Visitation of the Sick Exhortation (1928 BCP)

Visitation of the Sick Exhortation (1928 BCP) refers to the pastoral address appointed within the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer office for the Visitation of the Sick. Unlike the long fixed exhortation printed in the 1549 and 1662 English Prayer Books, the 1928 book gives the minister a rubric rather than a set speech. That change makes the exhortation more flexible, but not vague: the minister is to interpret sickness before God, call the sick person to repentance, faith, forgiveness, and charity, and then lead prayer within the Church's ordered ministry.

Place in the Office

The 1928 office begins as a pastoral visitation, not as a detached devotional reading. Notice is given to the parish minister, the minister enters the sick person's presence, and the first spoken sentence blesses the house:

The following Service, or any part thereof, may be used at the discretion of the Minister. When any person is sick, notice shall be given thereof to the Minister of the Parish; who, coming into the sick person's presence, shall say, Peace be to this house, and to all that dwell in it.

The address comes after penitential psalms, Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, versicles, and the prayer "O Saviour of the world." It is therefore framed by confession, supplication, and confidence in Christ's Cross before any moral instruction is given.

O SAVIOUR of the world, who by thy Cross and precious Blood hast redeemed us; Save us, and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.

The 1928 Rubric

The actual 1928 "exhortation" is this directive:

As occasion demands, the Minister shall address the sick person on the meaning and use of the time of sickness, and the opportunity it affords for spiritual profit.

This sentence is brief, but it carries three limits. First, the address is occasional: it is used "as occasion demands," so pastoral judgment matters. Second, its subject is theological: the minister speaks about the "meaning and use" of sickness, not merely about symptoms, prognosis, or mood. Third, its goal is sanctification: the time of sickness is treated as an "opportunity" for "spiritual profit."

The next rubric explains what that spiritual profit includes. The minister may inquire into Christian faith, repentance, charity, forgiveness, restitution, and reconciliation:

Here may the Minister inquire of the sick person as to his acceptance of the Christian Faith, and as to whether he repent him truly of his sins, and be in charity with all the world; exhorting him to forgive, from the bottom of his heart, all persons that have offended him; and if he hath offended any other, to ask them forgiveness; and where he hath done injury or wrong to any man, that he make amends to the uttermost of his power.

The exhortation is therefore not a theory of illness in isolation. It is a pastoral doorway into repentance and restored communion with God and neighbor. The rubric does not require the minister to tell every sick person that a particular sin caused a particular illness; it does require the minister to treat illness as a serious occasion for faith, conscience, forgiveness, and amendment of life.

Confession, Assurance, and Mercy

The address is followed by provision for a troubled conscience. In the 1928 American form, the minister is directed to assure the penitent of God's mercy and forgiveness, and the following prayer asks God to restore what has been decayed by sin, weakness, and temptation:

Then shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any matter; after which confession, on evidence of his repentance, the Minister shall assure him of God's mercy and forgiveness.

O MOST merciful God, who, according to the multitude of thy mercies, dost so put away the sins of those who truly repent, that thou rememberest them no more; Open thine eye of mercy upon this thy servant, who most earnestly desireth pardon and forgiveness. Renew in him, most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by his own carnal will and frailness; preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church; consider his contrition, accept his tears, assuage his pain, as shall seem to thee most expedient for him. And forasmuch as he putteth his full trust only in thy mercy, impute not unto him his former sins, but strengthen him with thy blessed Spirit; and, when thou art pleased to take him hence, take him unto thy favour; through the merits of thy most dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This sequence is classically Anglican because it refuses two errors at once. It does not reduce sickness to medicine alone, since conscience, repentance, and faith are addressed. It also does not turn sickness into despair, since the minister points the penitent immediately to God's mercy, the unity of the Church, the Holy Spirit, and the merits of Christ.

Earlier English Form

The older English Prayer Books printed a long exhortation "after this form, or other like." The 1662 Book of Common Prayer states the theology explicitly:

Dearly beloved, know this, that Almighty God is the Lord of life and death, and of all things to them pertaining, as youth, strength, health, age, weakness, and sickness. Wherefore, whatsoever your sickness is, know you certainly, that it is God's visitation. And for what cause soever this sickness is sent unto you; whether it be to try your patience, for the example of others, and that your faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, glorious, and honourable, to the increase of glory and endless felicity; or else it be sent unto you to correct and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your heavenly Father; know you certainly, that if you truly repent you of your sins, and bear your sickness patiently, trusting in God's mercy for his dear Son Jesus Christ's sake, and render unto him humble thanks for his fatherly visitation, submitting yourself wholly unto his will, it shall turn to your profit, and help you forward in the right way that leadeth unto everlasting life.

The 1662 continuation links the sick person's patience to Hebrews 12 and to participation in Christ's suffering:

These words, good brother, are written in holy Scripture for our comfort and instruction, that we should patiently, and with thanksgiving, bear our heavenly Father's correction, whensoever by any manner of adversity it shall please his gracious goodness to visit us. And there should be no greater comfort to Christian persons, than to be made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses.

The 1928 American rubric inherits this older subject matter but leaves the exact address to the minister's discretion. The words "meaning and use" and "spiritual profit" are a compressed form of the same pastoral logic: sickness is interpreted under God's providence, repentance is urged, and the sufferer is directed to Christ.

The 1549 Prayer Book shows the same underlying shape in early Reformation spelling. It also connected the sick person's confession with the wider Anglican practice of private confession:

Here shall the sicke person make a speciall confession, yf he fele his conscience troubled with any weightie matter. After which confession, the priest shall absolve hym after this forme: and the same forme of absolucion shalbe used in all pryvate confessions.

Historical and Theological Interpretation

The historical continuity of this office is not accidental. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge summarizes the older lineage and notes that the 1549 office moved from penitential prayer to an exhortation, examination, and confession:

Then come two of the nine collects of the Sarum Use, followed by the exhortation of the sick "after this fourme, or other lyke," with provision for curtailment if the person visited be very ill. The articles of the Apostles' Creed are next rehearsed, and the sick man is examined as to his forgiveness of all his enemies and his discharge of all debts, and is admonished of his duty to make his will and to be charitable to the poor, the special wording of these portions being left to the discretion of the priest.

Matthew S. C. Olver's peer-reviewed study of the 1662 Prayer Book likewise treats "divine visitation" as a theological key for understanding Anglican sickness rites. The article identifies the subject as Anglican liturgy, Anglican theology, pastoral theology, and the Visitation of the Sick, and describes its interpretive lens as the Prayer Book's repeated language for bodily illness.

For 1928 interpretation, this means that the minister's address should be read as pastoral theology in liturgical form. It is not an invitation to speculative diagnosis of divine judgment. It is a directed act of Christian care: the sick person is helped to receive the time of sickness before God, confess sin where conscience is troubled, forgive and seek forgiveness, trust Christ's merits, and remain within the communion of the Church.

Scriptural Connections

The 1928 rubric does not print a Scripture citation beside the address, but its themes are scriptural. James directs the sick to call for the elders of the Church, prayer, anointing, forgiveness, and mutual confession. Hebrews 12, explicitly quoted in the older English exhortation, gives the language of chastening and filial correction. Mark 2:1-12 connects bodily healing and the forgiveness of sins without collapsing one into the other. Psalm 103 blesses the Lord "who forgiveth all thy sin, and healeth all thine infirmities," which is close to the Prayer Book's joined concern for pardon, bodily weakness, and restored praise.

The appointed address should therefore be clause-by-clause in practice. "Meaning" asks what illness reveals about mortality, dependence, judgment, mercy, and hope. "Use" asks how the sick person may respond with repentance, patience, reconciliation, prayer, and faith. "Spiritual profit" names the end: not the denial of bodily suffering, but growth in holiness and deeper reliance on Christ.

Use in Pastoral Ministry

In parish use, the 1928 form gives ministers room to speak personally without abandoning the Prayer Book's theology. The address may be short or extended, but it should remain tied to the office around it. It should prepare for inquiry of conscience where appropriate, for confession and assurance where needed, for prayers of recovery or commendation according to the case, and for Communion of the Sick when desired and possible.

The most careful use is therefore neither mechanical recitation nor free-form counseling detached from common prayer. The minister speaks to a real person in a real illness, but under the discipline of the Church's prayer: peace to the house, appeal to Christ crucified, examination of faith and charity, assurance of mercy, and committal to God's gracious protection.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)
• Visitation of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Absolution of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Anointing of the Sick and Anglican Tradition
• Communion of the Sick (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation and Communion of the Sick
• The Church of England: The Visitation of the Sick