Confessing Sin, Then and Now

I have only ever used the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for my local parish worship. After many years of being a Presbyterian, I became an Anglican and began praying, at home and in church, the prayers from the 1662 BCP.

But recently I have been traveling, and as it happened, I was in a few places that used the 2019 BCP. As you might expect, I stumbled at a couple of spots. It wasn’t at the really dramatic edits, though. Those were so big that I could see them coming. Instead, it was in the smaller edits, the changes located within an otherwise familiar text. The most jarring of these were in the confessions of sin.

A corporate confession of sin occurs in the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer and also in the service for Holy Communion. These are important parts of the liturgy, and they are prayers which the congregation prays aloud along with the clergy. They are the kind of prayers that lend themselves to memorization. And that’s why a small change is such a big deal. Most people probably don’t actually read the text for these prayers. You pray them from memory, from the heart. And then—oops— you say something different from everyone around you. It’s like a scratch on the record player. It’s a bit embarrassing. But then you look at what you missed or where you went wrong and wait a minute! Why did they do that?!

Discovering why a certain change was made is difficult. You have to try to get inside the minds of the liturgical editors. And unless they left notes or commentary, you can only really guess. Some changes are not a big deal. Others are pretty troubling. And if we believe in the power and effectiveness of liturgy, we ought to care about this. The changes might well bring about an effect.

For now, I would like to simply lay out the changes so that you can see what I’m talking about, and I will keep it to the confessions of sin. We’ll start with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as the baseline, and then we’ll look at the 1979 BCP and the 2019 BCP. (For the particular prayers under consideration, the 1928 BCP has only incidental changes and is otherwise the same as the 1662.)

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer

The 1662 is the gold standard of Prayer Books. It’s not “the original,” but it is the one that was received and established after the Restoration, it is the one that became the global standard, and it is currently the version of the Prayer Book named in the governing statements of the Global Anglican Communion and the Anglican Church in North America. For the confessions of sin which we will be looking at, however, the text in the 1662 BCP is essentially the same as the older versions that Cranmer produced. The confession of sins at Morning and Evening Prayer is the same as that in the 1552 BCP, and the confession of sins at the Holy Communion goes all the way back to 1549.

For the General Confession of Sins at Morning and Evening Prayer, we are given this prayer:

Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders; Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, Restore thou them that are penitent, According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord: And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

This is an all-time classic, and parts of it are now being used by other denominations besides Anglicans. It is both theologically well-rounded and liturgically sonorous. The one part of the text that could said to be confusing today, though not terribly, is the use of “Jesu.” That spelling indicates a sort of diminutive. It’s a way to signal familiarity and intimacy. That’s the one place that the 1929 BCP changes here, making it simply “Jesus.” Otherwise, the text of this prayer seems straightforward, intelligible, and without any major need of updating.

For the Service for Holy Communion, the 1662 has this prayer of repentance:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we from time to time most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Again, we have a substantial and beautiful prayer. As a personal note, I always resonate with the statement that “the remembrance” of our sins “is grievous unto us.” How many times do I sigh or cringe when I recall the evil things I have done. There’s a profound sort of comfort in admitting this. The truth of our sinful lives is a true burden, and it’s one that we are asking God to relieve.

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer

These two confessions of sin survived for centuries until the “liturgical renewal” movement took the over the scholarly imagination. After the hazy and tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, the American Episcopalians believed a change had to come. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is that change. It is a dramatic break from previous Prayer Books. It makes some claims to antiquity, but there is a lot of novelty. And there is a lot of diversity.

There were truly new liturgies, said to be inspired by Hippolytus or the Second Vatican Council, which bore only the slightest resemblance to the earlier Cranmerian tradition. But there was also an attempt to save the older BCP, at least as much as possible. The “Rite 1” option, while still certainly a modern update, is at least similar to the older Books of Common Prayer. For the Daily Office, especially, the changes are not as dramatic as you might expect. But even here, there are still some noticeable edits in the confession of sins. In what follows, we’ll only consider the Rite 1 prayers.

At Morning and Evening Prayer, the 1979 BCP has this confession of sins:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, spare thou those who confess their faults, restore thou those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord; and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The language here is largely unchanged. It’s got “thy” and “thou.” There’s even still the potentially tongue-tying alliteration of “spare thou those.” None of that was a problem. But what’s different? There’s nothing added. But there is something missing.

Miserable Offenders. That’s been cut. The older BCPs read, “Have mercy upon us miserable offenders.” Now it’s just “have mercy upon us.” We can only presume that the 1979 American liturgists read C.S. Lewis’ essay on this line and chose to do the opposite of what he recommended. Fearful of misunderstanding or perhaps simply because they no longer felt quite so miserable, that line had to go. It was a tragedy then, and it’s a tragedy that has stuck with Anglicans, even of the more conservative variety.

Another cut is the removal of the line “there is no health in us.” Lurking behind this is surely the same sort of combination of confusion about the meaning of the words and possibly also a disbelief in the full reality of sin. There’s gotta be “some health” in us, right? A full humiliation and abasement is simply off-putting to the modern American mindset.

Blessedly, when it comes to the service for Holy Communion, Rite 1 made no changes to the confession of sin. They left in the statement that our sins “most justly” provoke God’s wrath and indignation. The remembrance of our sins is still “grievous unto us,” and “the burden of them” remains “intolerable.” I have to admit, I was surprised to learn this, and I’m very thankful for it.

The 2019 ACNA Book of Common Prayer

The 2019 BCP is the product of the Anglican Church in North America. It is sometimes said to be a return to the older Cranmerian Prayer Books, but you don’t have to look long to see that it’s basically an update and revision of the 1979. Like the 1979, it also has options. Instead of Rite 1 and Rite 2, the 2019 offers you the Anglican Standard Text (AST) and the Renewed Ancient Text (RAT). This nomenclature can be confusing, because the RAT is actually the contemporary liturgy. It parallels the 1979’s “Rite 2” option. Again, here we’ll only look at the first of these, the AST.

Now, knowing what we know about the ACNA and its motivations, you might assume that it “fixes” the 1979. After all, they recovered the Athanasian Creed and restored the Coverdale Psalter. But unfortunately, when it comes to the confessions of sins, the 2019 is actually worse than the 1979.

For Morning and Evening Prayer, the 2019 has the people pray for the following for the General Confession:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

The older pronouns have been updated. Thy and Thou are now “your.” Fine. A little irritating, but not a big deal. Still, notice what’s missing. “Miserable Offenders” did not make a comeback. A missed opportunity, to be sure.

But wait, the 2019 did bring back “there is no health in us.” That’s good, isn’t it? But no, they weren’t able simply to restore it. They had to add a preceding qualifier, a qualifier that substantially lessens the blow. “Apart from your grace, there is no health is us.”

This is a mistaken edit for a few reasons. The most obvious is that it’s a flinch. In this liturgical moment, the whole point is to confess our sins. It’s not the time to qualify or hedge things. We don’t need to say, “I’m bad, but not as bad as I could be.” This is precisely when you should let it all out and say that you’re a wretched, no good, evil person. The whole point is your failing.

The other reason that this change is wrong is that it indicates a lack of attention to the internal logic of the prayer. In the older BCPS, there’s a very important contrasting conjunction: BUT. “…there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us..” “But” indicates the change in motion. We had been talking about “us.” We were moving down, getting progressively more intense in our confession. The “but” is the switch. Our focus then moves to God and gets more and more hopeful. The grace part needs to come after the “but” part. The 2019 BCP adds the grace before this transition, and it even deletes the “but.” This shows that the 2019 liturgy committee was not only theologically skittish but that they also didn’t quite understand how the BCP liturgy works.

For the Holy Communion Service, the 2019 BCP is again worse than the 1979. Rite 1 had most mercifully declined to alter the confession of sin before the holy table. But in 2019, this restraint could not hold. The prayer is this:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker and judge of us all: We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses, which we have committed by thought, word, and deed against your divine majesty, provoking most justly your righteous anger against us. We are deeply sorry for these our transgressions; the burden of them is more than we can bear. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for your Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may evermore serve and please you in newness of life, to the honor and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Again, there are slight changes. “Manifold” becomes “many.” Unnecessary, but fine. “Wrath and indignation” has been slimmed down simply to “righteous anger.” No one could say that this is an improvement, but it is, I suppose, acceptable. “Heartily sorry” has become “deeply sorry.” This is surely because the ministers have forgotten that “heartily” means “from the heart.” And speaking of forgetting, look at what’s been cut out. There is no reference to the “remembrance” of our sins. That line, so precious to me personally, and which had miraculously survived the days of disco, has now been cut out entirely.

I’m no W. H. Auden, but I definitely want to let some people have it on this one. What could they have been thinking here? Why would they remove this line? Come on. This is certainly grievous unto us.

And again, this change was not something that the 1979 Prayer Book made. No, this is the conservative and continuing Anglican Church in North America. The 2019 did this all on their own. It’s startling.

I suppose the reason that it wasn’t more controversial is that the people who really cared knew that they could just use other Prayer Books. But still, this is a problem. And the 2019 is the default version of the BCP across the ACNA. People should take a closer look at this.

I’m tempted to say they should ask for an update, but honestly, I think they should overhaul their assumptions about what’s needed. Rather than trying to rejigger the 1979 BCP, the ACNA should instead truly “go back” and make an appropriately modest updated version of 1662 BCP. They already claim the 1662 in all of their paperwork. And there are already plenty of ministers and parishes who are using versions of the 1662. It’s an entirely achievable goal. Call me a dreamer, I guess. But I hope I’m not the only one.

originally published at Reformed Conformist