Early in the Morning Our Songs Shall Rise to Thee: The Music and Conduct of Morning Prayer, Part 5

By Robin G. Jordan

The Lessons. A number of Continuing Anglican jurisdictions permit the reading of Lessons from English translations of the Bible other than the King James Version.  Canon 12 of the Episcopal Missionary Church permits the use of a number of more recent translations of the Bible and allows the bishop to authorize the use of a particular translation in a parish other than one of those listed in the canon. Canon 22 of the United Episcopal Church permits the use of “one of the two translations known as Revised Versions, which are the English Revision of 1881 and the American Revision of 1901.” These two translations, however, retain the language of the King James Version. One of the tasks of the preacher on Sunday morning is to render text understandable to those unfamiliar with the language of the King James Version. Using a more recent translation of the Bible greatly simplifies the task. 

A large number of younger people and the lion’s share of the people for whom English is not their primary language have difficulty in understanding the language of the King James Version. They have similar difficulty with the language of the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. This is one of the realities of today's world with which the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions have yet to come to terms. 

My conversations with the students at the local university and young adults in the community have convinced me that if we are to reach and engage them, we must use the newer translations of the Bible whose language is closer to their own or the English language that they are learning. I am a cradle Anglican and I learned the language of the King James Version at the same time I was learning Prayer Book English and the King’s English. To most young people, however,  the language of the King James Version is a foreign language. I live in a region where a number of churches such as Churches of Christ congregations use no other translation of the Bible. But it is still a foreign language to a large segment of the population. It is certainly a foreign language to the students for whom English is not their primary language. They have much more difficulty with its archaic and obscure words and phrases and grammatical structures than they do with contemporary English. 

Many young people are unfamiliar with words and expressions that I at one time thought were quite common and took for granted that they would know. They are young people for whom English is their primary language. I no longer make that mistake. These young people include college graduates who are teaching in the region’s school systems. While we may lament the impoverished state of their vocabulary, it is one of the realities of the twenty-first century.

For the Lessons the English Standard Version is a good choice or the New King James Version or the older New International Version. The Holman Christian Standard Bible is also not a bad choice.

The 1928 Prayer Book makes no provision for a response after the words, “Here endeth the First Lesson (or the Second) Lesson.” The practice of saying “Thanks be to God” as a response is not found in any of the previous American Prayer Books or the earlier English Prayer Books. It was first introduced in the 1979 Prayer Book but not after the words, “Here endeth the Lesson (Reading). In the 1979 Prayer Book “Thanks be to God” is said after the words, “The Word of the Lord,” which the reader may say after each lesson in the services of Morning and Evening Prayer. Alternately the reader may say “Here endeth the Lesson (Reading).” The 1979 Prayer Book, like the 1928 Prayer Book, makes no provision for a response after these words and for good reason.

Think a moment about what the congregation is actually saying when they say “Thanks be to God” after “Here endeth the First Lesson (or the Second) Lesson.” If we paraphrase what is said, we clearly see the inappropriateness of the practice. The reader says, “I have finished reading the lesson.” The congregation breathes a sigh of relief and says “Thank God! He’s finished!”

The use of this response points to the need to evaluate the appropriateness of everything that we do and say in a service. We should always pay careful attention to what we are praying and how we are praying it.

If the congregation is accustomed to saying “Thanks be to God” after each lesson, the reader needs to announce the end of the lesson with different words such “The Word of the Lord,” “This is the Word of the Lord,” or “Hear what the Holy Spirit is saying.” All three forms are used in more recent Anglican service books to announce the end of the lesson in the services of Morning and Evening Prayer. Otherwise, the congregation needs to discontinue saying “Thanks be to God” after “Here endeth the First (or the Second) Lesson.”

The Second and Third Canticles. The 1928 Prayer Book provides three hymns of praise for use as a congregational response to the Old Testament Lesson—Te Deum laudamus; Benedictus es, Domine; and Benedicite, omnia opera Domini. The Te Deum is an ancient hymn that was sung at the end of the Medieval office of Mattins.  The Benedictus es and the Benedicite are taken from the Apocrypha and are different sections of The Song of the Three Holy Children as it is titled in the Apocrypha in the 1611 King James Version. The two canticles form together an expanded version of Psalm 148, which the 1926 Irish Prayer Book includes as an alternative canticle after the Old Testament Lesson. The Benedicite was a fixed canticle in the ancient cathedral office of Lauds. The cathedral, or popular, offices are the oldest forms of the daily offices, predating the monastic offices, which were a later development. The 1928 Prayer Book partially restores the ancient form of the Gloria of the canticle, for which Cranmer substituted the Gloria Patri. The 1928 revision is the first American Prayer Book to include the Benedictus es as an alternative to the Te Deum and the Benedicite.

The 1928 Prayer Book provides two hymns of praise as the congregational response to the New Testament Lesson. The first hymn of praise is the Gospel Canticle Benedictus Dominus Deus, also known as the Song of Zechariah. Like the Benedicite, the Benedictus was a fixed canticle in the ancient cathedral office of Lauds.

The second hymn of praise is the Jubilate Deo, which apparently was introduced in part as an alternative to the Benedictus in the 1552 Prayer Book for occasions when the Benedictus was read in the New Testament Lesson. The use of the Benedictus as a Gospel Canticle should be given priority over the use of the Jubilate Deo. The use of the Jubilate Deo should be occasional at best. The temptation to use the Jubilate Deo almost as an invariable canticle on Sunday due to its shortness should be firmly resisted. The Jubilate Deo is a psalm of approach and was sung as the worshipers were entering the Temple in Jerusalem for the daily sacrifices. It was used at the beginning of the ancient morning office in a number of the Eastern and Oriental Churches, occupying the place that the Venite occupies in the ancient morning office of the Western Churches. For these reasons more recent Anglican service books permit the use of the Jubilate Deo as an alternative to the Venite.

Whenever Psalm 100 is the Psalm of the Day, the Benedictus Dominus Deus should be sung or said after the Second Lesson. The Jubilate Deo should not be sung or said twice in the same service.

The practice of invariably using the Benedictus es and the Jubilate Deo at Morning Prayer due to their shortness has been criticized on the grounds that it gives the service a  decidedly Unitarian tone. 

The Sermon. The rubrics of the 1928 Prayer Book do not direct where the sermon should occur in the service. As Edward Lambe Parsons and Bayard Hale Jones note in The American Prayer Book: Its Origins and Principles (1937), the 1928 Prayer Book takes for granted that a sermon may be preached where it is needed.

The General Directions for Publick Worship in the 1926 Irish Prayer Book authorize the preaching of a sermon “following any service” or “after the Third Collect at Morning or Evening Prayer. The Church of England’s The Alternative Service 1980 authorizes a sermon after the Second Reading (from the New Testament) or at the end of the service; the Church of Ireland’s Alternative Prayer Book 1984 after the Third Collect or the hymn or anthem if one is sung after the Third Collect.  The Church of England’s Common Worship (2000) authorizes the preaching of a sermon “between the responsary and the Gospel Canticle, before the Prayers, or after the Prayers” at Morning and Evening Prayer. Its order for Morning and Evening Prayer is closer to that of Lutheran Mattins and Vespers and the Roman Catholic experimental Notre Dame liturgy. In Morning Prayer One in the 2004 Irish Prayer Book a sermon may be preached after the Third Collect or at the end of the service; in Morning Prayer Two a sermon may be preached after the Third Canticle (i.e. Benedictus) or at some other place in the service. The First Canticle is the Venite.

A rubric at the end of the service of Morning Prayer in the 1962 Canadian Prayer Book states:

“A Sermon may be preached here and the offerings of the people received and presented at the Lord’s Table. Or the Sermon may be preached immediately after the Hymn or Anthem following the Third Collect. The Minister shall then proceed to the intercessions and thanksgivings, ending with the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Grace.”

The Anglican Church of Canada’s Book of Alternative Services (1985) permits a sermon after the Lessons.

The Notes for Morning and Evening Prayer, First Form, in The Australian Prayer Book (1978) authorize the preaching of a sermon “during or after Morning and Evening Prayer.” Morning and Evening Prayer, First Order, in A Prayer Book for Australia (1995) has a similar note. A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989) authorizes the preaching of a sermon after the Third Canticle or the Collects.

The 1979 revision of the American Prayer Book authorizes the preaching of a sermon after the Lessons; after the hymn or anthem, after the Third Collect; or at the end of the service.

As one can see from this brief survey of where the sermon is placed in a number of Anglican service books, the most common places where a sermon is preached at Morning Prayer is after the Lessons, after the Third Canticle, after the Third Collect, and at the end of the service.

Percy Dearmer draws an important point to our attention in Loyalty to the Prayer Book (1904).

“The Prayer Book, true to the principles of psychology, always places the sermon, instruction, or address, soon after the lessons and before the principal prayers. This will be noticed, not only in the Eucharist and at Evensong, but also in the Occasional Services, as, e.g., in the Commination, in the Visitation, and also in Confirmation, which begins with a short address, and sends the children quietly away after the last prayers without any anticlimax in the way of preaching. The Marriage Service ends with a homily (or sermon), and abruptly, because the Holy Communion ought to follow, if possible, "at the time of their Marriage." In the Baptismal Offices the Gospel is followed by an Exhortation "upon the words of the Gospel," though another Exhortation is added at the end for the special reason that the initiatory rites are not complete.”

In The Parson’s Handbook (1928), in a foot note to his discussion of Evensong, Dearmer, referring to the custom of preaching a sermon after the service of Evening Prayer, writes:

“One may regret the custom…, since the natural and liturgical place for sermon, instruction, or exhortation is after the reading of a Lesson. We can trace this to our Lord’s own example (Luke iv.20-2), and the principle is maintained in all our Prayer Book services.”

In Prayer Book Rubrics Expanded Byron Stuhlman suggests that a sermon might be preached after the Third Canticle if it is related to the preceding lessons and after the anthem or hymn, after the Third Collect, if it is topical. He is referring to the services of Morning Prayer, Rite I and II, in the 1979 Prayer Book.

On the other hand, Marion J. Hatchett takes the position in A Guide to the Practice of Church Music (1989) that nothing should come between the people’s response to the Second Lesson and the first words of the sermon. The sermon should follow the Second Lesson (or the Gospel if three lessons are read) and precede the Third Canticle.  No hymn should be sung between the Second Lesson (or Gospel) and the Sermon or between the Sermon and the Third Canticle. If three lessons are read, the Apostles’ Creed should follow the sermon.

Hatchett makes the most sense even if the congregation is not singing the canticles. The Third Canticle provides a suitable response to the sermon and when three lessons are read, the Apostles’ Creed provides such a response. The principle to which Hatchett is appealing is that words of the lessons should be fresh in the people’s minds when the teaching of the Scriptures is expounded. The longer the interval between the reading of the Scriptures and their exposition, the more likely the people’s minds are going to wander. Both the lessons and the sermon are likely to lose their power. Whether or not the sermon is related to the Lessons, it should flow out of the Lessons.

Keeping the lessons and the sermon together as a unit emphasizes their importance but not at the expense of the rest of the service. When a sermon is preached at the end of a service, there is an unfortunate tendency to view everything that preceded the sermon as the “preliminaries.” It is only a step or two from there to the contemporary version of the Sandy Creek revival type service that is common in Baptist churches in western Kentucky and the southern United States—worship set, prayer, offering, video clip, sermon, and invitation.

If the sermon is preached after the Second Lesson, the Third Canticle would follow after a brief pause for silent reflection on the sermon. Both the Benedictus Dominus Deus and the Jubilate Deo, as previously noted, are hymns of praise.

While a sermon may be preached after the Third Collect, preaching a sermon at this place in the service has its attendant problems. The 1928 Prayer Book makes no rubrical provision for an anthem or hymn after the Third Collect at Morning Prayer. While the rubrics permit a hymn before and after a sermon, the singing of a hymn after the Third Collect “breaks up the flow from structured prayer to intercessions,” Lionel Dakers points out in Choosing – and Using – Hymns, “and, for some unaccountable reason does so in a way which does not happen if the choir sings an anthem at this point.” The preaching of a sermon and the singing of a hymn after the sermon magnifies this effect.

The practice of preaching a sermon at the end of the service of Morning Prayer originated in the nineteenth century. The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops in response to the Muhlenberg Memorial passed a resolution in 1856, which permitted the separation of the services of Morning Prayer, Litany, and Holy Communion and the shortening of various services. The British Parliament would also pass the Shortened Service Act in 1871, which allowed the similar modifications of the Prayer Book services in the Church of England. Before that time a sermon could be preached only in a service of Holy Communion or in a service of Ante-communion if there was no communion.

A sermon appended to the service of Morning Prayer is not actually a part of the service. A hymn may be sung before and after the sermon and a collection made. After the collection has been made, an assistant minister or server should receive it in a basin at the chancel-steps and should carry it directly to the Lord’s Table, credence, or “some other safe and convenient place.”  All ceremonies associated with the receiving and presentation of the alms and oblations at a celebration of Holy Communion should be avoided.

A bidding prayer and other prayers and intercessions may be said before the sermon wherever the sermon is preached. The sermon may also be concluded with an ascription such as “And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, both now and forever. Amen.”