The Litany (1928 BCP)

The Litany (1928 BCP) is the solemn general supplication appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It may be used after the third collect at Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer, before Holy Communion, or as a separate office. Its distinctive form gathers the Church into Trinitarian invocation, penitence, deliverance, intercession, and trust in Christ the Mediator.

The 1928 Litany is one of the clearest examples of Anglican common prayer joining doctrine to public supplication. It prays the Gospel in a corporate voice: the people confess sin, plead the saving work of Christ, ask mercy for the Church and the world, and seek amendment of life according to God's holy Word. Its petitions are therefore not a loose list of concerns, but an ordered theology of dependence.

Place in the Prayer Book

The rubric places the Litany beside the Daily Office and Holy Communion rather than confining it to one season. This matters for interpreting the office. The Litany is penitential, but it is not only an Ash Wednesday devotion; it is the Church's regular form of extended intercession and supplication.

To be used after the Third Collect at Morning or Evening Prayer; or before the Holy Communion; or separately.

The office therefore serves both public worship and extraordinary need. In a parish it can extend Morning Prayer, prepare for Holy Communion, mark days of fasting, accompany Rogation and national supplication, or stand alone as a service of repentance and prayer. In each use it gives the congregation a disciplined way to pray for deliverance without reducing prayer to private anxiety or political urgency.

The title "The Litany, or General Supplication" also explains its breadth. The prayer is not limited to personal devotion. It names the Church, civil rulers, ministers, laborers for the harvest, nations, enemies, prisoners, widows, children, travelers, the sick, and the fruits of the earth. The Church prays before God as a body whose neighbors are included in its intercession.

Trinitarian invocation

The Litany begins with direct invocation of the Holy Trinity. The people do not first describe their circumstances; they call upon the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, and the one glorious Trinity. This opening frames the whole office as Christian prayer addressed to God as revealed in the Gospel.

O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth; Have mercy upon us. O God the Son, Redeemer of the world; Have mercy upon us. O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful; Have mercy upon us.

The form is both doctrinal and devotional. The Father is confessed as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier. The congregation does not treat mercy as an abstraction. It asks mercy from the God whose works of creation, redemption, and sanctification are already named.

The invocation also distinguishes Anglican litany from vague religious lament. The Church's petition is Trinitarian, creedal, and ecclesial. Its repeated "Have mercy upon us" is not empty repetition, but the steady posture of a people who know that every part of Christian life depends upon divine mercy.

Penitence and redemption

The first long petition asks God not to remember the offences of the people or their forefathers. It binds confession to redemption by the blood of Christ.

Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.

This language is biblical in both its realism and its hope. Sin is not minimized, and inherited or communal guilt is not ignored. Yet the plea rests on redemption, not on the congregation's moral improvement. The phrase "thy most precious blood" places the Litany under the same Gospel that governs the absolution in the Daily Office and the words of administration in Holy Communion.

The Prayer Book's penitence is therefore neither despair nor self-excuse. The people stand before God as sinners, but as sinners who may plead the sacrifice of Christ. This is one reason the Litany belongs naturally near Holy Communion: its intercession is shaped by the cross before it becomes a list of needs.

Deliverance from evil

The section of deprecations asks deliverance from spiritual, moral, social, and bodily dangers. The range is deliberate. The Litany does not isolate private sin from public disorder or bodily suffering from spiritual danger.

From all evil and mischief; from sin; from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation, Good Lord, deliver us.

The petition assumes a biblical account of human peril. Evil is not only misfortune, and sin is not only social failure. The devil, divine judgment, and everlasting loss are named plainly. At the same time, the Litany also prays against "lightning and tempest," "plague, pestilence, and famine," "battle and murder," and "sudden death." The office teaches that Christian prayer may bring bodily vulnerability and eternal judgment into one act of supplication.

Another petition links false doctrine, schism, hardness of heart, and contempt for God's Word. This is especially important for Anglican theology because the Prayer Book treats worship, doctrine, and obedience as inseparable.

From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Commandment, Good Lord, deliver us.

The Litany is not anti-doctrinal piety. It prays that the Church and commonwealth be guarded from disorder, false teaching, division, and contempt for Scripture. In this way it carries the same concern found throughout the 1928 BCP: common prayer forms a people in truth, charity, and obedience.

Christ's saving work

The Litany's pleas for deliverance are grounded in the mysteries of Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Ghost. The office moves through the Gospel narrative as the basis of supplication.

By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation, Good Lord, deliver us.

The next petition continues through the Passion and exaltation of Christ:

By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the Coming of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, deliver us.

These petitions keep the Litany from becoming a general moral exercise. The people ask deliverance "by" Christ's saving acts. Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost are not topics to be remembered at a distance; they are the Gospel realities by which the Church prays.

The same pattern appears in the Church's scriptural worship. The New Testament presents Christ as the one Mediator and heavenly intercessor, and the Litany repeatedly returns to him as the ground of access to God.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all.

This Scripture clarifies the Prayer Book's logic. The Litany intercedes broadly for all sorts and conditions of people, but it does so through the one Mediator who gave himself for all. Its catholic breadth is evangelical in foundation.

Intercession for Church and commonwealth

After the deprecations, the Litany turns to intercession. The Church first prays for the right governance of Christ's holy Church universal, then for civil rulers, ministers, missionary laborers, the people of God, nations, and all in need.

We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God; and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universal in the right way.

This petition is ecclesial without being narrow. The 1928 BCP is an American Prayer Book, but the Litany prays first for the holy Church universal. It assumes that the local congregation is praying within the one Church of God, not merely for its own institutional success.

The prayer for ordained ministers joins knowledge of the Word to the life that displays it.

That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word; and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth, and show it accordingly.

This is a compact theology of ministry. Clergy need illumination in the Word, but their preaching and living must agree. The Church does not ask only for eloquence, administrative skill, or ceremonial exactness. It asks that ministers understand God's Word truly and embody it visibly.

The civil petitions are similarly theological. The President, Christian rulers, and magistrates are prayed for in relation to divine honor, justice, and truth. The Litany neither idolizes civil authority nor treats public order as spiritually irrelevant. It prays that rulers seek God's honor and maintain truth because the peace of society is part of the Church's intercessory concern.

Mercy for all conditions of people

The Litany's social and pastoral petitions are notably concrete. The Church prays for travelers, women in childbirth, the sick, young children, prisoners, captives, fatherless children, widows, the desolate, the oppressed, enemies, and the provision of the earth.

That it may please thee to succour, help, and comfort, all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation.

The words "danger, necessity, and tribulation" give the Church a vocabulary broad enough for war, disaster, poverty, illness, persecution, grief, and private distress. The following petitions show that this breadth is not vague. The office names actual human conditions and teaches the congregation to remember those who might otherwise be forgotten.

This pastoral breadth also connects the Litany to the occasional offices of the Prayer Book. Its petitions overlap with the concerns of Visitation of the Sick (1928 BCP), Burial of the Dead (1928 BCP), Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth (1928 BCP), and the prayers for civil and household life. The Litany gathers these conditions into one common intercession.

Repentance and amendment

Near the end of the main intercessions, the Litany asks not merely for pardon but for repentance, grace, and amendment according to the Word of God.

That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to thy holy Word.

This petition is central to the office's theology. The Litany does not separate forgiveness from sanctification. It asks God to forgive sins, negligences, and ignorances, but also to give the grace of the Holy Spirit for amended life. Repentance is therefore God's gift before it is the worshipper's achievement.

The petition also shows the Prayer Book's scriptural measure of holiness: "according to thy holy Word." Anglican moral theology is not shaped by bare custom or private intensity. The people ask to be remade according to Scripture, within the public prayer of the Church, through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 51 supplies the biblical grammar for this prayer:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

The same penitential logic appears in the Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday, which is printed with the Litany and may follow it. Both offices teach the Church to confess sin directly, seek mercy confidently, and ask for inward renewal.

Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, and concluding collect

The Litany narrows its intercession through repeated appeals to the Son of God, the Lamb of God, and the Kyrie. The congregation then says the Lord's Prayer. This movement prevents the office from ending in mere enumeration. The Church's many petitions are gathered into Christ's own prayer.

O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world; Grant us thy peace. O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world; Have mercy upon us.

The Agnus Dei wording echoes John the Baptist's confession of Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In the Litany, this confession becomes intercession. The one who takes away sin is asked to grant peace and mercy.

The final collect asks God to look upon human infirmities, turn away deserved evils, and grant trust in mercy with holy living.

Grant, that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living.

This conclusion is important. The Litany does not seek deliverance so that the people may return unchanged to ordinary self-rule. It seeks deliverance for trust, holiness, and purity of life. The office ends where Christian supplication should end: confidence in mercy and renewed service to God.

Anglican theological significance

The Litany shows the reformed catholic character of the 1928 BCP. It is catholic in form, using an ancient style of responsive supplication and praying for the whole Church and world. It is reformed in doctrine, grounding mercy in Christ's redemption, asking amendment according to God's Word, and giving no independent mediatorial role to any creature. It is pastoral in scope, because it brings ordinary human vulnerability into the Church's common prayer.

The office also guards against two reductions of Anglican worship. It prevents formal worship from becoming merely ceremonial by forcing the people to name sin, danger, false doctrine, public disorder, bodily suffering, and the need for repentance. It also prevents evangelical prayer from becoming formless by giving the congregation an ordered, scriptural, Trinitarian, and ecclesial language for supplication.

For traditional Anglican and Reformed Episcopal readers, the Litany is therefore a practical school of doctrine. It teaches the Trinity, creation, redemption, sanctification, sin, judgment, Christ's mediation, the Church, ordained ministry, civil authority, providence, repentance, grace, Scripture, and holy living, all by prayer. Its theology is not appended to devotion; it is carried by devotion.

Use in worship and teaching

In worship, the Litany is especially fitting in Lent, on fast days, during public distress, in times of war or disaster, before Holy Communion, and as an occasional parish office of intercession. Its full form is strongest when the deprecations and intercessions are allowed to retain their cumulative force. The repetition forms the congregation in dependence rather than hurry.

In teaching, the office is best explained by following its order. The Trinitarian invocation teaches who is addressed; the penitential plea teaches redemption by Christ's blood; the deprecations teach the scope of evil and danger; the Christological petitions teach the saving work of Christ; the intercessions teach the Church's care for all conditions of people; the repentance petition teaches grace and amendment; and the concluding collect teaches trust and holy living.

The Litany also belongs with related 1928 BCP topics such as Daily Office (1928 BCP), Morning Prayer (1928 BCP), Evening Prayer (1928 BCP), Holy Communion (1928 BCP), A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday (1928 BCP), Days of Fasting and Abstinence (1928 BCP), The Psalter (1928 BCP), Scripture in the 1928 BCP, and Common Prayer and Anglican Unity.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday (1928 BCP)
• Days of Fasting and Abstinence (1928 BCP)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Scripture in the 1928 BCP
• Common Prayer and Anglican Unity

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer