Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)

Morning Prayer (1928 BCP) is the appointed morning office in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. Alongside Evening Prayer, it forms the ordinary public pattern of the Daily Office: Scripture is heard, sin is confessed, absolution is declared, the Psalms are prayed, the Creed is confessed, and the Church begins the day in collects and intercession.

Morning Prayer is therefore not merely a devotional reading plan. In the 1928 BCP it is a rule of common prayer that joins biblical repentance, evangelical pardon, ordered psalmody, the public reading of Scripture, and the Church's creedal faith. It gives clergy, families, schools, and parishes a stable way to begin the day under the Word of God and in the prayers of the Church.

Place in the Daily Office

Morning Prayer stands at the front of the 1928 BCP because it is one of the Prayer Book's ordinary forms for daily worship. Its order is theological as well as practical. The office begins with sentences of Scripture, moves into confession and absolution, calls the congregation to praise through the Venite or another invitatory, appoints Psalms and lessons, receives the canticles, confesses the Apostles' Creed, and concludes with the Lord's Prayer, suffrages, collects, and intercessions.

This sequence shows a distinctively Anglican account of Christian formation. The day begins neither with religious self-confidence nor with private improvisation, but with God's Word, common repentance, praise, and petition. Morning Prayer also depends on the Psalter, the Daily Office Lectionary, and the rubrics that govern ordinary use. Its doctrine is learned by praying the office repeatedly.

Opening sentences and repentance

The opening sentences set the tone before the confession is said. They draw from Scripture to summon the congregation to repentance, humility, and readiness before God. The minister is not inventing a theme for the day; he is placing the people under biblical words that interpret their approach to prayer.

When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

This is why the General Confession is not an optional mood of penitence. It is the ordinary evangelical entrance into morning worship. The congregation names sin as wandering, disordered desire, transgression, and neglected duty.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws.

The confession's "lost sheep" language echoes the biblical picture of God's people as straying and in need of restoration. Its petition for mercy is not vague remorse. It asks God to restore penitent sinners according to his promises in Christ, so that repentance leads to a godly, righteous, and sober life.

Absolution and evangelical order

The absolution in Morning Prayer is a major doctrinal moment. It is declared by the priest or bishop as the minister of God's Word, and it gives the congregation the promise of pardon before the office turns to praise.

He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.

The wording joins repentance and faith without confusing them with merit. Pardon is God's gift; the penitent receive it by true repentance and sincere belief in the Gospel. This accords with the Anglican formularies' evangelical grammar: justification rests on God's mercy in Christ, while the forgiven are called into amendment of life. Morning Prayer thus teaches doctrine by making the congregation hear absolution before it asks them to praise, believe, and obey.

Invitatory, Psalms, and praise

After the Lord's Prayer and versicles, Morning Prayer turns from confession to praise. The Venite, drawn from Psalm 95, calls the Church to worship, thanksgiving, and obedient hearing.

O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

The movement is important. The forgiven people do not remain absorbed in their own sin. They are summoned into the praise of the Lord, the "strength of our salvation." The Psalms that follow give the Church inspired language for adoration, lament, confession, trust, kingship, judgment, and mercy. Morning Prayer therefore trains Christians to pray as members of the whole Church, not merely as isolated individuals.

The Venite also guards praise from becoming sentiment. Its final summons, drawn from the warning in Psalm 95, binds worship to obedience: the God praised as Creator and Shepherd must be heard today.

To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

The Gloria Patri frames the Psalms in explicitly Trinitarian worship. In Morning Prayer the congregation prays Israel's Psalter as the Church of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Lessons, canticles, and Scripture

Morning Prayer gives Scripture a public, sequential place. The lessons are not illustrations for a sermon topic; they are appointed readings by which the Church hears the Old and New Testaments in course. This reflects the apostolic pattern of a Church gathered around doctrine, fellowship, sacramental life, and prayer.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The canticles answer the lessons with biblical praise. The Te Deum confesses the worship of the heavenly Church and the saving work of Christ; the Benedictus praises the God of Israel for visitation and redemption; the Jubilate, Benedicite, and other appointed canticles give additional forms of scriptural response. Morning Prayer therefore reads Scripture and teaches the Church how to answer Scripture.

We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.

This is a central feature of Anglican worship. The Bible is not treated as private material for detached study only. It is read aloud, prayed, sung, and confessed in the assembled Church. Morning Prayer makes that habit available every day.

Creed, suffrages, and collects

After the lessons and canticles, Morning Prayer confesses the Apostles' Creed. The Creed is not a decorative summary added after Scripture. It is the Church's baptismal rule of faith, placed on the lips of the congregation after the Word has been heard.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.

The suffrages and collects then turn the Creed into petition. The Collect for Peace asks for protection amid the assaults of enemies and the peace that comes from trusting in God's defence. The Collect for Grace is especially characteristic of the morning office because it interprets the new day as a gift under God's rule.

O LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power.

This collect joins providence, protection, moral obedience, and dependence on divine grace. The Christian day is not treated as neutral time. It is time in which the baptized ask to be kept from sin, strengthened for duty, and ordered toward God's glory.

Anglican theological significance

Morning Prayer is evangelical in its penitential and absolving structure. It begins with Scripture and confession, declares God's pardon to those who repent and believe the Gospel, and sends the congregation into the day by grace. It is catholic in its use of the Psalter, canticles, Creed, fixed forms, and common prayer. It is pastoral because it gives ordinary Christians a durable pattern that does not depend on novelty or the minister's personality.

The office also protects Anglican theology from abstraction. Its teaching on sin, grace, Scripture, Trinity, creed, and holy living is enacted before it is analyzed. A parish that regularly prays Morning Prayer is repeatedly catechized in repentance, absolution, biblical hearing, doxology, and intercession.

For Reformed Episcopal and traditional Anglican readers, Morning Prayer shows how Prayer Book worship can be both reformed and catholic. It gives primacy to Scripture, refuses sentimental accounts of sin, proclaims pardon through the Gospel, and yet keeps worship ordered by inherited forms, the Psalms, and the Creed.

Use in worship and teaching

Morning Prayer may be used as a principal Sunday or weekday service, a daily parish office, a household prayer rule, or a school and chapel office. Its full form is especially valuable when the congregation can hear both lessons, pray the Psalms, and sing or say the canticles. Shortened or occasional use should still preserve the office's basic movement from Scripture and repentance to praise, lessons, Creed, and collects.

In teaching, Morning Prayer is best explained by following the order of the service. The opening sentences teach biblical summons; confession teaches sin and mercy; absolution teaches Gospel promise; the Venite and Psalms teach praise; the lessons teach the public authority of Scripture; the canticles teach biblical response; the Creed teaches catholic faith; and the collects teach the day as life lived under grace.

This textual method also connects Morning Prayer to related 1928 BCP topics such as Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Suffrages in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP), The Psalter (1928 BCP), and Scripture in the 1928 BCP.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office Lectionary (1928 BCP)
• Opening Sentences in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Absolution in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Suffrages in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Scripture in the 1928 BCP

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer