A sentence, particularly in Anglican services, is a short passage from the Bible that is recited in Christian liturgies.
[1] "Opening sentences" sometimes appear in a rite to introduce it or provide commentary upon what is occurring within that act of worship.
Penitential in nature, the 1552 sentences preceded the confession of sin in both the Morning and Evening Prayers.
[2] During the Elizabethan era, celebration of the 1559 prayer book's Holy Communion office included use of scriptural passages, both those specifically established as sentences and those unofficially selected for their seasonal or contextual relevance.
These sentences were part of a broader high church effort to restore oblationary language into the Holy Communion liturgy that had been deleted in the 1552 prayer book.