By Robin G. Jordan
The Penitential
Introduction. The rubrics of the 1928 Prayer Book permit the omission of
the Exhortation, the General Confession, the Absolution, and the Lord’s Prayer
at the beginning of Morning Prayer, allowing the restoration of the Lord’s
Prayer to its original place before the Suffrages. (In the 1979 Prayer Book the use of the penitential introduction is optional.) There is no need to begin
the service with the penitential introduction except on a Day of Fasting or
Abstinence or during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent. After the
Sentence of Scripture the minister may go directly to the Opening Preces, “O
Lord, open thou, our lips….”.
As Massey H. Shepherd Jr. points out in his discussion of
Evening Prayer in The Oxford American
Prayer Book Commentary (1950), the
use of the penitential introduction is more spiritually advantageous at the end
of the day. If a bidding prayer is used before the sermon at Morning Prayer, a
brief exhortation to confess one’s sins and seek God’s pardon may be added to
the bidding prayer. The members of the congregation can also be encouraged to
adopt the spiritual discipline of reading Evening Prayer at home on Sunday
evenings and at other times and to examine their consciences and behavior and
to confess their particular errors and misdeeds to God before reading the
General Confession.
When the penitential introduction is used in the service of
Morning Prayer, the short Bidding to confession should be substituted for the
Exhortation. This short bidding was introduced as an alternative to the long
Exhortation in the 1892 Prayer Book “to avoid the tedious of overmuch
repetition,” as Massey J. Shepherd Jr. also notes in his discussion of Evening
Prayer in The Oxford American Prayer Book
Commentary (1950). It is one of a number of provisions for shortening the
services of Morning and Evening Prayer in the 1928 Prayer Book and making these
services more usable in the mission field. In the twenty-first century the
mission field encompasses all of North America and the rest of the world.
When a deacon or lay reader is officiating at a service of
Morning Prayer and the penitential introduction is used, the Absolution is
omitted. In a number of more recent Anglican service books such as the Anglican
Church of Australia’s An Australian
Prayer Book (1978) and the Anglican Mission in Americas and The Prayer Book
Society of the USA’s An Anglican Prayer
Book (2008) a deacon or a lay reader may read the Collect for the
Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity in place of the Absolution, or Declaration of
Forgiveness. The rubrics of An Australian
Prayer Book also permit a deacon or lay reader to read 1 John 2:1, 2 in
place of the Absolution, or Declaration of Forgiveness.
The First Canticle. Those
who recite the Office alone, with someone else or with a small group are apt to
lose sight of the fact that the Venite,
the Psalm (or Psalms) appointed for the day, and the canticles are songs. They
are meant to be sung. The chanting of the Venite,
the Psalm (or Psalms) of the Day, and the canticles require strong musical
leadership and good acoustics. Both are typically in short supply in small
churches. On the other hand, the congregation of most small churches can handle
the singing of metrical versions of these liturgical songs.
To help parishioners to sing the services of Morning and
Evening Prayer hymn-writers have produced a wealth of metrical settings of the Venite, the Easter Anthems, the Te Deum laudamus, the Benedicite, the Benedictus es, Domine,
the Benedictus Dominus Deus, the Jubilate Deo, and the other canticles
over the past forty odd years. The older metrical psalters, Archbishop Matthew
Parker’s The Whole Psalter Translated
into English Metre, Sternhold and Hopkins’ Old Version, and Tate and Brady’s New Version also contain metrical versions of the Prayer Book
canticles.
The singing of metrical psalms and canticles has a long
history in the Anglican Church. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I crowds
would gather at King’s Cross in London to sing metrical psalms for hours on
end. The rubrics permitting the singing of a hymn before and after a service
and before and after a sermon originated in Elizabeth’s reign and at first
permitted the singing of a metrical psalm before and after a service and before
and after a sermon. Metrical psalms and canticles were a prominent feature of
the repertoire of the band of village musicians and singers that led the
congregational singing in English parish churches well into the mid-nineteenth
century.
A wide selection of metrical canticles is available and Gulbransen
Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP, the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH 200, and similar digital
hymnal players contains tunes to which most of them may be sung. I have listed
a a representative selection of them below:
Venite
Come, Let Us Praise
the Lord DARWALL’S 148TH/DARWALL
Come Let Us Sing with
Joy OLD 124TH/GENEVA 124
Come Sound His Praise
Abroad SILVER STREET, ST. THOMAS (Williams), RICHMOND (Everett), ST. BRIDE
Come with All Joy to
Sing to God CANONBURY, ERHALT UNS HERR, OLD HUNDRETH
Stanzas 5, 6, and 7 may be omitted.
Come Worship God Who
Is Worthy of Honour O QUANTA QUALIA [MORNING STAR, STAR IN THE EAST
]
O Come and Sing Unto
the Lord IRISH, [DUNDEE/FRENCH]
O Come and Sing to
God, the Lord ST. PETER, [MORNING SONG, DUNDEE, IRISH, DOVE OF PEACE]
“O come and sing to God, the Lord” may also be sung to DOVE
OF PEACE, a Southern Harmony shape
note hymn tune, repeating the last line after each verse.
O Come Loud Anthems
Let Us Sing OLD HUNDRETH, DUKE STREET, WINCHESTER NEW, TRURO, HERR JESU
CHRIST
Sing Together All
God’s People ABBOT’S LEIGH, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, CHRIST CHURCH SYDNOR,
BLAENWERN, AUSTRIAN HYMN/AUSTRIA, HYFRYDOL, BEECHER
To God with Gladness
Sing DARWALL’S 148TH/DARWALL
The Easter Anthems
God’s Paschal Lamb Is
Sacrificed ENGELBERG, SINE NOMINE
Now Lives the Lamb of
God CROFT’S 136TH, GOPSAL
Paschal Feast! Upon
the Cross ST. ALBINUS
Te Deum laudamus
God, We Praise You!
NETTLETON, RUSTINGTON [BEECHER, AUSTRIAN HYMN, HYMN TO JOY]
Great Is the Lord We
Now Acclaim OLD HUNDRETH
Holy God, we praise
thy name GROSSER GOTT/TE DEUM
O God, We Praise Thee
and Confess MANCHESTER, DUNDEE
We Praise You and Acknowledge
You, O God THAXTED
An MP3 file of the organ accompaniment to THAXTED may be
downloaded from the SmallChurchMusic.com website.
We Praise You, O God,
and Acclaim You as Lord CHRISTE SANCTORUM, ISTE CONFESSOR (Poitier)
Benedictus es, Domine
Bless Now Your Fathers’
God CHRISTCHURCH (Steggal) DARWALL’S
148TH/DARWALL, CROFT’S 136TH, GOPSAL, LAUS DEO, RHOSYMEDRE, ST. JOHN (Parish)
The tune to which this metrical version of the Benedictus
es, Domine is set in Sing Together: Bible
Songs and Canticles is CHRISTCHURCH, which is not listed in the digital
hymnal’s Master Index. MP3 files of the organ and piano accompaniment to
CHRISTCHURCH (Steggal) may be downloaded from the SmallChurchMusic.com
website. A MIDI file of the piano
accompaniment may also be down loaded from that website. An MIDI file of the
melody played on the piano may be downloaded from the hymnary.org website. The
other tunes are listed in the digital hymnal’s Master Index.
If it is sung to RHOSYMEDRE, the last line of each verse is
repeated.
Bless the Lord,
Our Fathers’ God HEINLEIN, INNOCENTS, MONKLAND
Come, Bless the Lord,
God of Our Forebears EARTH AND ALL STARS
A MIDI file of the melody of EARTH AND ALL STARS played on
the piano may be downloaded from the hymnary.org website. The hymn tune was not
included in the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH 100 CP. It is included in the
Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-200.
Glory to You, Our
faithful God OLD HUNDRETH
Benedicte, omnia opera
Domini
All Created Things, Bless
the Lord KUM BA YAH, DESMOND
All You Works of God
Bless the Lord LINSTEAD
O All Ye Works of
God, Now Come IRISH
Bless the Lord, Creation
Sings HARTS (Milgrove), HUMILITY (Goss), MONKLAND, DELIVERANCE,
HOLLINGSIDE, GEORGE’S WINDSOR
This hymn may be shortened by omitting stanzas 2 through
6. To a 7.7.7.7. D. tune such as DELIVERANCE, HOLLINGSIDE, or ST GEORGE’S
WINDSOR, the hymn may be sung as four eight-line stanzas.
Bless the Lord,
Created Things ORIENTIS PARTIBUS, INNOCENTS, MONKLAND
Let All Creation Bless
the Lord MIT FREUDEN ZART/BOHEMIAN BRETHREN
Laudate Dominum (Psalm
148)
Praise Him, Praise Him,
Praise Him NICAEA
Praise the Lord of Heaven
UNE VAINE CRAINTE
This hymn may also be sung to CUDDESDON and EVELYNS, which
are not in the digital hymnal’s Master Index. SmallChurch.com has a
downloadable MP3 file of CUDDESDON played on the organ for small churches.
Worshipworkshop.org.uk has a downloadable MP3 accompaniment track of EVELYNS
played on the organ for the use of schools.
Praise the Lord, Our
God KUM BA YAH
Praise The Lord! Ye
Heavens, Adore Him AUSTRIAN HYMN, HYFRYDOL FABEN
Benedictus Dominus
Deus
Blessed Be the God of
Israel (Quinn) FOREST GREEN
Blessed Be the God of
Israel (Daw) FOREST GREEN, KINGSFOLD
Blessed Be the God of
Israel (Perry)MERLE’S TUNE,
KING’S LYNN, ELLACOMBE
Blessed Be the God of
Israel (Mowbray) CONSOLATION/MORNING SONG, DETROIT, DOVE OF PEACE, LAND OF
REST, NEW BRITAIN, PROMISED LAND, RESIGNATION
If this text is sung to DOVE OF PEACE, the last line of each
verse is repeated.
Blest Be the God Of
Israel (Perry) MERLE'S TUNE, KING’S LYNN, ELLACOMBE
Gospel Canticle
(Quinn) FOREST GREEN
Now Bless the God of
Israel (Duck) FOREST GREEN
Song of Zechariah
(Quinn) KINGSFOLD
Jubilate Deo (Psalm 100)
Before Jehovah's
Awesome Throne OLD HUNDREDTH
Before the Lord's
Eternal Throne WINCHESTER NEW
Before the Lord
Jehovah’s Throne WINCHESTER NEW
Be Joyful in the Lord
LEONI
Come, Rejoice before
Your Maker BEACH SPRING, RESTORATION/ARISE, ST. ANDREW, CROSS OF JESUS
Sing All Creation
ISTE CONFESSOR
A larger selection of metrical psalms and canticle is lsited
in the companion article series, Texts of
Metrical Versions of the Invitatory Psalms, Canticles, and Anthems.
Metrical psalms and canticles are a useful addition to a
congregation’s repertoire. They not only can be used on Morning Prayer Sundays
but also Communion Sundays. Depending upon their tempo, mood, and word content,
they make excellent introit hymns, sequences between the epistle and the
gospel, and offertory hymns, and on occasion may be sung in place of the Gloria in excelsis or after the
communion service.
Also See
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