blessing of the ring and the added prayers, including the household prayer quoted above. Thus the 1928 rite both preserves the older final blessing and enriches the surrounding petitions.
Provision is made for the blessing of the Ring in the words: "Bless, O Lord, this Ring, that he who gives it and she who wears it may abide in thy peace, and continue in thy favour, unto their life's end; through Jesus Christ our Lord: Amen."
Inherited Anglican Form
The 1928 final blessing is substantially continuous with the older English Prayer Book form. The 1662 manuscript tradition already placed the blessing after the pronouncement, with the same Trinitarian address and the same movement from present grace to everlasting life.
God the Father, God the Son, God the holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favour look upon you, and soe fill you with all spiritual benediction, and grace, that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come, ye may have life everlasting. Amen.
Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere place matrimonial blessings among the continuities retained in the first reformed Prayer Book. Their account is useful because it treats the marriage blessing as part of Prayer Book history rather than as a merely private devotion.
The sign of the cross was retained, not only twice, in the consecration prayer and (not in its present position) in Baptism, but also in Confirmation, in the Blessings at Matrimony, and in the Visitation of the Sick if the sick person desired to be anointed.
Use in Worship and Catechesis
For clergy and catechists, the marriage blessing summarizes the office's doctrine in a compact form. It teaches that Christian marriage is entered by public consent and vow, interpreted by Scripture, received under God's ordinance, supported by prayer, and directed toward holiness and eternal life. The 1928 additions around the blessing also give pastoral language for the ring, children when God grants them, and the home as a haven of blessing and peace.
The final civil-law rubric keeps the distinction between the Church's blessing and the state's regulation of the civil contract. The office therefore holds both together without confusing them: ministers obey local law in what regards the civil contract, while the Church prays and blesses in the Name of the triune God.
See Also
External Links
- 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Marriage
- 1928 BCP Propers for Various Occasions: At a Marriage
- Anthony Sparrow, Of Matrimony
- E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, chapter VII
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, final blessing, pp. 301-302, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Marriage.htm, lines 199-206. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, pronouncement before the marriage blessing, p. 301, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Marriage.htm, lines 187-190. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, nuptial prayer after the Lord's Prayer, p. 300, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Marriage.htm, lines 157-170. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, optional prayer for the home, p. 301, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Marriage.htm, lines 179-186. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, Propers for Various Occasions, At a Marriage, The Collect, EpiscopalNet transcription, Propers for Various Occasions: At a Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justuspropers/Readings1928.htm, lines 351-360. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (Standard Book accepted in 1928), The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, Propers for Various Occasions, At a Marriage, The Gospel, St. Matthew xix. 4, EpiscopalNet transcription, Propers for Various Occasions: At a Marriage; compared with local source
sources/justuspropers/Readings1928.htm, lines 379-390. - ↑ Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1672), Of Matrimony, Project Canterbury transcription, Anthony Sparrow: Of Matrimony.
- ↑ Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1672), Of Matrimony, Project Canterbury transcription, Anthony Sparrow: Of Matrimony.
- ↑ Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1672), Of Matrimony, Project Canterbury transcription, Anthony Sparrow: Of Matrimony.
- ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan Company, 1929), chapter VII, The New Prayer Book: Revision, Project Canterbury transcription, E. Clowes Chorley: The New American Prayer Book, Chapter VII.
- ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan Company, 1929), chapter VII, The New Prayer Book: Revision, Project Canterbury transcription, E. Clowes Chorley: The New American Prayer Book, Chapter VII.
- ↑ Church of England, 1662 Book of Common Prayer manuscript text, The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony, final blessing, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, 1662 manuscript: Catechism, Confirmation, and Marriage.
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1907), p. 53, Internet Archive scan/OCR, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer.