Singing Mendelssohn for Rogation Sunday

Today is the Sunday traditionally called Rogation Sunday, the last Sunday of Easter. The concept was dropped in the 1979 prayer book/Hymnal 1982 — but more on that later.

Hymnal 1940 lists three hymns for Rogation Sunday:

• #101, “O Jesus, crowned with all renown” to the tune Rhinegold arranged by R. Vaughan Williams for The English Hymnal. In Hymnal 1940 it’s the only hymn in the Rogation section; in Hymnal 1982 it’s #202, while in Book of Common Praise 2017 it’s #148 and also in the Rogation section.
• #138, “We plow the fields,” a Thanksgiving/harvest hymn to the tune Claudius; also H82: 291 and BCP17: 204.
• #497, “O God of Bethel, by whose hand,” to Dundee (more often used for “Let saints on earth in concert sing”, #397). It continues in H82: 709 (gender neutered) and BCP17: 147 (the other hymn listed in the Rogation section).

We sang the first two today; the harmony for #138 was particularly fun to sing.

Mendelssohn’s Rogation Hymn

Despite these two hymns, my favorite today was the third one we sang: “We come unto our fathers’ God” (H40: 303; BCP17: 339; dropped from Hymnal 1982). The text by written by T.H. Gill in 1868 based on Psalm 90, and the hymn was also found in Hymnal 1916 (#424), where it is a Thanksgiving hymn.

Quoting from John Julian’s 1907 Dictionary of Hymnology, Hymnary.org says he wrote nearly 200 hymns, but “They are almost exclusively used by Nonconformists,” including Baptist and Congregationalist hymnals.

Both the 1916 and 1940 PECUSA hymnals call the tune To God on High, but BCP17 uses the more accurate name Allein Gott in der Höh.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion (p. 197) explains the origin of the name and arrangement:

In the Deutsch Evangelisch Messe, … “Gloria in excelsis” in Latin was set to its customary Easter plainsong. But for the Geistliche Lieder, 1539, Nicolaus Decius converted both words and tune into a German hymn, “Allein Gott in der Höh”. … The harmonization is that of the second chorus in Mendelssohn’s oratorio St. Paul…

Hymnary, quoting the 1988 Psalter Hymnal Handbook, says the original tune was a 10th century Easter chant.

It might be the biases of my classical music training that I prefer a name-brand musical setting, whether Bach or the Sanctus from Schubert’s Deutsche Messe (H82: S130). However, the reality is that with this training (and singing bass rather than soprano), when I’m sight-reading a hymn, it’s a lot more enjoyable when the arranger follows the voice leading and harmonic progression rules that prevailed from roughly Bach to Brahms.

In this case, other than a couple of octave leaps, Mendelssohn’s voice leading was very natural, and I easily mastered it in the first two verses.

Rogation Sunday

The “Rogation” days are named after rogare, Latin verb “to ask”. The 1912 New Advent Encyclopedia explains:

Days of prayer, and formerly also of fasting, instituted by the Church to appease God's anger at man's transgressions, to ask protection in calamities, and to obtain a good and bountiful harvest, known in England as "Gang Days" and "Cross Week", and in Germany as Bittage, Bittwoche, Kreuzwoche. The Rogation Days were highly esteemed in England and King Alfred's laws considered a theft committed on these days equal to one committed on Sunday or a higher Church Holy Day. Their celebration continued even to the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, 1571, when one of the ministers of the Established Church inveighed against the Rogation processions, or Gang Days, of Cross Week.

Shepherd’s definitive Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (p. 54) explains its history:

for St. Basil in Cappadocia and St. Chrysostom at Antioch tell us of the custom of singing litanies in public processions, often in rivalry with similar processions sponsored by the Arian heretics. In the Western Church these processional litanies were introduced to take the place of older pagan processions of a supplicatory character, usually made about the fields in springtime for the safety of the crops. They consisted not only of petitions but of miscellaneous anthems, and were known as ‘Rogations.’ During the sixth century the Roman Church instituted such a procession on April 25th to take the place of an old pagan festival, the Robigalia, in honor of the god Robigo who was believed to be a protector of the crops from mildew (see p. 237). Earlier than this, about the year 470, a Gallican bishop, Mamertus of Vienne, had inaugurated processional litanies on the three days preceding Ascension Day, at a time of special terror in the locality because of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The ‘Rogation Days’ thus instituted (see p. 261) were soon adopted by other churches in Gaul, then by a church council in England in 747, and finally by the Roman Church it- self in the time of Pope Leo III (795-816).

Readings for Rogation Sunday

Later on, Shepherd (p. 176) explains the readings published in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

This Sunday is called Rogation Sunday because of the three Rogation Days which follow it.…But the propers of the day are older than the adoption of the Rogation Days at Rome, and the aptness of them to the Rogation theme is coincidental.

In the historic lectionary, the Epistle (James 1:22-27) and Gospel (John 16:23-33) continue the readings from the 4th Sunday after Easter (James 1:17-21; John 16:5-15). Shepherd notes that these readings for both weeks are found in the Roman and Sarum Missals, although they omit John 16:31-33. These identical readings are found in Cranmer’s original 1549 Book of Common Prayer, as well as the global standard for three centuries, the 1662 BCP.

In the three year lectionary of the 1979 prayer book, neither of these latter readings (for the “Sixth Sunday of Easter”) are retained, nor is the term “Rogation Sunday.” Depending on the year, the 1979 uses readings from 1 Peter, 1 John, Acts or Revelation (multiple alternatives are available) for the epistle, and John 14 or 15 for the gospel. The Revised Common Lectionary retains these readings, as does the 2019 ACNA liturgy. While Book of Common Praise 2017 continues Rogation hymns, Hymnal 1982 (like the 1979 prayer book) has dropped the observance.

The historic 1549/1662/1928 gospel reading includes this famous promise:

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24)

The earlier passages of John 14 and 15 convey the sense of obedience and union with God, but not the well-known promise “ask, and ye shall receive.” The ACNA liturgy restores the name “Rogation Sunday,” but not the command to ask our heavenly Father.

References

Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr., The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (London: Oxford University Press, 1950).

Joint Commission, The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 3rd ed. (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1951).