Name and Christian Identity in the 1928 BCP Catechism

From AnglicanWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Name and Christian Identity in the 1928 BCP Catechism concerns the opening exchange of A Catechism in the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The question about a name is not a stand-alone christening custom. It introduces the baptized Christian's identity as received in Baptism, lived in the baptismal covenant, and brought to personal confession in Confirmation.

The name received in Baptism

The Catechism begins with a question simple enough for a child to answer, but immediately directs the answer beyond private family identity to the Church's baptismal act.

What is your Name?
Answer. N. or N. N.

[1]

The next answer identifies the human occasion of naming with the sacramental occasion in which the name is spoken. It also gives the Prayer Book's concise account of Christian identity: union with Christ, filial relation to God, and eschatological hope belong together.

My Sponsors in Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

[2]

This is closely echoed by the thanksgiving after Baptism, which asks that the baptized, having been received as God's child and incorporated into the Church, may finally inherit the kingdom. The Catechism is therefore teaching children to recognize their own name within the Church's public prayer, not to mistake a baptismal name for a merely sentimental label.

We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Child (or this thy Servant) with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own Child, and to incorporate him into thy holy Church.

[3]

The language is biblical: those baptized into Christ are put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), receive the Spirit of adoption by whom they cry “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15–17), and are called heirs according to hope (Titus 3:5–7). The Prayer Book does not separate this gift from the life it begins.

Sponsors, promise, and personal assent

The answer about the name is followed by an account of what sponsors promised. Christian identity is received, but it is not impersonal or inert.

They did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; And Thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.

[4]

The sequence is baptismal rather than merely moral: renunciation, faith, and obedience correspond to the promises made at the font. It also gives content to the Apostle's description of baptismal life as dying and rising with Christ (Romans 6:3–4). The Catechism requires the baptized person eventually to own those promises.

Yes, verily; and by God's help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life's end.

[5]

George Burgess, Bishop of Maine, explained the same logic for readers encountering Episcopal worship: sponsors do not eliminate the child's future responsibility. In his account, the covenant named in baptism becomes the child's own obligation as maturity makes personal response possible.

In the name of the child, the sponsors promise that he will keep the Christian covenant, by renouncing the world, the flesh and the devil, believing the articles of the Christian faith, and walking in the way of God's commandments. It is the same promise ... which is given by an adult candidate for baptism, in his own name.

[6]

Catechesis and Confirmation

The title of the Catechism defines it as instruction to be learned before Confirmation. Thus Christian identity matures in the Church's teaching and prayer, rather than being exhausted in the moment of infancy. The Prayer Book's rubric assigns that teaching to the parish's public ministry.

The Minister of every Parish shall diligently, upon Sundays and Holy Days, or on some other convenient occasions, openly in the Church, instruct or examine so many Children of his Parish, sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some part of this Catechism.

[7]

The Catechism then directs that children able to say the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, and answer its questions, be brought to the bishop. The Confirmation office makes the link explicit by having candidates renew their baptismal vow and confess Christ as Lord and Saviour. This is the Prayer Book's pastoral movement from sponsors' promise to the baptized person's own confession.

Edward W. Averill, writing in the year after the American revision, described the Catechism and Offices of Instruction as a coherent course rather than disconnected memorization:

Following the Baptismal service are the Offices of Instruction which supplement the Catechism ... They contain in epitome what a Christian ought to know to his soul's health. The Catechism is to be learned by children before they are confirmed.

[8]

Percy Dearmer likewise treated regular catechesis as a practical means by which baptized children grow into conscious participation in the Church's worship and communion:

By this regular catechising one can make the children not mere nominal Christians, drifting to nothing as they grow up, but conscious, keen, devout Churchmen and communicants.

[9]

Reading the threefold identity

“Member of Christ” names incorporation into his body; “child of God” names adoption by grace; and “inheritor of the kingdom of heaven” turns that identity toward the promised future. None of the three clauses licenses presumption. In the Catechism's own order, the one called to this state is taught the Creed, Commandments, Lord's Prayer, repentance, faith, and the sacraments. The name spoken at Baptism is therefore remembered as a call to belong to Christ and to continue, by God's grace, in the life begun there.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 577, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  2. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 577, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  3. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Ministration of Holy Baptism,” pp. 280–281, 1928 Prayer Book—Holy Baptism.
  4. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 577, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  5. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 577, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  6. ↑ George Burgess, The Stranger in the Church (New York: Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, 1858), pp. 17–18, Project Canterbury transcription.
  7. ↑ The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), “A Catechism,” p. 583, 1928 Prayer Book—Catechism.
  8. ↑ Edward W. Averill, Talks on the Prayer Book (Fond du Lac, Wis.: The Parish Press, 1929), pp. 49–50, Project Canterbury transcription.
  9. ↑ Percy Dearmer, Loyalty to the Prayer Book (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., 1904), pp. 9–10, Project Canterbury transcription.
Retrieved from "https://www.anglicanwiki.org/index.php?title=Name_and_Christian_Identity_in_the_1928_BCP_Catechism&oldid=3354"