'To relieve the poor is a true worshipping of God': on the collection of alms at the Holy Communion

Then shall the Priest return to the Lord's Table, and begin the Offertory ... Whilst these Sentences are in reading, the Deacons, Churchwardens, or other fit person appointed for that purpose, shall receive the Alms for the Poor, and other devotions of the people, in a decent bason to be provided by the Parish for that purpose; and reverently bring it to the Priest, who shall humbly present and place it upon the holy Table.

In all of the differences between the 1662 Communion rite and contemporary Anglican eucharistic liturgies, the significance of the above rubric is often entirely overlooked. In many contemporary rites, the sole focus of the offertory is the bread and wine (with the traditional placing of the alms dish upon the Holy Table now regarded with disdain). In 1662, by contrast, the offertory begins with a focus upon the giving of alms. In his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), John Shepherd highlights how this focus has a profoundly Scriptural and patristic foundation:

The custom of making oblations at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, is sanctioned by the precept of St. Paul: "On the first day of the week (when the Sacrament was administered) let every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him." This practice, instituted by the Apostles, has been continued in the subsequent ages of the Church, from the second century to the present day. Justin Martyr says, "They that can afford, and are willing to contribute, give of their own good pleasure whatever they think fit. What is collected is deposited with the president, and he assists orphans, widows, and those that are in want through sickness, or any other cause, and prisoners, and poor travellers." Tertullian likewise in his apology observes, that every "Christian once a month, or when he is disposed, and able, lays aside a moderate portion of his property and that these pledges of piety are expended in feeding the poor, and burying them, in maintaining the fatherless children, the aged, and the shipwrecked; and those that are condemned to mines, imprisonment, or banishment, for the sake of Christ."

This is echoed in his comment on the Sentences to be read during the offertory:

Of these twenty sentences, the first sixteen, which are taken from the New Testament, stand in the very order in which these Scriptures are arranged. The minister is to read one, or more, as he thinks most convenient.

In other words, by emphasising that these Sentences are overwhelmingly from the New Testament, Shepherd is pointing to how the giving of alms in divine service flows from an evangelical and apostolic duty. This is also reflected in a footnote which extensively quotes from Edward VI's Injunctions of 1547, regarding the placing of a chest for alms in churches:

"to the intent that the parishioners should put into it their alms for their poor neighbours. And the Parson shall diligently from time to time, and specially when men make their testaments, call upon, exhort and move their neighbours, to confer and give, as they may well spare, to the said chest; declaring unto them, whereas heretofore they have been diligent to bestow much substance otherwise than God commanded upon pardons, pilgrimages, trentals, decking of images, offering of candles, giving to friars, and upon other like blind devotions, they ought at this time to be much more ready to help the poor and needy, knowing that to relieve the poor is a true worshipping of God: and also whatsoever is given for their comfort, is given to Christ himself, and so is accepted of him, that he will mercifully reward the fame with everlasting life."

There is, then, a profound theological significance - rooted in Scripture and patristic practice, retrieved at the Reformation in England, and embodied in the relevant rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer 1549, 1552, 1559, and 1662 - to the collection of alms at the Holy Communion. To have lost this in many contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites is, as Philip Anderson has pointed out in an excellent article on this provision in the Prayer Book rite, not only to have lost a practice which gave expression to a rich theology, it has also had consequences for the Church's social presence and ministry:

The modern canons of the Church of England are careful to subvert  the plain meaning of the Prayer Book’s language about almsgiving for the poor at Holy Communion. In this respect it has become difficult for us to celebrate Cranmer’s Eucharist in its original spirit, and that should give us pause for thought, at a time when the Church is often perceived as self-absorbed, and food poverty widespread.