Evensong
Evening Prayer for the Saints of the Archive
After the 1928 BCP & People’s Anglican Missal
For sung use, the psalms and canticles should be sung to Anglican chant or plainsong according to the pointing of the Cathedral Psalter (1875), the Parish Psalter (1928), or the Manual of Plainsong (Briggs and Frere, 1902) as available. Variable sections — Psalms, Lessons, Collect of the Day, and Intercessions — are marked with dashed borders and are to be supplied from the Kalendar and from Appendix B of this document.
OPENING SENTENCES
One or more opening sentences are said. These three are appointed for ordinary use; sentences proper to the season may be substituted.
The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Habakkuk 2:20
Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Psalm 141:2
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:2
PRECES · VERSICLES & RESPONSES
My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
1 My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
2 For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
3 For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
4 For he that is mighty hath magnified me; and holy is his Name.
5 And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations.
6 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
7 He hath put down the mighty from their seat; and hath exalted the humble and meek.
8 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
9 He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel; as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
THE SECOND LESSON · NEW TESTAMENT
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.
1 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.
2 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation;
3 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
4 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.
THE APOSTLES’ CREED
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
THE SUFFRAGES
| V. O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us. | R. And grant us thy salvation. |
| V. O Lord, save the State. | R. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee. |
| V. Endue thy ministers with righteousness. | R. And make thy chosen people joyful. |
| V. O Lord, save thy people. | R. And bless thine inheritance. |
| V. Give peace in our time, O Lord. | R. Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God. |
| V. O God, make clean our hearts within us. | R. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us. |
THE COLLECT OF THE DAY
VARIABLE · APPOINTED BY THE KALENDAR The Collect appointed for this Sunday, feast, or feria is said. The Collects for each season of the year are in the 1928 BCP. The Collect of the Day is the primary variable of the Evensong; it gathers the theme of the week or feast into a single prayer before the intercessions. |
THE SECOND COLLECT · FOR PEACE
O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.
THE THIRD COLLECT · FOR AID AGAINST ALL PERILS
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
PRAYERS FOR THE CHURCH · THE GENERAL INTERCESSIONS
VARIABLE · SEASONAL · SEE APPENDIX B The prayers for the Church and the general intercessions are said as appointed for the season. Forms for each season of the year are given in Appendix B of this document: Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Gesimas, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Ascension, Whitsun, and Trinity-tide. A commemoration of the saints of the archive may be added using the form in Appendix B under Saints’ Days. |
THE GRACE
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore.
Amen.
Appendix A · The Psalms and Lessons for Evening Prayer
The BCP appoints the Psalter to be read through each month, morning and evening. For Evening Prayer the later psalms of each day are appointed, following the monthly table in the BCP. The table assigns two or three psalms to each morning and two or three to each evening so that the entire Psalter is covered in thirty days. The full table is printed in every edition of the 1928 BCP and need not be reproduced here; but the principle is this: pray whatever the table appoints, and in the course of a month you will have prayed every psalm.
For Principal Feasts and Holy Days, the monthly table is superseded by the Proper psalms appointed for the day. The following are the most commonly used Proper Psalms for Evening Prayer on the principal occasions of the year:
Christmas Eve / Christmastide Evening: Psalms 85, 110, 132
Epiphany Evening: Psalm 72
Ash Wednesday: Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51 (the Penitential Psalms)
Palm Sunday Evening: Psalms 22, 69
Good Friday Evening: Psalm 22 (O God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me)
Easter Even: Psalm 16 (Preserve me, O God)
Easter Evening: Psalms 113–118 (the Hallel)
Ascension Evening: Psalms 8, 15, 21, 24, 47, 68
Whitsunday Evening: Psalms 48, 68
Trinity Sunday Evening: Psalm 29 (The voice of the Lord is upon the waters)
All Saints’ Evening: Psalms 1, 15, 112
All Souls’ Evening: Psalms 90, 116, 139
For the Lessons, the traditional BCP scheme reads through the New Testament epistles and non-Gospel books at Evening Prayer, the Gospels and Acts being reserved for Morning Prayer. In practice, many households and communities use a two-year or three-year lectionary. The principle remains: the evening lesson should complement rather than duplicate the morning lesson, and the sequence of Old and New Testament reading should over time cover the whole of scripture.
At the very minimum: the Old Testament lesson draws from the prophetic and wisdom tradition (Isaiah and Jeremiah are particularly suited to the evening); the New Testament lesson draws from the Epistles, which are the Church’s working out of what the Gospels proclaim.
Appendix B · Seasonal Collects & General Intercessions
The following forms of the General Intercessions are provided for each season of the liturgical year. They follow a consistent pattern: thanksgiving for the gift of the season, intercession for the Church, intercession for the world, commemoration of the faithful departed, and personal petition. They are designed to be said after the Third Collect and before the Grace. The Collect of the Day is variable and is not supplied here; it is to be taken from the 1928 BCP.
Advent
From the First Sunday of Advent until Christmas Eve. Colour: Violet.
O God of the coming Kingdom, who hast called us to watch and pray in the darkness of this age; We give thee thanks for the light of thy promise shining in the Prophets and the Baptist, and for the sure hope of thy Son’s coming in glory. We pray for thy Church in every place, that it may not grow weary in the long watching, but may hold fast the faith it has received until the day breaks. We pray for all who wait in darkness — for the sick, the fearful, and the grief-stricken, and for all who do not yet know the name of the one who comes. We remember before thee those who have died in the hope of thy coming, and we ask that the morning star of thy kingdom may already rise in our own hearts. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is to come.
Amen.
Christmastide
From Christmas Day until the Purification (2 February). Colour: Gold or White.
O God, whose eternal Word was made flesh in the stable of Bethlehem; We give thee thanks for the gift of thy Son, and for the joy of this holy season in which heaven and earth are reconciled. We pray for thy Church gathered around the manger, that it may never lose the wonder of what it holds; for all who keep this feast far from home, for the poor and the homeless in every city, and for those for whom this season brings grief rather than joy. We remember before thee those who have kept Christmas and now keep it in thy presence, and we ask that the child born of Mary may be born anew in every heart that opens to receive him. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the Word made flesh.
Amen.
Epiphany
From the Purification until Septuagesima Sunday. Colour: Gold or White.
O God of the nations, who by a star didst call the Magi to the cradle of thy Son and hast promised that all peoples shall come to thy light; We give thee thanks for the disclosure of thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and for every soul drawn to him across every distance of culture and language and time. We pray for the missionary work of thy Church in every nation, for those who carry the Gospel to people who have not yet heard it, and for the healing of the divisions that prevent the world from seeing the unity of thy Body. We remember before thee those who brought the faith to us, and we ask that the light of Epiphany may illuminate every dark corner of our own lives. Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
Amen.
Gesimas & Lent
From Septuagesima until Palm Sunday. Colour: Violet. In Passiontide (the two weeks before Easter) the passion form below may be used instead.
O God, whose property is always to have mercy; We give thee thanks for the forty days of grace which thou dost set before us each year, and for the patience with which thou dost wait for our return. We pray for thy Church in its Lenten discipline, that fasting and prayer and almsgiving may deepen its love and sharpen its vision; for all who make their confession in this season, and for those who find the burden of their sins too heavy to bring to thee. We remember before thee those who have passed through their last Lent and now know the Easter that follows, and we ask that the ashes on our foreheads may be the true sign of the contrite hearts within us. Through Jesus Christ, who was tempted as we are and did not sin.
Amen.
Passiontide & Holy Week
From the Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passion Sunday) until Maundy Thursday. Colour: Red or Violet.
O God, who didst not spare thine own Son but delivered him up for us all; We give thee thanks for the love that carried him from Gethsemane to Calvary without turning back, and for the blood shed for the remission of sins. We pray for all who suffer unjustly, who are imprisoned without cause, who are betrayed by those they trusted; for those who face death and have no comfort; and for thy Church in every place where it is persecuted for the Name of Jesus. We remember before thee those who died for the faith in every age, and we ask that the cross we bear in this week may be the cross that leads us through death to life. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who carried the cross for our sake.
Amen.
Easter & Eastertide
From Easter Day until the Ascension. Colour: Gold or White. Alleluia is restored throughout.
O God of resurrection and new life, who on the first day of the week didst raise thy Son from the dead and fill his disciples with inexpressible joy; We give thee thanks for the empty tomb and for all that it means: that death is not the end, that sin is forgiven, that the Body of Christ is indestructible. We pray for thy Church in the joy of this season, that Easter may not be a feast but a permanent condition of Christian life; for those who have been baptised in this Eastertide, and for all who carry the Resurrection news into a world that does not yet believe it. We remember before thee all the dead who now share the Resurrection life of Christ, and we ask that the joy of Easter morning may sustain us through every dark Saturday of our lives. Through Jesus Christ, who is risen. Alleluia.
Amen.
Ascensiontide
From Ascension Day until Whitsunday. Colour: Gold or White.
O God, who hast taken the human nature of thy Son to the right hand of thy glory and set him there as our eternal High Priest; We give thee thanks for the intercession that never ceases, for the advocate who pleads our cause with the full knowledge of what it costs to be human. We pray for thy Church in the ten days of waiting; for all who are in a season of waiting, whose prayer seems unanswered and whose hope seems deferred. We remember before thee those whose earthly ascension has preceded ours, and we ask that our hearts may be set where true joys are to be found. Through Jesus Christ our ascended Lord, who ever liveth to make intercession for us.
Amen.
Whitsunday & Whitsuntide
From Whitsunday until Trinity Sunday. Colour: Red.
O God, who on the day of Pentecost didst pour out thy Holy Spirit upon the whole company of thy disciples and make of them a Church; We give thee thanks for the wind and the fire and the speech in every tongue, and for every subsequent outpouring of the Spirit in every age of the Church’s life. We pray for the renewal of the Church by the Spirit who gives life; for all who have received the gifts of the Spirit and do not know how to use them, and for all who need those gifts and have not yet received them. We remember before thee those who were filled with the Spirit and spent their lives in its fire, and we ask that the prayer of the Upper Room may always be our home. Through Jesus Christ, who sends the Spirit.
Amen.
Trinity Sunday
The Sunday after Whitsunday. Colour: White or Gold.
O God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whose inner life is the eternal exchange of love; We give thee thanks for the revelation of thy triune nature in the works of creation, redemption, and sanctification, and for the faith by which we confess thee as three Persons and one God. We pray for thy Church in its confession of the mystery, that the doctrine of the Trinity may not be a puzzle but a portrait of the God who is love itself. We remember before thee the great cloud of witnesses who have confessed this faith and now see the face they confessed, and we ask that what we believe with our lips may shape every act and every relationship of our lives. Through Jesus Christ, the second Person of the eternal Trinity, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.
Amen.
The Sundays after Trinity · Ordinary Time
From Trinity I until the Sunday next before Advent. Colour: Green.
O God of the long seasons, who dost sustain thy Church through the ordinary weeks of ordinary time; We give thee thanks for the faithfulness that does not require drama, for the grace that is sufficient for an unremarkable Tuesday, and for the saints whose holiness was the holiness of daily fidelity. We pray for thy Church in its ordinary life: for parishes and households and communities that keep the faith without fanfare; for the sick, the lonely, the discouraged, and those whose work is good but unrecognised. We remember before thee the faithful departed of this and every community, and we ask that the God of the long green season may be the God of our long green lives, present in the ordinary as fully as in the extraordinary. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.
Amen.
All Saints’ Day · 1 November
Colour: Gold or White.
O Almighty God, who on this day dost gather thy whole Church, militant and triumphant, around the one throne of thy glory; We give thee thanks for the whole company of heaven, for every saint in this archive and for the vast majority whose names fill only the mind of God. We pray for thy Church as it receives the inheritance of the saints; for those who have been formed by their writings, sustained by their example, and guided by their prayers; and for the unity of all who bear the name of Christ. We remember before thee all the faithful departed, and we ask that we who are still on the road may be strengthened by the sight of those who have arrived. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose Body all the saints are one.
Amen.
All Souls’ Day · 2 November
Colour: Violet or Black.
O God of infinite mercy, who dost not abandon thy children at the boundary of death; We give thee thanks that thy love reaches into every condition of the departed, and that the Body of Christ remains one Body even across the boundary of death. We pray for all the faithful departed — for those known to us and those known only to thee, for the recently dead and for those long gone, for the canonised and the forgotten, for all who died in the faith and for all who died without it but in thy mercy. Grant them eternal rest, and let light perpetual shine upon them. Comfort those who mourn them. And give to thy whole Church the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the resurrection and the life.
Amen.
Saints’ Days and Feasts of the Archive
For use on any feast of this archive. The name of the saint or feast of the day is inserted at N.
O God, who hast surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses; We give thee thanks this evening for N. whose feast we have kept today, and for all that thy grace accomplished in and through that life. We pray for thy Church as it receives the tradition these saints transmitted; for those who are formed by their writings, sustained by their example, and guided by their prayers. We remember before thee all who have prayed in this place and in this household before us, and we ask that the same faith that carried the saints of every age may carry us through whatever lies ahead. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.
Amen.
This Evensong is complete. It is designed to be used as the daily evening service of households, communities, and parishes that follow the Daily Office of the 1928 BCP. Its fixed frame takes approximately thirty minutes said, forty-five to sixty minutes sung. The variable sections — psalms, lessons, collect, and intercessions — change daily and seasonally according to the Kalendar. Over the course of a year the whole Psalter is prayed, the whole of scripture is read, and the whole of the liturgical year is kept. This is the shape of the Christian life given form.