'The great thanksgiving to God for all his mercies': the Sursum Corda in Prayer Book Holy Communion

As John Shepherd moves to discuss the Prayer Book rite's Sursum corda in detail, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), what is perhaps most evident is his use of patristic sources to expound the meaning of these versicles. Consider, for example, his use of Cyril of Jerusalem:

By the Greek and Latin Fathers, these four versicles are called lift up your hearts, from the introductory words. Cyril, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and Austin, expound this first versicle, as a seasonable admonition to dismiss all worldly thoughts, and to fix our minds upon the divine mercies, and the mysteries we are now celebrating. Cyril says, "The priest exclaims, lift up your hearts. At that tremendous hour," he adds, it is necessary to "elevate the heart to God, and not to depress it to earth, and earthly pursuits. The priest therefore directs, that all secular care and solicitude about domestic concerns be dismissed, and the heart devoted to him who loves mankind. You then replied," continues Cyril, "We lift them up unto the Lord, thus professing your assent. Let none be so inconsistent as to say with his mouth, we lift them up unto the Lord, while his mind is occupied with the cares of this life. We ought indeed at all times to be mindful of God, but if human infirmity render this impossible, we must exert our most strenuous endeavours to be so at that hour."

To return to a point made on this blog on a number of occasions regarding Shepherd's work, this was over three decades before the beginning of the Oxford Movement. Shepherd was a representative of the Georgian Anglicanism which the Tractarians despised and mocked as lacking a catholic and patristic sacramental understanding. It was, so we are told, the Oxford Movement which rediscovered the patristic era for Anglicans. Shepherd's work demonstrates the extent to which this view of Georgian Anglicanism is nonsense; by contrast, he sets forth a deeply patristic understanding of a key part of the Prayer Book Communion rite, clearly delighting in the words of patristic theologians.

As he continues, Shepherd also hints at how patristic understandings of the Sursum corda were reflected in the historic Reformed emphasis upon these words in the Eucharist. He does not make this explicit, but it does provide a context for understanding what it means, in the words of Article 28, to partake of the Lord in the Sacrament "after an heavenly and spiritual manner":

The hearts of the communicants being thus lifted up to heaven, and fixed upon the contemplation of the glory and goodness of God, are in a proper frame to celebrate his praise. The priest therefore improves the opportunity, and in the words of primitive antiquity, exhorts them to join with him in the duty of thanksgiving, for the promises of pardon, for the grace whereby they are enabled to devote their hearts to Heaven, and for the benefits of which they are going to partake at the Supper of the Lord.

Returning to words from Cyril, Shepherd considers how 'Let us give thanks unto our Lord God' grounds our approach to the Sacrament in God's saving acts in Christ:

On this part of the versicles likewise, I quote the words of Cyril. "Then (that is, after the preceding response of the people) the priest says, 'let us give thanks to the Lord'. And we are certainly bound to give him thanks for having admitted to so great a favour us, who were so unworthy; for having reconciled us who were his enemies; and for having vouchsafed to us the spirit of adoption. You then said," continues Cyril, "it is meet and right: for when we give thanks to God, we do a deed that is meet and right. But he, not doing what was right, but beyond what was right, condescended to confer on us these great benefits and blessings."

Again, we can detect Shepherd's delight in Cyril's teaching and how he sees this reflected in the Prayer Book rite. Also pointed to here is the Old High conviction that the reformed Church of England shared with the patristic authors the same emphasis upon the Christological centre, the same solus Christus conviction.

Another significant aspect of the Sursum corda for Shepherd, grounded in the teaching and practice of "the primitive Church", is the sense that these versicles make the offering of the Eucharist a common act of the church:

After this the priest proceeded with the Eucharist, or great thanksgiving to God, for all his mercies. Our Church directs him to turn from addressing the people to the Lord's table, and in the words of antiquity to say, 'It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, everlasting God.' Thus in the primitive Church, the priest did not give thanks alone, but having received the suffrages of the people, and collected their confession, that it was meet and right, he then began the Eucharist, or the sacrifice of praise.

The Sursum Corda, in the both "the primitive Church" and the Book of Common Prayer, gave expression to the truth that "the priest did not give thanks alone", that the eucharistic sacrifice was not exclusively the work of the priest, with the congregation mere onlookers: it is the corporate act of the church. 

In summary, Shepherd's reflection on the Sursum corda is a rather definitive response to the entirely mythical notion that the Oxford Movement somehow recovered patristic thought for Anglicanism.