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Commentary

The original Common Worship Collects and the Common Worship Post Communions were approved by the General Synod in 1996 and authorized for use from Advent 1997. The collect provision for Sundays and greater Holy Days had been substantially agreed in an Inter-Provincial Liturgical Group, in which representatives of the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Commissions worked together in the hope of having a common set of collects, and a common translation of them, for the British and Irish Anglican churches. A set of Additional Collects for the Seasons was added in 2004.

Principles

The collect is fundamentally a 'collecting prayer'. In the Eucharist it draws together the (usually silent) prayer of the people at the beginning of the liturgy. It concludes the Gathering, rather than forming part of the Liturgy of the Word which follows, and is not linked to the readings. At the office it brings to a close a period of intercessory or thanksgiving prayer.

This means that though the collect may often be seasonal, it will not be thematic, and this is one reason why the Common Worship Collects do not reflect the theme of the readings for the Sunday: such a thematic approach would undermine the traditional context and function of a collect as a 'collecting prayer' rather than one which introduces a theme.

A second reason is that the Common Worship Principal Service Lectionary is based on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), which only synchronizes with the Calendar during the principal seasons.

During Ordinary Time, the Calendar and Lectionary run according to different rules. As a result, different sets of readings will be read on the Second Sunday after Trinity (for instance) over the years, depending not only on the stage of the Lectionary's three-year cycle, but also on the date on which Trinity 2 falls in a particular year. Therefore, a choice has to be made between attaching the collects to Sunday names and attaching them to sets of readings.

In the Church of England, the collect has acquired a secondary function, in addition to its primary liturgical function as a 'collecting prayer'. It is also used as a 'prayer of the week', and there is still among some Anglicans not only a desire to know and memorize the collect, but also to associate it with a particular day or week.This use of the collect brings liturgy and spirituality together creatively and is to be encouraged. Attaching the collects to sets of readings rather than to named Sundays would militate against it.

A more fundamental difficulty with attempting a thematic approach to the collects while using a lectionary based on the RCL is that whilst it would, in theory, be possible to compile a set of collects tied to the readings in the RCL, the questions arise as to which reading the collect should reflect (since the RCL is not a thematic lectionary) and whether the collect would make any sense during the other services in the week. Linking the collects to the readings would also make it necessary to write at least three separate cycles of collects (for each year of the Lectionary).

For all of these reasons, the Common Worship Collects are, for the most part, not intended to reflect the theme of the readings which may be read on the Sunday in question. Nonetheless, on Principal Feasts and Holy Days and also to an extent in the Seasons, the collect and the readings may both reflect the same theme. Resistance to thematic collects does not mean an arbitrary set of prayers that could have been given in any order. The provision is strongly seasonal, and intentionally so.

Similarly, the Post Communions are intended to meet a real need for a variable and seasonal prayer after communion in the Eucharist. The provision of a second prayer also makes it possible to draw more widely on the Anglican treasury of collect material. Not all of the Post Communions are specifically eucharistic, though the majority are.

Collects and post communions are provided for the weekdays that follow the Presentation of Christ and Pentecost, because both these days are important cut-off points in the cycle of the seasons. They mark the end of a period of celebration.To continue to use the provision for the feast on the following days would undermine this. The same line is not taken with the Baptism of Christ (which is always on a Sunday) and Trinity Sunday; their collects and post communions continue through the week, because there is no cut-off point to be marked, and the emphasis of the feast can appropriately continue through the following week.

The Original Common Worship Collects and the Post Communions

For the compilation of the original Common Worship Collects, the Collects of The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the days on which they are used were the starting point, departed from only with good reason. In most cases BCP collects are used on their BCP day, usually as the collect of the day but sometimes as the post communion. Where a BCP collect has been moved, it is always because, on its BCP day, it failed to give a seasonal emphasis of importance. Thus, for instance, some of the BCP collects for the Sundays after Epiphany and Easter have been relocated, to allow other prayers to draw out the Epiphany and Easter truths. Now that the Sunday next before Advent so firmly celebrates the kingship of Christ, the 'Stir up' collect has been given as the post communion; it is also suggested as the collect at Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the ensuing week.

It was not possible to be entirely consistent in rendering the BCP Collects in contemporary English. In some cases the version in The Alternative Service Book 1980 (ASB) is followed, but in others the translation has gone back beyond the BCP to a Latin original. In some prayers, what some would regard as archaisms are retained. Each prayer was looked at individually, with an eye to doctrine, to intelligibility and to rhythm, always aware that many (not all) still have an older translation lodged in their memory. Use of the BCP version of a prayer is also permitted, where that is preferred.

Many of the ASB Collects are also used in the Common Worship provision, though often with some careful rewriting. Subsequent work by the Liturgical Commission in Lent, Holy Week, Easter: Services and Prayers (1986), in The Promise of His Glory: Services and Prayers for the Season from Advent to Candlemas (1991) and in Patterns for Worship (1995) has also been drawn upon, though in all cases with revision. Material from other Anglican churches - notably Ireland,Wales and Canada - has also been used.

There is also fresh writing, more in the provision of post communions than of collects, and more in that for the Festivals, Lesser Festivals and Common of the Saints (for which there is less BCP material on which to draw) than in the provision for the Seasons. The new prayers were all originally drafted by individuals, but then reworked after discussion in a group or at a meeting of the full Liturgical Commission.

In the Collects for Lesser Festivals, phrases and ideas from the writings of the particular saint or Christian hero whose festival is being celebrated have been used. Sometimes (for instance for Bishop Lancelot Andrewes) the collect shape has been stretched a little to accommodate a prayer written by the person concerned.

Information about the sources of the collects and post communions.

The Additional Collects

The Additional Collects were commissioned in response to a request for 'additional collects in a worthy contemporary idiom'. They are intended to be

¶ short,
¶ simple in their syntax,
¶ vivid and interesting in their themes and imagery,
¶ accessible in the kind of language they use,

and to say something which is clear and distinct. All of them are based on new composition.

The Additional Collects incorporate petitions, ideas and metaphors drawn from reflection upon Scripture, upon the season of the Church's year (except in Ordinary Time), upon key theological themes, and upon the general experience of being a Christian today (but also in the light of the history of Christian faith and discipleship down the centuries).

As with most collects, these prayers are usually addressed to the Father and end with a pleading through Christ. Some, however, are addressed directly to the Son. These are for festivals marking events in the life of Christ: Christmas Day, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Palm Sunday, Ascension Day and the Sundays of Easter except Easter Day and Pentecost. The Collect for Pentecost is unique in being addressed to the Spirit. The Collects for the Sundays of Easter which are addressed to the Son have a common ending: 'to the glory of God the Father' (in the case of the Second Sunday of Easter, 'to the praise of God the Father').

The seasons make their mark on the collects, with each one in a season reflecting something of the season's themes and flavour. The Advent Collects are not quite so strongly thematic as the original Common Worship Collects, but those for the Third and Fourth Sundays relate to the work of John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary respectively. The Epiphany Collects tend to make reference to the missionary work of the Gospel. The Lenten Collects, unsurprisingly, contain the themes of self-discipline and struggle against sin and evil, becoming more focused on the Cross from the Fifth Sunday of Lent onwards. The Easter Collects contain recollections of gospel accounts of the disciples' encounters with the risen Christ. The Collects for Ascension Day, Trinity Sunday and Christ the King all contain explicit reference to the immanent life of the Holy Trinity.

Complementary Provisions

For Sundays, the Principal Feasts which may fall on Sundays, and Principal Holy Days, Common Worship now provides two sets of collects. The original Common Worship Collects stand firmly in the classical collect tradition, drawing heavily on The Book of Common
Prayer and more recent Anglican sources, but also including new compositions. The Additional Collects seek to develop that tradition further: these are simple and short prayers which are recognizably in the Anglican tradition of collect-writing, whilst having an accessible and contemporary style of language. The two sets of collects are intended to complement each other. It is envisaged that on each occasion those conducting services will choose the collect which they consider more suitable for the particular service and congregation.