Eucharist in Anglicanism

Its sources include prayer book rubrics, writings on sacramental theology by Anglican divines, and the regulations and orientations of ecclesiastical provinces.

According to this, in the Eucharist the outward and visible sign is "bread and wine" and the "thing signified", the "body and blood of Christ", which are truly taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's supper.

[citation needed] For the vast majority of Anglicans, the Eucharist (also called "Holy Communion", "Mass", the Divine Liturgy, the "Lord's Supper", or The Great Thanksgiving), is the central act of gathered worship, the appointed means by which Christ can become present to his church.

Early Anglican theologians, such as Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker, held to a sacramental theology similar to John Calvin.

[12] The 19th-century Oxford Movement sought to give the Eucharist a more prominent place and upheld belief in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament.

But though they can certainly be claimed in the favour of the real Presence, yet to bring into them a theory of "accidents" remaining while the "substance" is changed, is to read into the text that which is certainly not contained in it, and what we deny can reasonably be referred from it.

Reservation was eliminated in practice by the rubric at the end of the 1662 Communion service which ordered the reverent consumption of any consecrated bread and wine immediately after the blessing, and adoration by the "Declaration concerning Kneeling".

Low-church parishes and ministers tend to celebrate the Eucharist less frequently (e.g., monthly) and prefer the terms "Holy Communion" or "Lord's Supper".

They included Martin Bucer, Paul Fagius, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Bernardino Ochino and Jan Łaski.

According to this view, although the bread and wine remain unchanged, through the worthy reception of the sacrament the communicant receives the body and blood of Christ.

[22] It remained "the dominant theological position in the Church of England until the Oxford Movement in the early nineteenth century, with varying degrees of emphasis".

[24][full citation needed] The author of both rites was Thomas Cranmer, who maintained that there was no theological difference between the two,[25] but was forced to make its reformed theology more obvious when conservative clergy hostile to the English Reformation took advantage of loopholes in the 1549 prayer book to make the new liturgy as much like the old Latin Mass as possible, including elevating the Eucharist.

At the same time that Series 1 and 2 were going through General Synod there was a growing shift in the English speaking world away from the use of Tudor language in worship.

But the Church of England (Worship and Doctrine) Measure 1974 permitted General Synod to provide by canon the unlimited use of alternative services.

Rite A was based on the Series 3 communion service and the majority of the volume was written in contemporary language in recognition that English over the centuries since the BCP was produced had changed in meaning and usage.

Firstly in 1986 was Lent, Holy Week and Easter which was followed in 1992 by The Promise of His Glory which contained a series of material for use between All Saints and Candlemas.

The main volumes for the Eucharist are Parishes were able to draw upon the core material to produce user friendly booklets to match the season and their local situation.

The rubrics of a given prayer book outline the parameters of acceptable practice with regard to ritual, vestments, ornaments and method and means of distribution of the sacrament.

Until the latter part of the 19th century, the so-called "Ornaments Rubric" of the 1662 Prayer Book was interpreted to inhibit much of the ceremonial contemporary Anglicans take for granted.

The Ritualist controversies of the late 19th century solidified the ascendancy of the Oxford Movement in the United Kingdom and many other parts of the Anglican Communion, re-introducing a much greater diversity of practice.

Manual action is kept to the standards of the rubrics found in the Book of Common Prayer (often confined to placing one's hands on the elements during the words of institution).

In some parishes, the president stands at the north-side of the holy table to read the service, in accordance with some interpretations of the rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Formerly, Confirmation was generally required as a precondition to reception, but many provinces now allow all the baptized to partake as long as they are in good standing with the Church and have previously received First Communion.

Nonetheless, many parishes do have services of, in which a ciborium is removed from the tabernacle or aumbry and hymns, prayers, psalms, and sentences of devotion are sung or read.

In still others, the option of juice is offered, usually in consideration of recipients who may be alcoholic (although it is considered acceptable and valid to receive the sacrament in only in one kind, i.e., the bread, pace the rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer).

A rubric following the Order of Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer instructs that any remaining bread and wine should be consumed as soon as the service concludes: And if any of the Bread and Wine remain unconsecrated, the Curate shall have it to his own use: but if any remain of that which was consecrated, it shall not be carried out of the Church, but the Priest, and such other of the Communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same.In American Prayer Books (until 1979), the rubric read thus: And if any of the consecrated Bread and Wine remain after the Communion, it shall not be carried out of the Church; but the Minister and other Communicants shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same.Article XXVIII of the Articles of Religion states that, "The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped."

"[30] The Anglican priest Jonathan A. Mitchican rehashes this view, stating that Article XXVIII does not forbid the practice of reservation, but notes that it does not have an origin in Sacred Scripture.

As mentioned above, Anglo-Catholic parishes believing in the corporeal presence of the blessed sacrament make use of a tabernacle or hanging pyx, with which is associated various acts of reverence and adoration.

In 1910, Raphael of Brooklyn, an Eastern Orthodox bishop, "sanctioned an interchange of ministrations with the Episcopalians in places where members of one or the other communion are without clergy of their own".

[34] In 1912, however, Raphael ended the intercommunion after becoming uncomfortable with the fact that the Anglican Communion contained different churchmanships within it, e.g. high church, Evangelical, etc.