A Bidding Prayer for the Prayers of the People

A classical alternate, most suitable for 2019 Renewed Ancient Text

Bidding Prayer?

The Episcopal church’s dictionary provides us a quick sketch of the Bidding Prayer:

An informal intercessory prayer, covering a wide variety of concerns such as the church, the state, the living and the dead, and public and private necessities. It followed the sermon and the dismissal of the catechumens in the early church. The celebrant bid a particular intention of prayer, and the congregation joined in silent prayer for a short time until the celebrant summed up the congregation's prayers with a collect. Another bidding would follow, until the bidding prayer was concluded. The bidding prayer is the oldest form of intercessory prayer and has traditionally been said in the language of the people. It was replaced by the litany in the sixth century, and the litany later fell into disuse. The bidding prayer subsequently appeared as an unofficial group of intercessions in the Latin Rite in the middle ages. It was known as the “bidding of the bedes,” which means the praying of the prayers. The bidding prayer was flexible, and it could be adapted at the discretion of the celebrant.

I would always ignore the 1928 note that a bidding prayer may precede the sermon (or that the 1604 canons required it), and look curiously at it included within Prayers and Thanksgivings. Whenever I read it seemed to me profoundly redundant with the abundance of similar prayers within the Holy Communion, and even more redundant if one is following Morning Prayer and Holy Communion. What I have until very recently¹ let go unnoticed was the place and usefulness of the Bidding Prayer.

In addition to the above history I would add these emphases:

1. The church, well before a prayer book in English, and preserved after it, had a use and tradition of primitive, guided, informal prayer, where the people were instructed in vernacular, about what to pray about, and invited to pray.

2. In different times, the bidding prayer followed the sermon or it preceded it. (this is important to remember given the placement of the contemporary prayers of the people), but the Prayer Book tradition took up a Bidding Prayer before the Sermon.

3. It was required to invite people into prayer before the Sermon (which was after the creed). The 1604 Canons, canon 55, “Before all Sermons, Lectures, and Homilies, the Preachers and Ministers shall move the people to join with them in Prayer”

   1. This means that there is ancient and classical Prayer Book precedent for a time of less-formal prayer before any sermon, lecture, homily, most especially a Holy Communion. Even if it is “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength, and redeemer.”

   2. 1604 canons having no bearing on the American tradition, the 1928 places this canon as an optional rubric: “¶ Here, or immediately after the Creed, may be said the Bidding Prayer, or other authorized Prayers and intercessions.”

The Bidding Prayer, in parallel to the use of the present liturgical movement (1979-based) texts, is the less formal time of prayer of bringing to mind intentions of the people, where the people pray and move to the next petition (led by someone who may be, but is not necessarily, the celebrant).

For those familiar with the 2019, the Anglican Standard Text Prayers of the People generally follows the classical Book of Common Prayer tradition (1549 - 1662/1928/1962). Its contemporary relocation from after the offertory to prior to it similarly relocates the theology of the Prayers themselves, the classical use being offerings brought by the Priest, contrasted with a less formal set of prayers often prayed by a deacon of reader, in which the people responsorially participate. This means that, though the words are similar, their use is different, according to 20th century Liturgical Movement expectations for the liturgy.

But this is a deviation of the classical Prayer Book tradition. 1549 placed it as an offering so strongly that it followed the Sursum Corda, forming part of the consecration prayers, and 1552 until 1979 placed it after the offertory, continuing its use as an offering of prayers with alms and the elements.

In the 2019 revision of the Book of Common Prayer (page 139) provides for an open-ended Prayers of the People, provided certain conditions are met. Typically I have thought of this as a way for informal churches (1979 Rite III) to have extemporaneous or less scripted times of worship. And at the same time, I have never preferred the Renewed Ancient Text’s Prayers of the People. Coming from the classical tradition, the Renewed Ancient, despite a Byzantine influence, has felt too sparse when said. If sung, that might be another matter. But as one reticent to write any ‘new’ liturgy, the provision always felt suspicious. The 2019 says:

In both the Anglican Standard and Renewed Ancient Texts, other forms of the Prayers of the People may be used, provided the following concerns are included:

• The universal Church, the clergy and people

• The mission of the Church

• The nation and all in authority

• The peoples of the world

• The local community

• Those who suffer and those in any need or trouble

• Thankful remembrance of the faithful departed and of all the blessings of our lives

The Bidding Prayer quite naturally fits all of these—save for an explicit reference to “peoples of the world” but borrowing the Anglican Standard Text’s petition for mission (the non-Classical prayer included in AST), meets that expectation. And it fits the new framing of the Prayers of the People being a less clerical, less formal (before the altar, by the priest) time of offering-prayer. Without composing anything new, the classical Prayer Book tradition—and the practice of the church well before the Prayer Book itself has provided a well formed Prayers of the People.

The Bidding Prayer in the link below is the 1928 version, with only the following modifications:

• “Ye shall” has been changed to “Let us” — Americans do not taking being told what to do kindly, so a collaborative “Let us pray” communicates the same without implicit exertion of power.

• “Good Christian people” has been changed to “Fellow Christians.” This is a minor tweak to emphasize the communal nature of the time of prayer

• An explicit pause where the historic Bidding Prayer expected but did not name following each invitation to pray:

  • {Silence}

  • Lord in your/thy mercy:

  • Hear our Prayer.

• To close the Bidding Prayer a suitable petition from Morning/Evening Prayer: the Prayer of St John Chrysostom, which qualifies the prayers “as may be best for us.” The language of “Grant these our Prayers” in AST retains an offering quality that seems best used in the 1662 order: following the offertory (“We humbly ask you mercifully to receive our prayers”)

This is offered here for those who might want to try something different during a particular season or observance, or as a fuller set of prayers of the people than the Renewed Ancient, yet upholds the Liturgical Movement priority of Prayers of the People, while being a step more classical rather than self-written.

Google Drive Link:

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1. I’m indebted to Father Brian Barry for flagging the Bidding Prayer to be used in this way, as well as insight from Fathers Adam Rick and Matthew Brench.