'This concise and excellent form of devotion': the Collect of Purity in the Communion Office

The previous post in this series referred to a distinctive of the Cranmerian Communion Office - opening with the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is followed by another distinctive, the Collect for Purity. A sign of its significance in Anglican piety is that most contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites continue to pray this Collect at the beginning of the liturgy. Ireland's BCP 2004 has a rubric following the Collect for Purity, stating "or another suitable opening prayer". Thankfully, in the twenty years since the introduction of BCP 2004, I have not attended a single celebration of Holy Communion in which the Collect for Purity has not been prayed.

John Shepherd - in his 'The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion' in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801) - significantly points to this Collect as preparation both for reception of Holy Communion, when the Sacrament was administered, but also for the hearing of the Commandments during the more regular Ante-Communion:

We may consider this Collect, either as a prayer introductory to the Communion, or when there is no Communion, as preparatory to the rehearsal of the Ten Commandments, and the correspondent examination of our lives. In either case we have reason to admire the piety and judgment of the Compilers of our Liturgy in retaining this concise and excellent form of devotion. In the older Communion offices of the Western Church it was commonly used, and the Eastern Church likewise prayed to the same effect before the Communion: "O Lord, purify our souls and bodies from all pollutions of the flesh and spirit".

When the Sacrament is not administered, it maybe considered as merely preparatory to the repetition of the Ten Commandments, the fundamental rules of human duty. Before the original publication of the Law from Sinai, the people of Israel were sanctified by Moses and before these Commandments are read to us, we pray in this Collect, that our hearts may be purified by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; for if our hearts be defiled by sin we are not in a fit state to hear the law of God; we are not likely either fully to understand its force, or to profit by its influence.

Shepherd's understanding that the Collect for Purity prepares us both for Sacrament and Word (symbolised by the Commandments in 1662, but rarely found in contemporary rites) indicates why it continues to be found in contemporary Anglican eucharistic liturgies and to have an enduring role in Anglican piety: it is, to use Shepherd's words, a "concise and excellent form" of preparation for hearing the Word and receiving the holy Sacrament. This also reminds us, therefore, that Christ is present to us in Word and Sacrament, in both to be received by faith, with thanksgiving.

This also suggests a contrast between its use and equivalent texts in the other rites mentioned by Shepherd. While the text of the Collect for Purity can be found in pre-Reformation eucharistic rites, it was there used as a private vesting prayer for the priest. The comparable texts in the liturgies of the East are said sotto voce and can too easily be interpreted as a private priestly prayer. Cranmer, by contrast, radically redefined the Collect for Purity as a congregational prayer clearly heard by the people, with the congregation's 'Amen' concluding the Collect. It is, therefore, our common prayer, as minister and congregation gather for Word and Sacrament, as priest and people together petition for the cleansing indwelling of Holy Spirit, as together we prepare to receive Christ in the Word and the Sacrament.

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 ...

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...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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