Offertory Sentences (1928 BCP)

Offertory Sentences (1928 BCP) are the biblical sentences appointed at the beginning of the offertory in Holy Communion in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. They follow the Creed, notices, optional bidding prayer or intercessions, and sermon. In the 1928 rite they do more than introduce a collection: they turn the congregation from hearing the Word toward alms, oblations, intercession, and the eucharistic prayer.

Prayer Book Placement

The 1928 rubric locates the Offertory Sentences after the sermon when Holy Communion is to continue. The priest returns to the Holy Table and chooses one or more of the appointed biblical texts.

Then followeth the Sermon. After which, the Priest, when there is a Communion, shall return to the Holy Table, and begin the Offertory, saying one or more of these Sentences following, as he thinketh most convenient.

This placement matters. The congregation has confessed the faith in the Nicene Creed and heard the sermon; now the service passes into a visible response of charity, stewardship, and prepared sacramental worship. The sentences are not private mottoes. They are scriptural words spoken within common prayer.

Scriptural Character

The first appointed sentence is from Acts 20:35. It gives the offertory a dominical frame, remembering a saying of Christ about blessed giving.

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Other sentences connect almsgiving with visible holiness, heavenly treasure, obedience, cheerful giving, care for the household of faith, missionary sending, and sacrifice pleasing to God. The final two Old Testament sentences from 1 Chronicles 29 make the theological ground explicit: the worshipper gives back what already belongs to God.

All things come of thee, O LORD, and of thine own have we given thee.

The range of texts keeps the offertory from being reduced to a financial pause. Matthew 5 and Matthew 6 teach public good works and treasure in heaven; 2 Corinthians 9 teaches free and cheerful giving; Hebrews 13 names doing good and distributing as sacrifices pleasing to God; Romans 10 and Luke 10 connect offerings to the sending of preachers and labourers. The sentences therefore bind money, mercy, mission, and worship together under Scripture.

Alms and Oblations

The 1928 BCP extends the use of the sentences beyond Communion whenever offerings are received in public worship. This shows that the sentences are a stable Prayer Book way of interpreting Christian giving, not merely a local custom.

And NOTE, That these Sentences may be used on any other occasion of Public Worship when the offerings of the People are to be received.

After the sentences, the 1928 rite distinguishes the alms and other offerings of the people from the bread and wine. The alms are received by appointed persons, brought to the priest, and placed on the Holy Table; then the priest offers and places the bread and wine.

The Deacons, Church-wardens, or other fit persons appointed for that purpose, shall receive the Alms for the Poor, and other Offerings of the People, in a decent Basin to be provided by the Parish; and reverently bring it to the Priest, who shall humbly present and place it upon the Holy Table.

And the Priest shall then offer, and shall place upon the Holy Table, the Bread and the Wine.

The next rubric permits a hymn or anthem while the alms and oblations are being received and presented. Its wording limits the anthem to Holy Scripture or the Book of Common Prayer, so the musical action remains governed by the same sources as the sentences themselves.

And when the Alms and Oblations are being received and presented, there may be sung a Hymn, or an Offertory Anthem in the words of Holy Scripture or of the Book of Common Prayer, under the direction of the Priest.

Historical Development

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere place the Anglican offertory in the wider history of the Western liturgy. In the older Roman rite the offertory was originally a chant connected with the offering of oblations.

the Offertory, an antiphon with Verses sung during the offering of the oblations.

They also describe the English Prayer Book development. The 1549 book retained a form of offertory with sentences or anthems; 1552 narrowed the material; and 1662 restored directions for the offertory alongside the collection of alms.

directions for the offertory, such as there had been in 1549, were restored, and placed side by side with those for the collection of alms for the poor.

This history helps explain why the 1928 American rite treats the offertory as both practical and theological. It is practical because alms are gathered and the bread and wine are set in readiness. It is theological because the action is framed by Scripture, ordered by rubric, and followed by intercession for "the whole state of Christ's Church."

Liturgical Interpretation

Percy Dearmer, writing at the end of the nineteenth century, stresses pastoral discernment in the choice of sentences. He argues that the sentence can fit the season or occasion rather than always sounding only the note of money.

It is well to make the Sentences speak as much as possible of the season, and but little of money; therefore a selection may be made.

Dearmer adds that repeated intelligent use teaches the congregation to hear the sentence as part of the service's meaning.

If a rule like this is kept to, the people soon learn to appreciate its significance, and the Offertory Sentence is used in the ancient spirit.

The 1928 rite therefore leaves discretion to the priest without making the offertory arbitrary. The selection is "as he thinketh most convenient," but the possible words are fixed biblical sentences. Anglican freedom here operates inside a received liturgical and scriptural form.

Relation to Holy Communion

The Offertory Sentences lead directly toward the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church, where the Church asks God to accept "[alms and] oblations" and to receive the prayers offered unto his Divine Majesty. They also prepare for the Prayer of Consecration, where Christ's one oblation of himself once offered is confessed as "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world."

This sequence keeps Anglican eucharistic theology ordered. The people offer alms, bread, wine, prayers, praise, thanksgiving, and themselves; but the ground of all Christian offering is Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. The offertory is therefore neither mere fundraising nor a second sacrifice of Christ. It is the Church's scriptural and embodied response to grace, ordered toward intercession, consecration, communion, and thanksgiving.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

In parish worship, the Offertory Sentences can be chosen to match the day: stewardship and mercy on ordinary Sundays, mission at ordinations or missionary occasions, sacrifice and self-offering in Lent, and divine ownership at harvest or thanksgiving. Because the sentences are brief, they are also useful for teaching. A catechist can ask what each sentence says about God, neighbour, money, mission, and worship, and then show how the rite moves from spoken Scripture to visible offering.

For Reformed Episcopal and classical Anglican use, the sentences are especially valuable because they teach evangelical obedience without separating it from sacramental order. Faith hears the Gospel, confesses the Creed, receives Scripture's summons to charity, and comes to the Holy Table with gifts that confess all things to be from God.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Consecration (1928 BCP)
• Prayer for the Whole State of Christ's Church (1928 BCP)
• Sermon Rubric in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Holy Communion
• Procter and Frere: A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XII
• Percy Dearmer: The Parson's Handbook, chapter VI