Prayer of Consecration (1928 BCP)

Prayer of Consecration (1928 BCP) is the eucharistic consecration prayer in "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion" in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It follows the Sursum Corda, Proper Preface, and Sanctus, and it precedes the Lord's Prayer, the Prayer of Humble Access, and the administration of Communion. Its structure joins thanksgiving for the Cross, the institution narrative, anamnesis, oblation, invocation, self-offering, and doxology in a single Prayer Book act of praise and sacramental petition.

Text in the 1928 Rite

The 1928 rite directs the priest to order the bread and wine for manual action before the people, and then to say the Prayer of Consecration. The prayer itself reads:

When the Priest, standing before the Table, hath so ordered the Bread and Wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the Bread before the People, and take the Cup into his hands, he shall say the Prayer of Consecration, as followeth.

All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again: For in the night in which he was betrayed, he took Bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given for you; Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, after supper, he took the Cup; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins; Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me.

Wherefore O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.

And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness, mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion. And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him. And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice; yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom, and with whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. Amen.

The prayer should not be reduced to the Words of Institution alone. In the 1928 text the institution narrative is embedded in a larger eucharistic thanksgiving and petition: the Cross is named as the one sufficient sacrifice, the Church makes the commanded memorial, the gifts are offered to God, the Father is asked to bless and sanctify them by the Word and Holy Spirit, and the communicants offer themselves in union with Christ.

The practical boundary of the consecratory form is also shown by the rubric for additional consecration:

If the consecrated Bread or Wine be spent before all have communicated, the Priest is to consecrate more, according to the Form before prescribed; beginning at, All glory be to thee, Almighty God, and ending with these words, partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood.

That rubric identifies the consecratory core for the practical case of more communicants than remaining consecrated elements. It begins with the doxological address "All glory be to thee" and ends with the petition that communicants "may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood"; the later self-offering and doxology remain part of the normal prayer, but the minimum prescribed form for consecrating more elements ends at that phrase.

Scriptural Institution

The 1928 prayer explicitly grounds itself in Christ's institution "in his holy Gospel," and the wording of the institution narrative follows the New Testament witness. Saint Paul's received tradition in 1 Corinthians 11 is especially close to the Prayer Book form:

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

This passage explains why the Prayer Book speaks of institution, remembrance, showing forth Christ's death, and expectation "until his coming again." The consecration is not a new sacrifice added to Calvary. It is the Church's commanded eucharistic memorial of the death that has already redeemed the world.

Doctrinal Boundaries

The prayer's first paragraph gives the governing Anglican claim: Christ "made there" upon the Cross "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction." The language places the eucharistic action under the completed sufficiency of Christ's death. Article XXVIII then defines faithful reception without transubstantiation:

The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ.

Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.

The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith.

Article XXVIII helps interpret the consecration prayer clause by clause. "Partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood" is real sacramental participation, not bare recollection. "Through faith in his blood" and "may worthily receive" rule out an automatic or mechanical account of benefit. The rejection of transubstantiation does not empty the sacrament; it frames reception as heavenly, spiritual, and received by faith.

Oblation, Memorial, and Invocation

The prayer's theological density comes from the movement after the institution narrative. "Wherefore" introduces the memorial before the Father's Divine Majesty. The oblation is not a repetition of Christ's sacrifice, because the prayer has already confessed that Christ's self-oblation was once offered and sufficient. The Church offers the holy gifts as the commanded memorial, gives thanks for Christ's benefits, and then offers "our selves, our souls and bodies" as a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the relevant English Prayer Book inheritance in terms that match the components visible in the 1928 form:

Variable Prayer of Commemoration and Oblation with the Invocation, or its equivalent. Invariable Prayer of Commemoration and Oblation, with the equivalent of the Invocation.

In the 1928 American prayer, that pattern is easy to see. The memorial and oblation begin, "Wherefore O Lord and heavenly Father." The invocation follows, "vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine." The doxology closes the normal prayer in Trinitarian praise.

Procter and Frere also explain why the Reformation wording became guarded when speaking about sacrifice:

the term oblation is applied, not to the Eucharistic oblations, but to our Lord's sacrifice of Himself, and words are heaped up to emphasize the fact that that sacrifice was all-sufficient and could not be repeated, but only re-presented. When in § 7 the gifts are offered, it is carefully explained that this is the "memorial" which Christ ordered, and the phrase, "sacrifice of praise," the biblical term for the Eucharistic sacrifice, is transferred here from the first Memento.

This is the key to reading the 1928 prayer without flattening it. It is sacrificial in the Prayer Book's own terms: sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, memorial before God, and self-offering of the Church in Christ. But it is not a second atoning act. Its confidence rests on the one oblation once offered on the Cross.

Historical Development

The 1928 American prayer is not merely the 1662 English prayer printed unchanged. It stands in the American line that recovered elements from the 1549 and Scottish eucharistic patterns, especially the memorial-oblation and invocation. E. Clowes Chorley, writing soon after the 1928 book was adopted, summarizes its older English source:

Direction was given to make the sign of the cross in the Prayer of Consecration. The Prayer of Consecration in the American Book is, in the main, taken from this Book of Edward VI. Communion was to be in both kinds.

Chorley's statement explains why the 1928 prayer sounds fuller than a form limited to reciting the institution narrative. Its American inheritance includes the Thanksgiving for redemption, the commanded memorial, the oblation of the gifts, the invocation of Word and Holy Spirit, and the offering of the communicants themselves.

The same 1928 revision altered the surrounding order of the Communion office. Chorley notes the change in placement for the Prayer of Humble Access:

The Prayer of Humble Access now stands after the consecration of the Elements, and before the Lord's Prayer is now said, "And now, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, we are bold to say 'Our Father which art in heaven.'"

In the printed 1928 sequence, the consecration is followed by the Lord's Prayer, then the Prayer of Humble Access, then Communion. The prayer of consecration therefore functions as the completed eucharistic thanksgiving and consecratory petition before the communicants make their final humble approach and receive.

Clause-by-Clause Reading

The opening address, "All glory be to thee," places consecration inside praise before it speaks of human need. "Of thy tender mercy" names the Father's gift of the Son as grace. The Cross clause gives the doctrinal center: Christ's death is the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. "Did institute" then turns from redemption accomplished to the sacramental command given to the Church.

The institution narrative supplies the biblical warrant and the manual-action setting. "Do this in remembrance of me" is taken into the Prayer Book's language of "perpetual memory" and "memorial." The Church remembers not by private mental recollection only, but by obeying Christ's commanded eucharistic action until his coming again.

"Wherefore" marks the anamnesis and oblation. The Church makes the memorial before the Father's Divine Majesty with the holy gifts, remembering Christ's passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. The next paragraph is the invocation: the Father is asked to bless and sanctify the bread and wine with the Word and Holy Spirit, so that faithful receivers may partake of Christ's Body and Blood.

The final paragraph joins Eucharist and Christian life. "Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving" names the Church's grateful worship. "Through faith in his blood" keeps the prayer anchored in Christ's merits. "Our selves, our souls and bodies" applies Romans 12 language to communicants who are to become "one body with him." The prayer closes by confessing unworthiness, asking pardon, and giving all honour and glory to the Father through Christ in the unity of the Holy Ghost.

Pastoral and Catechetical Use

For parish teaching, the Prayer of Consecration is one of the clearest places where the 1928 BCP shows how Anglican doctrine is prayed. It teaches atonement, institution, remembrance, thanksgiving, invocation, worthy reception, ecclesial unity, and self-offering without separating those doctrines from the act of worship.

The prayer also guards against opposite distortions. Against a merely memorialist reading, it asks that communicants may be partakers of Christ's Body and Blood. Against any notion that the Eucharist repeats Calvary, it confesses the one oblation once offered as full, perfect, and sufficient. Against passive reception, it asks that the communicants may be filled with grace, made one body with Christ, and offer themselves to God.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Words of Institution (1928 BCP)
• Prayer of Humble Access (1928 BCP)
• Administration of Communion (1928 BCP)
• Sacraments in the 1928 BCP
• Articles of Religion (1928 BCP)

External Links

• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Holy Communion PDF - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Articles of Religion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XII
• E. Clowes Chorley, The Book of 1549
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New Prayer Book: Revision