Skip to main content

Why we sing the Gloria after receiving the Sacrament

Below, a footnote in a Torrance Kirby article on Peter Vermigli's Epistle to the Princess Elizabeth, on her accession.  Kirby here powerfully emphasises how the repositioning of the Gloria in 1552/1559/1662 (a position retained in PECUSA 1928, the Scottish Communion Office 1929, and Canada 1962) embodies the rich Reformed eucharistic theology.  Our hearts lifted up, receiving the outward and visible signs, we partake of the Crucified and Risen Lord ("the internal substance of the sacrament is conjoined with the visible signs"- Calvin).  Thus having communion with "Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven", who gaze "upon a Lamb as it had been slain" (Revelation 5:6), we then join in their hymn:

Important theological significance is attached to the re-positioning of this hymn in the revised liturgies of 1552 and 1559. It is arguable that this liturgical alteration reflects Vermigli’s own substantive contribution to the revised theology of a Sacramentarian “real presence” based upon his celebrated disputation on the Eucharist held at Oxford in 1549. According to Vermigli’s theology of “instrumental realism” participants in the eucharist would be enabled to “sing the song of the angels” only after they had “participated” the body and blood of Christ, hence the liturgical repositioning of the Gloria.

It is interesting that Vermigli's understanding is echoed in Sparrow:

And if ever we be fit to sing this Angels song, it is then, when we draw nearest to the estate of Angels, namely, at the receiving of the Sacrament.

Rather, then, than being an odd, eccentric liturgical practice, rather randomly chosen by Cranmer as a convenient place to squeeze in the Gloria, its positioning in the Prayer Book tradition is a deeply theological statement, indicating the reality of our participation, through the sacrament, in the Crucified, Risen and Ascended Lord.

Comments

  1. Anonymous3 May 2019 at 19:21

    I have read that the Gloria was originally only sung at the Easter Vigil or at Christmas - in the Easter Vigil its placement has a very different "feel" compared to its placement in the Ordinary of the Roman Mass. As it comes after the prophecies, Litany & baptismal liturgy, it really feels like it is beginning Easter proper, bells ringing, all lights burning... followed by the Epistle - Colossians, "ye are risen with Christ". Whereas I have always found its usual position odd, as one goes straight from Kyrie to Gloria without any steps between to pass from penitence to exaltation. The BCP positioning feels more intuitive & its relatively late addition to every Sunday/feast in parish Masses (11th C?) means that it was not such a stark innovation to change its placement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. laudable Practice22 May 2019 at 13:49

      Timothy, many thanks for your comment (and apologies for the delay in responding). I entirely agree that the BCP placing of the Gloria "feels more intuitive" - and this is significant. The placing in contemporary rites, following a shortened act of penitence, is indeed odd.

      Brian.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders.  With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter.  The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition).  Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical).  Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...
25 comments
Read more

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition.  A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics".  Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics.  What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition.  Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...
19 comments
Read more

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School.  Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979.  We ...
2 comments
Read more