Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP)

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Penitence in the Daily Office (1928 BCP) is the ordered movement from scriptural self-examination through corporate confession to the declaration of divine forgiveness at the beginning of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in the American Book of Common Prayer of 1928. It is penitence within common worship: minister and congregation hear God’s word, acknowledge sin together, ask mercy through Christ, receive the Gospel’s promise of pardon, and then proceed to the Lord’s Prayer and praise.

The sequence is neither confession without grace nor absolution without repentance and faith. Its language moves from the holiness and mercy of God, through a truthful account of sins committed and duties neglected, to restoration, the gift of the Holy Spirit, amendment of life, and eternal joy in Jesus Christ.

Scriptural call to repentance

The Office begins with one or more sentences of Scripture. Among the sentences appointed for Lent, the 1928 book places contrition, return to God, and filial confession together:

Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.  Joel ii. 13.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.  Psalm li. 17.
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.  St. Luke xv. 18, 19.

[1]

These sentences define repentance as an inward turning rather than an outward display. Joel names God’s gracious character as the ground of return; Psalm 51 names the sacrifice God receives; the prodigal son supplies the language of personal confession and return to the Father. Penitence therefore begins as an answer to revelation, not as an attempt to induce an unwilling God to become merciful.

Evening Prayer can state both the universal need for confession and the promise attached to it in one sentence:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[2]

The verse excludes both denial and despair. Truth requires acknowledgment of sin; God’s faithfulness promises forgiveness and cleansing. That twofold biblical logic governs the confession and absolution which follow.

The exhortation and the purposes of assembly

Morning Prayer normally continues with the long exhortation, while Evening Prayer permits either the short invitation, “Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God,” or the longer form. The exhortation explains why confession belongs at the threshold of common prayer:

Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us, in sundry places, to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought, at all times, humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul.

[3]

The exhortation binds penitence to all four purposes of the assembly: thanksgiving, praise, hearing Scripture, and petition. Sin is not concealed because worship takes place “before the face” of the Father who already knows the heart. Yet the goal is forgiveness “by his infinite goodness and mercy,” not humiliation for its own sake. The adjectives “humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient” join inward sorrow to a will ready to obey.

The General Confession

The rubric assigns the confession to the whole congregation, after the minister, with all kneeling. It is deliberately common and comprehensive:

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. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

[4]

The prayer can be followed clause by clause:

  • “Almighty and most merciful Father” names the Judge as the Father to whom sinners return. Divine power and mercy are held together from the outset.
  • “Erred, and strayed … like lost sheep” confesses disordered direction; “devices and desires of our own hearts” identifies its inward source; and “offended against thy holy laws” names its objective standard.
  • “Left undone” and “done” confess both omission and commission. Penitence is not restricted to conspicuous misconduct; neglected love and obedience also belong before God.
  • “There is no health in us” refuses self-cure as the basis of pardon. It does not end the prayer in hopelessness, because the next words turn immediately to God’s mercy.
  • “Spare” asks release from judgment; “Restore” asks more than acquittal. The penitent needs renewed fellowship and power for holy living.
  • “According to thy promises … in Christ Jesus” locates mercy in the proclaimed Gospel, while “godly, righteous, and sober life” makes amendment of life the desired fruit, not the price, of forgiveness.

The confession’s imagery is scriptural. Isaiah describes the common straying which the confession acknowledges, while Christ’s parable supplies the posture of a sinner who asks mercy and goes home justified:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

[5]

Isaiah connects human wandering with the Lord’s saving action concerning the Servant; Luke connects humble confession with justification rather than self-exaltation. The General Confession is accordingly corporate without becoming evasive: each worshipper says “we,” yet personally owns the sins named by the Church.

Absolution: pardon, faith, and new life

After the congregation’s confession, the priest stands while the people remain kneeling. The title in the 1928 book is “The Declaration of Absolution, or Remission of Sins”:

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.
Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[6]

The declaration begins with God, not with the penitent’s emotional intensity. God desires the sinner to turn and live; he commissions ministers to pronounce remission; and he pardons those who truly repent and sincerely believe the Gospel. Repentance and faith are not rival grounds of acceptance: repentance turns from wickedness, and faith receives the holy Gospel of the Father’s mercy in Christ.

The second paragraph prevents absolution from being treated as permission to remain unchanged. The Church immediately asks for true repentance and the Holy Spirit, present obedience, lifelong holiness, and final joy. Forgiveness restores the worshipper to a life ordered toward God’s glory—the same end requested in the General Confession.

Morning Prayer also permits the priest to use the Absolution from Holy Communion instead of this form.[7] Evening Prayer prints the same declaration and then gives a shorter alternative:

The Almighty and Merciful God grant you Absolution and Remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[8]

The short form preserves the same theological sequence in compressed language: remission, true repentance, amendment, and the Spirit’s grace and consolation. It therefore shortens the rite without reducing pardon to a bare announcement detached from sanctification.

From penitence to praise

The penitential introduction ends with the Lord’s Prayer. The next versicle, “O Lord, open thou our lips,” is answered, “And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.” Penitence thus clears the way for praise rather than replacing it. John Wallace Suter and Charles Morris Addison describe the logic of this position:

Because in the light of God’s presence we first see ourselves as we really are, and that is penitence. Only on our knees can we begin to praise God, and after we have confessed our sin and begged for forgiveness and heard it freely given to such as ask for it humbly, can we be fit and ready to stand on our feet and praise.

[9]

Their interpretation explains both sequence and posture. Kneeling confession is followed by the Lord’s Prayer, opening versicles, Gloria Patri, and Venite or evening psalmody. The forgiven congregation does not leave penitence behind as an isolated preliminary; it carries the knowledge of mercy into praise, hearing, creed, and intercession.

Historical development

The penitential opening entered the English Daily Offices in the 1552 Prayer Book. The Society of Archbishop Justus’s bibliographic introduction to the 1552 book identifies the addition of the introductory sentences, exhortation, confession, and absolution to Morning and Evening Prayer.[10]

William Palmer’s historical study connects the public confession with the older English office of Prime and also explains why the reformers placed it before psalmody and lessons:

A Confession was formerly recited in the office for the first hour of the morning, according to the rites of the English churches. … There were, however, good reasons for placing the Confession at the beginning of the office. Christian humility would naturally induce us to approach the infinitely holy God with a confession of our sinfulness and unworthiness; and this position of the Confession is justified by the practice of the eastern church in the time of Basil.

[11]

Palmer does not claim that every detail simply reproduces one ancient office. He traces the confession at Prime, notes parallels at the beginning of nocturnal prayer and Compline, and defends its new position on theological and historical grounds. The Anglican form is therefore a reordering of inherited elements for vernacular corporate worship.

The 1928 American revision

The 1928 revision kept the confession and full declaration of absolution but made their use more flexible. E. Clowes Chorley, Historiographer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, identified the specific changes immediately after the book’s adoption:

It is no longer compulsory every Sunday to recite the Exhortation beginning, “Dearly beloved brethren” which was in danger of losing its force by constant repetition. For it may be substituted the shorter invitation, “Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.” … A new short Absolution is inserted in Evening Prayer.

[12]

The book also permits omission of Confession and Absolution under stated conditions. Morning Prayer gives the clearest restriction:

On any day, save a Day of Fasting or Abstinence, or on any day when the Litany or Holy Communion is immediately to follow, the Minister may, at his discretion, pass at once from the Sentences to the Lord’s Prayer.

[13]

The exception matters: on a fast or day of abstinence, when neither Litany nor Communion follows, Morning Prayer does not grant this discretionary omission. When another service immediately follows, its penitential or supplicatory material can prevent needless duplication. A further note explains how the Lord’s Prayer is relocated if Confession and Absolution are omitted. Flexibility is therefore governed by rubrics, not by treating penitence as dispensable in principle.

Anglican interpretation of absolution and continuing repentance

The Daily Office form has supported more than one Anglican emphasis concerning ministerial absolution, but its own grammar is clear: God is the one who pardons, the priest declares and pronounces the remission entrusted to the ministry, and the promise is addressed to the truly penitent who believe the Gospel. Anthony Sparrow, a seventeenth-century Anglican bishop, emphasizes that pardon does not terminate repentance:

After the Priest hath pronounced the Absolution, the Church seasonably prayes, Wherefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his holy spirit, &c. For as repentance is a necessary disposition to pardon, so as that neither God will, nor man can absolve those that are impenitent; So is it in some parts of it, a necessary consequent of pardon; and he that is pardoned, ought still to repent, as he that seeks a pardon.

[14]

Sparrow’s reading follows the prayer’s own transition from “He pardoneth and absolveth” to “grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit.” Contrition, confession, faith, amendment, and holiness are not stages by which the Church earns forgiveness. They describe the converted life which receives mercy and continues in it.

Use in worship and devotion

When the penitential opening is used faithfully:

  • The Scripture sentences should be heard as God’s summons and promise, not as decorative mottos.
  • A period of silence may assist honest self-examination before the common words, without turning a general confession into public disclosure of private sins.
  • Minister and people should observe their assigned parts and postures: the whole congregation confesses kneeling; the priest alone makes the declaration standing; all then pray the Lord’s Prayer.
  • “We” should be prayed personally as well as corporately. The form prevents self-righteous comparison while still requiring each worshipper to own sins of thought, desire, deed, and omission.
  • Absolution should lead directly to thanksgiving, praise, attention to Scripture, and amendment of life. The Office itself supplies that movement.
  • Any omission should follow the printed rubrics, especially the Morning Prayer restriction for fasts and days of abstinence.

Used daily, this pattern teaches a stable Christian grammar: truth about sin, confidence in the Father’s mercy through Christ, dependence on the Holy Spirit, and renewed obedience. Its repeated use is not meant to make repentance mechanical, but to keep repentance joined to the Gospel and to the whole worshipping life of the Church.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928 and printed for the Commission in 1930, “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer,” Lenten opening sentences, pp. 4–5, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 116–124.
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” sentence from 1 St. John i. 8–9, p. 22, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 104–107.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer,” exhortation, p. 5, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 169–183.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer,” “A General Confession,” p. 6, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 201–216.
  5. ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Isaiah 53:6 and Luke 18:13–14, Bible Gateway.
  6. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer,” “The Declaration of Absolution, or Remission of Sins,” pp. 6–7, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 218–250.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, Morning Prayer p. 6, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, lines 226–233.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” alternative absolution, p. 24, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 193–205.
  9. ↑ John Wallace Suter and Charles Morris Addison, The People’s Book of Worship: A Study of the Book of Common Prayer (New York: Macmillan, 1919), chapter V, “Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer,” section II, Project Canterbury transcription.
  10. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1552), bibliographic introduction and contents, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription and links to facsimiles.
  11. ↑ William Palmer, Origines Liturgicæ; or, Antiquities of the English Ritual, vol. I, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1839), chapter I, part I, section IV, “Confession,” pp. 212–213, Project Canterbury transcription.
  12. ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan, 1929), chapter VII, “The New Prayer Book: Revision,” Project Canterbury transcription.
  13. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer,” opening rubric, p. 3, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; checked against the Standard Book facsimile. Local comparison source: sources/justus1928/MP.htm, lines 57–69.
  14. ↑ Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (London: Robert Pawlet, 1672), section “The Absolution,” Project Canterbury transcription.

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