Sermon Rubric in Holy Communion (1928 BCP)

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Sermon Rubric in Holy Communion (1928 BCP) is the direction in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer that places the sermon after the Creed, notices, and optional Bidding Prayer, and before the Offertory in Holy Communion (1928 BCP). The rubric is short, but it gives preaching a definite liturgical location: the sermon follows the appointed Collect, Epistle, Gospel, and Creed, and it leads into the offertory action of alms, oblations, intercession, consecration, and communion.

Prayer Book Text

Then shall be declared unto the People what Holy-days, or Fasting-days, are in the week following to be observed; and (if occasion be) shall Notice be given of the Communion, and of the Banns of Matrimony, and other matters to be published.

Here, or immediately after the Creed, may be said the Bidding Prayer, or other authorized Prayers and intercessions.

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.

[1]

The sequence matters. Notices are not the sermon, and the Bidding Prayer is not the sermon. Preaching comes after the Church has heard the appointed Scripture and confessed the faith in the Creed. When there is a Communion, the sermon does not end the rite; it sends the priest and people onward to the Holy Table and the Offertory.

Place in the Communion Office

The 1928 rubric belongs to the first half of the Communion office. The Collect for the Day gathers the petition of the occasion, the Epistle and Gospel supply the appointed lessons, the Creed confesses the Church's faith, and the sermon expounds that Word within the eucharistic assembly. The sermon is therefore not an independent lecture inserted into worship, but a ministry of interpretation between hearing and sacramental response.

Then shall follow the Sermon, or one of the Homilies already set forth, or hereafter to be set forth, by authority.

Then shall the Priest return to the Lord's Table, and begin the Offertory, saying one or more of these Sentences following, as he thinketh most convenient in his discretion.

[2]

The 1662 predecessor explicitly allows "one of the Homilies" by authority, while the 1928 American rubric simply says, "Then followeth the Sermon." That simplification does not make preaching less ecclesial. It assumes an ordered ministry of the Word within a Prayer Book office whose surrounding texts discipline what the sermon is to proclaim.

Scriptural and Primitive Pattern

Scripture presents public reading and explanation as one act of pastoral ministry. Ezra's reading in Nehemiah is a useful biblical model for the sermon rubric because it joins intelligible reading, interpretation, and congregational understanding.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

[3]

The apostolic charge is equally direct: preaching is the public ministry of the Word before God and Christ, exercised with doctrine, patience, and pastoral correction.

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

[4]

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere locate preaching within the early eucharistic pattern when summarizing Justin Martyr's second-century account of Sunday worship:

Justin Martyr speaks also of the Sunday gathering and specifies (i) the reading of Scripture, and (ii) a sermon based on it; (iii) the prayers for all classes of men; (iv) the kiss of peace; (v) the oblation of bread and the cup of wine and water.

[5]

The 1928 order follows that recognizable outline: Scripture is read, faith is confessed, prayer may be offered, the sermon expounds, and the offertory begins the eucharistic movement toward communion. The sermon therefore serves both Word and Sacrament. It interprets the lessons and Creed, and it prepares the congregation to offer alms, prayers, praise, and obedient faith at the Table.

Anglican Doctrine of Preaching

The Articles of Religion define the visible Church by Word and Sacrament together. This is the doctrinal frame for the sermon rubric in Holy Communion:

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

[6]

Article XIX guards against two opposite distortions. A sermon severed from the sacraments becomes merely religious instruction; sacramental worship without the preached Word becomes unintelligible ceremony. The Communion rubric holds the two together: the Word is preached in the same assembly in which the Sacrament is administered.

The 1928 Ordinal gives this same pattern to ordained ministry. A priest is ordained to preach the Word and minister the Sacraments, not to choose between them:

Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments.

[7]

The sermon rubric is therefore ministerial as well as liturgical. It assumes that preaching belongs to the ordained stewardship of doctrine, repentance, faith, and sacramental preparation.

Historical Revision Context

E. Clowes Chorley, writing in 1929 to explain the newly adopted American Prayer Book, describes the revision as more flexible than the earlier American books and notes the new placement and rubrical shape of the Communion office:

As compared with the two previous American Prayer Books the new Book has two outstanding characteristics--it is much more flexible in its use and there is a marked tendency to shorten the regular services; especially those of Morning and Evening Prayer.

[8]

In the new Prayer Book the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or the Holy Communion is placed before the Collects, Epistles and Gospels. An entirely new rubric permits a deacon, in the absence of a priest, to say that part of the service ending with the Gospel.

[9]

That context helps explain the sermon rubric's practical significance. The 1928 book gives more ordered flexibility than the 1892 book, but it does not detach preaching from the appointed liturgy. The sermon remains situated after the lessons and Creed, while the deacon's permitted ante-communion office ends with the Gospel in the absence of a priest. In the full Communion office, preaching normally belongs to the priestly ministry that continues to the Offertory and Table.

Pastoral Use

In parish use, the sermon rubric teaches clergy and congregations how to hear a Eucharistic sermon. The preacher should normally attend to the appointed Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, and should preach in harmony with the Creed just confessed. The congregation should hear the sermon as preparation for repentance, faith, thanksgiving, almsgiving, intercession, and communion.

The rubric also keeps announcements and notices subordinate. Holy-days, fasting-days, Communion notices, banns, and other matters may be declared, but the sermon is not a notice period. It is the Church's ordered exposition of the Word in the Communion assembly.

The final phrase, "when there is a Communion," is pastorally important. The 1928 book could be used in an ante-communion setting, but when the Sacrament is to be administered, the sermon leads directly back to the Holy Table. Preaching is thus catechetical, evangelical, and sacramental: it gives the sense of Scripture, proclaims Christ, forms the conscience, and prepares the faithful to receive the holy mysteries with understanding and faith.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, pp. 70-71; compared with local source file sources/justus1928/HC.htm lines 253-263. Holy Communion - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  2. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, Cambridge University Press 2006 text, The Lord's Supper or Holy Communion, rubrics after the Creed and before the Offertory. The Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.
  3. ↑ Nehemiah 8:8, Authorized Version.
  4. ↑ 2 Timothy 4:2, Authorized Version.
  5. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition, London: Macmillan and Co., 1902, chapter XII, "The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion," p. 433 in the Project Canterbury transcription. A New History of the Book of Common Prayer: Chapter XII.
  6. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Articles of Religion, Article XIX, Of the Church, as printed in the 1789, 1892, and 1928 American Prayer Books. The Articles of Religion as they appear in the 1789, 1892 and 1928 Books of Common Prayer.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Form and Manner of Ordering Priests, ordination formula. The Ordinal - The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  8. ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents, New York: Macmillan Company, 1929, chapter VII, "The New Prayer Book: Revision." The New American Prayer Book, by E. Clowes Chorley.
  9. ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents, New York: Macmillan Company, 1929, chapter VII, "The New Prayer Book: Revision." The New American Prayer Book, by E. Clowes Chorley.

External Links

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