Reserved Sacrament and the 1928 BCP

Reserved Sacrament and the 1928 BCP concerns the question whether the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer authorizes consecrated Bread and Wine to be reserved and carried from the church for later Communion, especially for the sick. The final 1928 American book gives a strong pastoral office for Communion of the Sick, but it does not print a general reservation rubric. Its ordinary direction is celebration in the sick person's house when the communicant cannot come to church, and its Holy Communion office requires remaining consecrated elements to be consumed rather than carried out of the church.

1928 Prayer Book Text

The sick-communion office begins by encouraging frequent public Communion before illness or sudden danger makes reception difficult. When the sick person cannot attend church, the 1928 rubric directs notice to the minister and then celebration of Holy Communion in the house:

Forasmuch as all mortal men are subject to many sudden perils, diseases and sicknesses, and ever uncertain what time they shall depart out of this life; therefore, to the intent they may be always in readiness to die, whensoever it shall please Almighty God to call them, the Ministers shall diligently from time to time, but especially in the time of pestilence, or other infectious sickness, exhort their parishioners to the often receiving of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, when it shall be publicly administered in the Church; that so doing, they may, in case of sudden visitation, have the less cause to be disquieted for lack of the same. But if the sick person be not able to come to the Church, and yet is desirous to receive the Communion in his house; then he must give timely notice to the Minister, signifying also how many there are to communicate with him; and all things necessary being prepared, the Minister shall there celebrate the Holy Communion, beginning with the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, here following.

This is the most important distinction for interpreting the 1928 book. It assumes pastoral access to the sacrament for those unable to attend public worship, but it provides that access by a house celebration, not by an explicit direction to reserve consecrated elements from the parish Eucharist. The sick communicant is not left outside the Church's sacramental care; the Church's Communion rite is brought to the bedside under a prescribed form.

The same office allows a shortened rite when circumstances require it. Even then, the shortened form includes consecration, communion, the Lord's Prayer, and the blessing:

When circumstances render it expedient to shorten the Service, the following form shall suffice: The Confession and the Absolution; Lift up your hearts, etc., through the Sanctus; The Prayer of Consecration, ending with these words, partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood; The Prayer of Humble Access; The Communion; The Lord's Prayer; The Blessing. And NOTE, That for the Confession and Absolution the following may be used.

The distribution rubric also keeps the bedside Communion ecclesial rather than merely private. The minister receives, then the appointed communicants, and last of all the sick person:

At the time of the distribution of the holy Sacrament, the Minister shall first receive the Communion himself, and after minister unto those who are appointed to communicate with the sick, and last of all to the sick person.

Remaining Consecrated Elements

The Holy Communion office speaks directly about what remains after the public Communion. First, if there is not enough consecrated Bread or Wine, the priest is to consecrate more. Then, when Communion is complete, the remaining consecrated elements are returned to the Lord's Table and covered:

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. When all have communicated, the Priest shall return to the Lord's Table, and reverently place upon it what remaineth of the consecrated Elements, covering the same with a fair linen cloth.

The office later gives the controlling direction after the blessing. What remains is not to be taken from the church:

And if any of the consecrated Bread and Wine remain after the Communion, it shall not be carried out of the Church; but the Minister and other Communicants shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same.

Taken together, these rubrics make the final 1928 American rule plain: the Communion of the Sick is provided, but the public Communion office does not authorize carrying remaining consecrated Bread and Wine out of the church. Any parish interpretation of "reserved sacrament" under the 1928 BCP must therefore reckon with this explicit consumption rubric.

Article XXVIII

The Articles of Religion, printed with the American Prayer Book tradition, also frame the issue. Article XXVIII teaches a real sacramental partaking of Christ by faith, rejects transubstantiation, and denies that reservation, carrying about, lifting up, or worshipping is Christ's ordinance:

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.

The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.

Article XXVIII does not say that consecrated elements are common bread and wine after Communion. The 1928 rite's directions for covering, not carrying out, and reverently consuming what remains show the opposite: consecrated elements are to be handled reverently. But Article XXVIII prevents reservation from being treated as an ordinance of Christ or as a basis for extra-liturgical adoration. The Prayer Book center remains worthy reception of Christ's Body and Blood by faith.

Historical Development

The 1549 English Prayer Book did include a same-day reservation provision for the sick. If the parish Eucharist was celebrated that day, the priest reserved enough of the sacrament at the open Communion and then carried it to the sick person as soon as convenient:

And yf the same daye there be a celebracion of the holy communion in the churche, then shall the priest reserve (at the open communion) so muche of the sacrament of the body and bloud, as shall serve the siche person, and so many as shall communicate with hym (yf there be any.) And so soone as he convenientely may, after the open communion ended in the church, shall goe and minister the same, firste to those that are appoynted to communicate with the sicke (yf there be any), and last of all to the sicke person himselfe.

That 1549 rubric explains why "reservation for the sick" is a real Anglican historical question and not merely an imported modern topic. It also highlights the difference between an expressly printed authorization and the final 1928 American text. The 1928 American Communion of the Sick resembles the older pastoral concern for bedside Communion, but it omits the 1549 same-day reservation direction and instead tells the minister to celebrate Holy Communion in the house.

E. Clowes Chorley, writing soon after the American 1928 revision, records that the Joint Commission tried to add a limited reservation provision to the remaining-elements rubric, but the proposal did not survive:

The Joint Commission sought to amend the rubric directing that any remaining portion of the consecrated bread and wine should be reverently consumed and not carried out of church, by a provision that, when allowed by the bishop, there might be reserved so much as might be required that day for the communion of the sick. The recommendation was not adopted.

Chorley's note is decisive for the American 1928 question. The proposed text was not a broad authorization for reservation or devotion before the reserved sacrament. It was a narrow, bishop-allowed, same-day provision "for the communion of the sick." Even that limited recommendation was not adopted in the final book.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere give a broader historical-liturgical interpretation of the English remaining-elements rubric. They argue that the rubric about reverent consumption was aimed at preventing profanation, not at settling every question about Communion of the sick:

The rubric allotting the unused bread and wine to the Curate dates from 1552, but in 1661 it was necessary to add the word 'unconsecrated' because some had applied the rubric to the consecrated bread and wine and profanely taken this home and used it as common food: a further clause was added to direct the reverent consumption of this in church, so as to provide more surely still against profanation. A similar rubric had been inserted in the Scottish Book, and similar directions existed in pre-Reformation times for the reverent consumption of the Sacrament 'if any remains.' The rubric was not intended to touch upon the question of the Reservation of the Sacrament for the Communion of the sick; it is only concerned with the consumption of that which remains, and authorizes the ablutions by which this consumption is reverently and adequately carried out.

Procter and Frere help prevent a simplistic reading of the consumption rubric as mere anti-sacramental minimalism. The point is reverent handling and protection from profanation. Nevertheless, the final 1928 American book must still be read as it stands: it retained consumption language and did not adopt the bishop-allowed reservation proposal described by Chorley.

Scriptural and Pastoral Theology

The Gospel appointed as an alternative in the 1928 Communion of the Sick is John 6. It directs the sick communicant away from anxiety about a mere object and toward Christ himself, the living bread given for the life of the world:

Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The same office also provides instruction when physical reception is impossible. In that case the minister is to teach the sick person that repentance, steadfast faith in Christ crucified, remembrance, and thanksgiving are spiritually profitable even without oral reception:

But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the Minister, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, the Minister shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the Cross for him, and shed his Blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefor, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth.

This final rubric is pastorally important. The 1928 BCP does not solve every emergency by reservation. It first urges frequent public Communion; it then provides celebration in the sick person's house; it permits a shortened rite; and, when reception cannot occur, it instructs the faithful in spiritual participation through repentance, faith, remembrance, and thanksgiving. That order preserves sacramental realism without making Communion dependent on unauthorized carrying about of the sacrament.

Clause-by-Clause Reading

The phrase "when it shall be publicly administered in the Church" places ordinary reception in common worship. It does not deny pastoral Communion outside the church, because the same rubric immediately provides for the sick person's house; but it makes public Communion the norm and urges parishioners to receive often while they are able.

"Timely notice to the Minister" makes the sick-communion office an ordered act of ministry rather than a spontaneous private devotion. "Signifying also how many there are to communicate with him" retains a corporate character at the bedside. The sick person is the pastoral focus, but the rite still belongs to the Church's common sacramental life.

"The Minister shall there celebrate the Holy Communion" is the controlling 1928 phrase. It says celebrate, not reserve. "All things necessary being prepared" points to bread, wine, vessels, and reverent setting for celebration. The shortened form confirms the same logic by retaining the Prayer of Consecration.

"It shall not be carried out of the Church" is equally clear for the public Holy Communion office. The remaining consecrated Bread and Wine are not discarded or treated casually; they are consumed reverently by the minister and other communicants. Reverence and non-reservation are both part of the final 1928 order.

Use in Anglican Teaching

This article is useful when three errors need correction. First, the 1928 BCP should not be cited as if it plainly authorizes a standing parish tabernacle or extra-liturgical devotion before the reserved sacrament. The final American book does not print that authorization. Second, the book should not be read as indifferent to the sick. Its Communion of the Sick is direct, pastoral, and theologically rich. Third, the consumption rubric should not be reduced to irreverence. The 1928 rite treats remaining consecrated elements with care, and Article XXVIII teaches real sacramental partaking by faith while guarding against treating reservation, carrying about, lifting up, or worshipping as Christ's ordinance.

For parish catechesis, the safest summary is therefore precise: the 1928 American Prayer Book provides Communion of the Sick by celebration in the sick person's house and by spiritual-communion instruction when bodily reception is impossible; it does not adopt the proposed bishop-allowed same-day reservation rubric recorded by Chorley; and it directs remaining consecrated elements from the public Communion to be reverently consumed after the blessing.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Communion of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion Rubrics (1928 BCP)
• Administration of Communion (1928 BCP)
• Articles of Religion
• Sacraments in the 1928 BCP

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation and Communion of the Sick
• Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Articles of Religion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The 1549 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation of the Sick
• E. Clowes Chorley: The New American Prayer Book, Chapter VII
• Procter and Frere: Holy Communion