"That we ... may with them": the Prayer Book tradition and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

On 2nd November last year, I suggested that the exclusion of All Souls' Day from 1662 flowed from a coherent, meaningful expression of the one eschatological hope shared by all the faithful - living and departed - in the Communion of Saints.  This being so, 1662 saw "a day set apart for particular, direct prayers for the faithful departed ... distorting our perception of the 'one communion and fellowship'".  

While I remain convinced that this provides a coherent rationale for the absence of All Souls' Day from 1662 (to put it more bluntly, this absence is certainly not a deficiency), this year  - prompted by some pastoral considerations - I want to revisit the argument in light of the collects proposed for what the Scottish Prayer 1929 called 'The Commemoration of All Souls', the Canadian BCP 1962 calls 'The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed', and the Prayer Book Proposed in 1928 termed 'All Souls':

O Lord, the maker and redeemer of all believers, grant to the faithful departed all the unsearchable benefits of thy Son’s passion; that in the day of his appearing they may be manifested as thy true children; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 

Or

O Eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life; We beseech thee to shed forth upon thy whole Church in Paradise and on earth the bright beams of thy light and heavenly comfort; and grant that we, following the good example of those who have loved and served thee here and are now at rest, may with them at length enter into the fulness of thine unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen - Prayer Book as Proposed in 1928;

O Eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life: We beseech thee to shed forth upon all the faithful departed the bright beams of thy light and heavenly comfort; and grant that they, and we with them, may at length attain to the joys of thine eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen - Scotland 1929;

Most merciful Father, who hast been pleased to take unto thyself our brethren departed: Grant to us who are still in our pilgrimage, and who walk as yet by faith, that having served thee faithfully in this world, we may, with all faithful Christian souls, be joined hereafter to the company of thy blessed Saints in glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen - Canada 1962.

There are elements in these collects which stand in continuity with the modesty and reserve of 1662. To begin with, note how they echo 1662's "all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear": "the faithful departed" (Proposed 1928), "all the faithful departed" (Scotland 1929), "all faithful Christian souls" (Canada, 1962).  The collect use of such terminology has the same focus on the "one communion and fellowship" that lies at the heart of 1662's commemoration and thanksgiving: they avoid a more generalized reference to 'the dead', focussing - as does 1662 - on the faithful departed.

Also noteworthy is the use of 1662's "with them".  Scotland 1929 has "and we with them", while Canada 1962 has "we may, with all faithful Christian souls".  While the first collect in the Prayer Book Proposed in 1928 lacks 1662's "with them", this is explicit in the alternative collect: "may with them". In other words, the commemoration of the faithful departed in these collects for 2nd November is not considered apart from from the eschatological hope of "the blessed company of all faithful people". 

What, however, of the petitions included in the collects? We should note that it is only the first Proposed 1928 collect which - in a breach with 1662 - petitions for the faithful departed alone, apart from the wider Communion of Saints.  1928's alternative collect, however, petitions for what 1662 elsewhere terms "all thy whole Church": "We beseech thee to shed forth upon thy whole Church in Paradise and on earth the bright beams of thy light and heavenly comfort".  The emphasis in Canada 1962 is actually on a petition for the Church Militant, "who as yet walk by faith", the petition then being extended to embrace "all faithful Christian souls".  It would be very difficult indeed to suggest that these petitions are different in any meaningful way to 1662's "with them" and "all thy whole Church".

As for Scotland 1929 and the first Proposed 1928 collect, their petitions are indeed different to 1662's cautious prayers for the whole Church:

grant to the faithful departed all the unsearchable benefits of thy Son’s passion - Proposed 1928;

We beseech thee to shed forth upon all the faithful departed the bright beams of thy light and heavenly comfort - Scotland 1929.

Such petitions contradict 1662 because they petition for the faithful departed apart from the whole Church.  The classic Anglican understanding that the Prayer Book did pray for the faithful departed was seen in the commentary offered by Donne and Sparrow on two prayers in The Burial of the Dead.  For Donne, the prayer at the graveside, which begins "Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord", was proof that "we do pray for the dead".  It concludes with the petition for "our" - that is, all of "thine elect" - "perfect consummation and bliss ... in thy eternal and everlasting glory".  Sparrow also insisted that this prayer, with the Collect in the Burial Office, prayed for the departed: "a Prayer for his and our consummation in Glory, and joyful Absolution at the last day". The faithful departed, in other words, are not prayed for apart from the wider Church: they are not regarded as a separate category, apart from the "one communion and fellowship".

It is the absence of this expression of the "one communion and fellowship" - and, oddly, on the day immediately after All Saints' Day - which raises an important question concerning these two particular collects.  By contrast, the "with them" emphasis of the second 1928 collect and Canada 1962 coheres with 1662. It is the latter two collects which provide a sound basis for Commemoration of the Faithful Departed - and this should be the terminology, rather than the theologically misleading 'All Souls' Day' - on 2nd November (or, as Canada 1962 states, "on any weekday ... in the Octave" of All Saints' Day, a useful reminder that the day is an extension of the festival of All Saints). Such a commemoration, flowing from All Saints' Day and adjacent to it, can be a means to remember before God those for whom we particularly grieve, recalling that they are fully embraced in the "one communion and fellowship" of All Saints, and that prayerful commemoration of them before God reassures us that they rejoice upon another shore and in a greater light, as they continue to share with us a dependence on God's grace and mercy in Christ our Lord.  

In conclusion, therefore, there is a significant and compelling theological coherence to 1662's exclusion of All Souls' Day from the calendar, a coherence which includes a modest but authentic tradition of embracing the faithful departed in the prayer of the Church.  All Saints' Day provides the theological and liturgical focus for this.  If a Commemoration of the Faithful Departed is to be observed in addition to this - and there can be pastoral reasons for doing so, providing a space for grief alongside the festal nature of All Saints' Day - it should be understood as secondary to and dependent upon the hope of All Saints' Day: the theology of "the one communion and fellowship", the eschatological hope shared "with them" in the Body of Christ, and, with them, our common reliance for salvation on God's grace and mercy in Christ. 

(The second photograph illustrates the Finnish Lutheran custom of lighting candles at the graves of loved ones on the evening of All Saints' Day, illustrating that All Souls' Day - and its theological implication that the faithful departed are somehow apart from the Saints in glory - is not required for such commemoration of the departed and that the rich theology of All Saints can provide a meaningful focus for such commemoration.)