Sentence (liturgy)

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A sentence, particularly Anglican services, is a short passage from the Bible that is recited in Christian liturgies. For example, with the Church of England's currently authorized 1662 Book of Common Prayer, sentences are used at several points within different rites: prescribed sentences are to be recited before Morning and Evening Prayers, at least one sentence may be said or sung during the Holy Communion office offertory, and sentences appear at multiple points during the burial service.

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Description

Sentences are short passages taken from the Bible that are recited within Christian liturgies. [1] "Opening sentences" sometimes appear in a rite to introduce it or provide commentary upon what is occurring within that act of worship. [2] Sentences can also serves to ground an act of worship in a seasonal context. [3]

History

Opening sentences were introduced to Anglican liturgy within the Morning and Evening Prayers of the Church of England's 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Penitential in nature, the 1552 sentences preceded the confession of sin in both the Morning and Evening Prayers. Sentences came to have additional purposes in later revisions of the Book of Common Prayer . [2] During the Elizabethan era, celebration of the 1559 prayer book's Holy Communion office included use of scriptural passages, both those specifically established as sentences and those unofficially selected for their seasonal or contextual relevance. Following the sentences at the offertory, organists were generally permitted to perform solo. [4] :129

Lancelot Andrewes introduced his "Peculiar Sentences" during the 16th century. These sentences were part of a broader high church effort to restore oblationary language into the Holy Communion liturgy that had been deleted in the 1552 prayer book. The abortive 1637 Scottish Prayer Book was the first Anglican liturgical book to reintroduce oblationary language, utilizing six of Andrewes's "Peculiar Sentences". [5] All 20 sentences present within the contemporary English prayer book had been targeted for removal within the 1637 prayer book, but ultimately William Laud successfully lobbied for the removal of only ten (including those from the Book of Tobit, part of the biblical apocrypha). [4] :144

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer prescribes sentences to be recited before Morning and Evening Prayers. During the Holy Communion office's offertory, at least one sentence may be said or sung. Within the burial service, three sentences preface the rite and others are provisioned for the committal. [1]

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<i>Book of Common Prayer</i> (1662) Anglican liturgical book

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Anglican liturgy usually refers to liturgies according the Book of Common Prayer and its derivatives. It may also refer to the following liturgies and liturgical books used by churches and groups in the Anglican Christian tradition:

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The Edwardine Ordinals are two ordinals primarily written by Thomas Cranmer as influenced by Martin Bucer and first published under Edward VI, the first in 1550 and the second in 1552, for the Church of England. Both liturgical books were intended to replace the ordination liturgies contained within medieval pontificals in use before the English Reformation. The 1550 ordinal was authorized following the introduction of the first Book of Common Prayer a year prior and the 1552 ordinal's introduction coincided with the second Book of Common Prayer–both also largely prepared by Cranmer. The ordinals provided the basis for most Anglican ordination rites until the 20th century and contributed to the development of the Anglican priesthood from "sacerdotal" and "intercessory" into a "preaching, catechizing, and protestant ministry". They also formed the basis for both the Vestiarian Controversy and, much later, some of the debate over the validity of Anglican Holy Orders and the subsequent 1896 papal bull Apostolicae curae where they were declared "absolutely null and utterly void" by the Catholic Church.

The 1928 Book of Common Prayer was the official primary liturgical book of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church from 1928 to 1979. An edition in the same tradition as other versions of the Book of Common Prayer used by the churches within the Anglican Communion and Anglicanism generally, it contains both the forms of the Eucharistic liturgy and the Daily Office, as well as additional public liturgies and personal devotions. It was the third major revision of the Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church, succeeding the 1892 edition and being replaced by the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

<i>Scottish Prayer Book</i> (1637) Anglican liturgical book

The 1637 Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as the Scottish Prayer Book or Scottish liturgy, was an version of the English Book of Common Prayer revised for use by the Church of Scotland. A text sharing much with the 1549 English prayer book–rather than later, more reformed revisions–and Laudian liturgical preferences with some concessions to a Scottish and Presbyterian audience, Charles I, as King of Scotland and England wished to impose the liturgical book to align Scottish worship with that of the Church of England. However, after a coordinated series of protests including that of Jenny Geddes at St Giles' Cathedral, the 1637 prayer book was rejected.

References

  1. 1 2 Hefling, Charles; Shattuck, Cynthia, eds. (2006). "Glossary". The Oxford Guide to The Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 578. ISBN   978-0-19-529762-1.
  2. 1 2 Armentrout, Don S.; Slocum, Robert Boak, eds. (2000). "Sentences (Opening)". An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. New York City: Church Publishing Incorporated. Retrieved 28 June 2023 via The Episcopal Church.
  3. Davies, J. G. (1986). "Sentences". In Davies, J. G. (ed.). The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. Westminster Press. p. 484. ISBN   0-664-21270-0.
  4. 1 2 Cuming, G. J. (1969). A History of Anglican Liturgy (First ed.). Macmillan and Co Ltd. LCCN   69-15582.
  5. Strout, Shawn O. (2023). Of Thine Own Have We Given Thee: A Liturgical Theology of the Offertory in Anglicanism. Wipf and Stock. p. 92. ISBN   9781666735864 via Google Books.