Christ the King Episcopal Church
Lakeland, Florida
THE ORDER OF WORSHP
PART OF SERVICE
(with partial text)
BCP PAGE
(Rite 2)
COMMENTARY & HISTORICAL NOTES
The Entrance Rites
The Opening Acclamation
The people standing, the Celebrant says
Blessed be God: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
People And blessed be God's kingdom,
now and forever. Amen.
365
The Collect for Purity
The Celebrant may say
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open....
365
The Song of Praise
When appointed, the following hymn or som suitable song of praise is sung or siad, all standing
Glory to God in the highest...
366
The Entrance Rites gather the community, establish shared purpose, and move the assembly from ordinary time into the sacred rhythm of the Eucharist. Their function is both practical and theological: they form the congregation, proclaim God’s presence, and prepare hearts and voices for Word and Sacrament.
The Acclamation and Collect for Purity together establish worship as an act of corporate praise offered to the Triune God. They prepare the people gathered to enter sacred time and the presence of God with honesty and openness, recognizing that true worship begins with divine grace rather than human worthiness. Worship is thus grounded in transformation, not performance.
In keeping with the Prayer Book's emphasis on the Easter season, the acclamation is replaced with the "Resurrection Greeting" during the Great Fifty Days. During Lent and on other penitential occasions, an acclamation with a penitential (ie. sorrowful, remorseful) focus is used.
The Collect of Purity originated in high middle ages, known in at least two missals from the 10th century. It first appeared as a public rite in Anglican worship in the 1552 Prayer Book.
The Song of Praise is the first full outburst of joyful praise and thanks in the service. Through it, the assembly sings with corporate voice in wonder, love, and praise to the God they are about to meet in Scripture and Sacrament. The three suggestions (with GLoria in excelsis having pride of place) offered in BCP each uniquely frame the Eucharist, and give the assembly a posture with which to approach God.
-
Gloria in excelsis is an example of a "private psalm" -- a popular composition in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of imitating the biblical Psalter (other examples: Te Deum--BCP 95, Phos Hilaron--BCP 118). Originally used primarily at Morning Prayer, Gloria in excelsis entered use in the Eucharist around 360, driven by the fourth century bishop, Hilary of Poitiers' translation from Greek. By the 11th century, Gloria in excelsis became the quintessential song of praise used at the beginning of worship, customary on Sundays and holy days except during Advent and Lent.
-
Kyrie eleison entered religious usage from Roman civic life, in which it was used to announce the arrival of the emperor or lord. I was adapted by Christians as a concise cry in honor of Christ the King.
-
Trisagion draws from Isaiah’s vision of God’s holiness and expresses awe before the divine majesty. The earliest known use of was from a mid-3rd century burial inscription. It was first used liturgically in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon.
Thomas Cranmer included Gloria in excelsis in the 1549 Prayer Book at the beginning of the Eucharist. After centuries of prayer books shifted its placement to the Daily Office (primarily in Evening Prayer), the 1979 Book of Common Prayer restored it to its traditional place as the primary option during the Entrance Rites.
The Entrance Rites
The Opening Acclamation
The people standing, the Celebrant says
Blessed be God: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
People And blessed be God's kingdom,
now and forever. Amen.
365
The Collect for Purity
The Celebrant may say
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open....
365
The Song of Praise
When appointed, the following hymn or som suitable song of praise is sung or siad, all standing
Glory to God in the highest...
366
The Entrance Rites gather the community, establish shared purpose, and move the assembly from ordinary time into the sacred rhythm of the Eucharist. Their function is both practical and theological: they form the congregation, proclaim God’s presence, and prepare hearts and voices for Word and Sacrament.
The Acclamation and Collect for Purity together establish worship as an act of corporate praise offered to the Triune God. They prepare the people gathered to enter sacred time and the presence of God with honesty and openness, recognizing that true worship begins with divine grace rather than human worthiness. Worship is thus grounded in transformation, not performance.
In keeping with the Prayer Book's emphasis on the Easter season, the acclamation is replaced with the "Resurrection Greeting" during the Great Fifty Days. During Lent and on other penitential occasions, an acclamation with a penitential (ie. sorrowful, remorseful) focus is used.
The Collect of Purity originated in high middle ages, known in at least two missals from the 10th century. It first appeared as a public rite in Anglican worship in the 1552 Prayer Book.
The Song of Praise is the first full outburst of joyful praise and thanks in the service. Through it, the assembly sings with corporate voice in wonder, love, and praise to the God they are about to meet in Scripture and Sacrament. The three suggestions (with GLoria in excelsis having pride of place) offered in BCP each uniquely frame the Eucharist, and give the assembly a posture with which to approach God.
-
Gloria in excelsis is an example of a "private psalm" -- a popular composition in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of imitating the biblical Psalter (other examples: Te Deum--BCP 95, Phos Hilaron--BCP 118). Originally used primarily at Morning Prayer, Gloria in excelsis entered use in the Eucharist around 360, driven by the fourth century bishop, Hilary of Poitiers' translation from Greek. By the 11th century, Gloria in excelsis became the quintessential song of praise used at the beginning of worship, customary on Sundays and holy days except during Advent and Lent.
-
Kyrie eleison entered religious usage from Roman civic life, in which it was used to announce the arrival of the emperor or lord. I was adapted by Christians as a concise cry in honor of Christ the King.
-
Trisagion draws from Isaiah’s vision of God’s holiness and expresses awe before the divine majesty. The earliest known use of was from a mid-3rd century burial inscription. It was first used liturgically in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon.
Thomas Cranmer included Gloria in excelsis in the 1549 Prayer Book at the beginning of the Eucharist. After centuries of prayer books shifted its placement to the Daily Office (primarily in Evening Prayer), the 1979 Book of Common Prayer restored it to its traditional place as the primary option during the Entrance Rites.
The Salutation & Collect
BCP 357
BCP 211-261 (for specific Collects)
The Celebrant says to the people
The Lord be with you.
People And also with you.
Celebrant Let us pray.
The Celebrant says the Collect.
People Amen.
The salutation marks the shift into prayerful dialogue, linking celebrant and people. The salution ("The Lord be with you") is a remnant of a bidding meant to draw attention of the worshipper to the reading of scripture or the prayers of the Eucharist. It was based on the greeting of Boaz and the response of the reapers in the book of Ruth (2:4). It was fairly well abandoned by the reformed liturgies of the 16th century, being reintroduced in Anglican liturgy by the 1928 American Prayer Book.
The English term, "Collect," is derived from the Latin term, collecta, meaning “a gathering of people.” The prayers to which the term refers are meant to gather the people together as one body in worship and prayer. As a general rule, a “Collect” has a particular form with a fixed structure: a preamble (invocation, address), a petition, and a conclusion (mediation).
On the one hand, a “Collect” may refer to any prayer that sums up the prayers of those gathered -- the Opening, the Prayers of the People, the Offertory, postcommunion, and as a blessing. Indeed, these five prayers were mentioned in the earliest Western prayer books (5th-8th centuries) there were five variable prayers that changed depending on the week or celebration.
On the other hand, the “Collect” came to specifically designate the first of the variable prayers said at the beginning of the service, after the greeting and song of praise. It sums up the purpose of those gathered and meditates on the “themes” of their gathering.
In BCP 1979, the opening Collects are drawn and adapted from a variety of sources, ranging from the sacramentaries of the early and medieval church to the prayer books of the reformers, with some even written specifically for the 1928 and 1979 editions of the Book of Common Prayer.