Commontide
Proper 8
Liturgical Color: Green
The 3rd Sunday after Trinity
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
National Day
Ecumenical Commemoration
Independence Day is the American Church's thanksgiving for religious and civil liberty, kept on July 4. The General Convention of 1785 ordered the day observed "for ever," and a form of prayer was printed in the Proposed Book of 1786. It was not carried into the ratified Prayer Book of 1789, and for one hundred and thirty-nine years the day had no propers at all. It returned in 1928, with new texts, and is kept still.
The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, asserting the American colonies' separation from Great Britain. The Episcopal Church's engagement with this date began almost immediately after the Revolution.
The 1785 General Convention directed that a service for Independence Day be prepared. The Proposed Book of Common Prayer of 1786 included 'A Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the inestimable Blessings of Religious and Civil Liberty' for July 4. However, the 1789 BCP removed it — Presiding Bishop William White, though personally supportive of the Revolution, judged that many clergy had been Loyalists and would find the service offensive, subjecting them to 'ridicule and censure.' White prioritized ecclesiastical peace over national celebration.
The 1928 BCP restored the commemoration with its own collect and proper readings, and it has remained in subsequent revisions. The assigned collect ('Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace') carefully reframes civil liberty within Christian ethical constraints — liberty must serve justice and forbearance, not mere autonomy.
The Episcopal Church's Independence Day history illustrates the tension between civil religion and Christian witness. White's 1789 removal prioritized pastoral unity over patriotic expression — a judgment that many Loyalist clergy would find the service offensive. The 1928 restoration came after enough time had passed for the Revolution to be universally accepted history rather than living controversy. The modern collect deliberately avoids nationalist triumphalism, instead asking God to direct the nation's use of liberty toward justice and forbearance — a theologically careful formulation that subjects civil freedom to divine purpose.