Catholics and Evangelicals serve as bookends to an Anglican stance on Holy Communion. The Rev. Gavin Pate of All Saints Dallas explores why Anglicans take a comparatively high view of the sacrament but cheerfully vary on the particulars.
Some friends of ours had a chance to visit Rome last year. While there, they attended a Eucharistic Adoration service. In this service, the host (the large piece of bread used in Holy Communion) was placed in a glass box. This glass box was placed in the center of the altar and praises were sung and said to the bread. This was the height of the Roman-Catholic understanding of Holy Communion.
I grew up in a tradition where Communion was served every Sunday. On a recent vacation, I visited one of these churches. Communion was penitential. The elements were bread and grape juice, nothing more, nothing less. Not a person present would have stood to say otherwise. This expression of The Lord’s Supper was a textbook product of the Radical Reformation.
In the Anglican Church, we stand firmly between those two traditions. While not expressly articulating the line of the Roman-Catholic church, we still believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. While we do not make any demands on parishioners to account for their mental state when receiving the bread and wine, we make clear in our liturgy that the bread and wine they receive is more than what they consumed at their last steak dinner.
Therein lies the glory of the Anglican position on Holy Communion. We are communing together, having a relationship with one another as we feast on the Lamb of God. This time and this sacrament are set apart, special, wholly other. This high view of Holy Communion is part of what makes us historically catholic. We did not sit out the enlightenment; we did resist many of the reformations that later Protestants did not.
There are two peaks in our worship: the Word preached and Holy Communion. In contrast, the peak of a Roman-Catholic worship service is Holy Communion, whereas in other Protestant spaces, the Word preached is superior to all else.
In the Anglican Communion, we have two sacraments (ways of receiving grace from God). These are baptism and Holy Communion. By contrast, the Roman-Catholic church has seven sacraments. Many Protestant churches never use the term “sacrament,” as it thought to be confusing.
The basis for Holy Communion comes from the communal Passover meal shared among Jesus and his disciples just before the His arrest. We find the account of this meal in all four of the Holy Gospels.
In the Anglican Communion, Holy Communion is both an encouragement to the journeying Christian and a celebration of the communion each Christian has with the Trinitarian God we worship, as well as with one another.
In the early church, most Christians accepted Holy Communion as a communal meal of grace for the church. Once the Protestant Reformation began to gather steam, the debates over the real presence of Jesus in the elements began to emerge. People hold many views on Holy Communion, but essentially, all views can be categorized into two “buckets.”
The first group would be called “positive speculation.” This group assumes that the words of Christ were meant to be taken at face value and believe that there is more in the bread and wine than merely bread and wine. Included in this group is the belief that the bread and wine are transformed into the actual body and blood of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
The second group would be called “negative speculation.” This group assumes that while, yes, Christ said that this (bread) was his body, he never meant for anyone to take that literally. Instead, this group applies rational thought to Holy Communion and primarily observes the time as one of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The Anglican Church encompasses a wide variance of views. Anglicanism is not meant to be a denomination, as such, but a catholic (universal) alternative to the Roman church. As a result, you won’t find one required belief about what happens to the bread and wine in Holy Communion. Some Anglo-Catholics believe in a literal body and blood in the elements. More evangelical Anglicans recall the death and sacrifice of Jesus, denying that anything materially changes in the bread and wine themselves.
In the 1979 Prayer Book (the most common version in the United States), most of the liturgy points to a high view of the Eucharist. The view is not quite as high as the Roman-Catholic church, but much more than a memorial where common bread and wine are consumed.
In Holy Communion we are connected historically and globally, across time and space in the great expanse that is the church catholic. Holy Communion is a living preview of the wedding feast all faithful Christians will experience in Heaven. It is a meal of sustaining grace, embodying the prayer of Jesus, that Our Father would “give us this day our daily bread.”
The Rev. Gavin Pate worships at All Saints Dallas. Contact Gavin.
Thanks Gavin. I think it is important to clarify that Anglicans do not hold the Roman Catholic view of “transubstantiation.”
Article 28. Of the Lord’s Supper
The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the mutual love that Christians ought to have among themselves. Rather, it is a sacrament of our redemption through Christ’s death. To those who rightly, worthily, and with faith receive it, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and similarly the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation (the change of the substance of the bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved from Holy Scripture, but is repugnant to the plain teaching of Scripture. It overthrows the nature of a sacrament and has given rise to many superstitions. The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper only in a heavenly and spiritual manner. The means by which the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is by faith. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not instituted by Christ to be reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.
Hi Gavin, Quite an interesting article you wrote. I appreciate the approach you took by describing the Anglican view in light of the “bookends”. I have found that to be true in the Anglican Church that there are no demands put upon the worshiper as to what to think about the Eucharist except that it is more than just bread and wine.
In my many years in the Anglican Church, I asked God, “Help me to know what this is.” This has led me to read and reread John 6 and the very bold statements that Jesus makes concerning the bread and His Body. Is this possibly what you were referring to in the “positive speculation”? Thanks, Jane
Fr. Gavin,
Thank you for the article on Communion. It was exceedingly straightforward and sensitive to the latitude of Anglican beliefs and understandings. I have in serving for many years and in my studies seen and heard all kinds of claims and understandings on the Eucharist and on High vs. Low Church. A good way of clearing confusion about what is to be believed is to allow people to realize just how Catholic we, as Anglicans, really are. In the very beginning of the Christian presence in Britain, our traditions did not come from the Church in Rome as much as they did from the Church in Alexandria. These by are preserved today by Anglicans who maintain some of the Celtic Traditions in their worship. They are more akin to the beliefs of the Orthodox Churches. Also the understanding of the word “catholic” as being more than simply “universal” may help: The oft quoted “Vincentian Canon” is the Latin phrase: “Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est” (That Faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all) is a good deal more accurate. If the Anglicans could unite themselves around that which is truly “Catholic” without fear of being labeled “Romish” or “reformist” or a deliberate via media, we just may be able to demonstrate to the rest of the “Catholic” faiths what it is to be “Catholic.” With the world changing as it is, The Lord’s Church is the only means of saving this world. Let us pray for that during our Lenten season.
Your Brother on the Lord,
Deacon Mark E. Hanna, C of J
M. Theo.
St. Patrick’s Mission
Newport News, VA
757.509.8412
Dating back further than the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church, the following begins the early church bookend of 2000+ years of Eucharistic teaching from the Church Fathers:
St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110 A.D.)
I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, WHICH IS THE FLESH OF JESUS CHRIST, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I DESIRE HIS BLOOD, which is love incorruptible. (Letter to the Romans 7:3)
Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: FOR THERE IS ONE FLESH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, and one cup IN THE UNION OF HIS BLOOD; one ALTAR, as there is one bishop with the presbytery… (Letter to the Philadelphians 4:1)
They [i.e. the Gnostics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that THE EUCHARIST IS THE FLESH OF OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. (Letter to Smyrnians 7:1)
St. Justin the Martyr (c. 100 – 165 A.D.)
We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [Baptism], and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined.
For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, AND BY THE CHANGE OF WHICH our blood and flesh is nourished, IS BOTH THE FLESH AND THE BLOOD OF THAT INCARNATED JESUS. (First Apology, 66)
Moreover, as I said before, concerning the sacrifices which you at that time offered, God speaks through Malachi [1:10-12]…It is of the SACRIFICES OFFERED TO HIM IN EVERY PLACE BY US, the Gentiles, that is, OF THE BREAD OF THE EUCHARIST AND LIKEWISE OF THE CUP OF THE EUCHARIST, that He speaks at that time; and He says that we glorify His name, while you profane it. (Dialogue with Trypho, 41)
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/fathers.htm
10 Anglican Articles in 1536
#4. The substantial, real, corporal presence of Christ’s body and blood under the form of bread and wine in the Eucharist -Wikipedia
As this is what occurs when God answers the Eucharistic prayers then it follows that this remains the presence of Jesus when we reserve it in the Tabernacle. Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is the adoration of Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist. In the many Churches that have this adoration, the Eucharist is displayed in a special holder called a monstrance, and people come to pray and worship Jesus continually throughout the day and often the night. Christ’s great love for us was shown when he was crucified on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and give us eternal life. He loves us without limit, and offers Himself to us in the Holy sacrament of the Eucharist. Can we not give Jesus a few minutes of love and adoration in return?
Come, visit Jesus in Adoration, tell of your experience. Let’s continue this dialog…John 6 is key in our expression of unity.
Shalom,
Jane
THE PRESENT NORMS OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION
As stated in the most recent public statement from the Communion Office which is the Agreed Statement by the International Anglican-RC Commission for Unity and Mission. This is the most significant public Statement on behalf of the Communion on the Sacraments to date.
Section 5. Eucharist
39. Anglicans agree that the full participation in the Eucharist, together with Baptism and Confirmation, completes the sacramental process of Christian initiation.[81] The Eucharist is a gift received from the Lord himself, and celebrated in obedience to his command until he comes again (cf. 1 Corinthians 11.23–25; Matthew 26.26-29; Mark 14.22-25; Luke 22.14-20; John 6.53-58). The visible communion of Christ’s body, entered through baptism, is nourished, deepened, and expressed in the eucharistic communion when believers eat and drink and receive the body and blood of Christ. When his people are gathered at the Eucharist to commemorate Christ’s saving acts for our redemption, he makes present and effective among us the eternal benefits of his victory and elicits and renews his people’s response of faith, thanksgiving and self-surrender.[82] The identity of the Church as Christ’s body is expressed and visibly proclaimed by its being centred in the partaking of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist.[83]
40. We agree that the Eucharist is the memorial (anamnesis) of the crucified and risen Christ, of the entire work of reconciliation God has accomplished in him.[84] By memorial, Anglicans and Catholics both intend not merely a calling to mind of what God has done in the past but an effectual sacramental proclamation, which through the action of the Holy Spirit makes present what has been accomplished and promised once-and-for-all. In this sense, then, there is only one historical, unrepeatable sacrifice, offered once for all by Christ and accepted once for all by the Father, which cannot be repeated or added to.[85] The eucharistic memorial, however, makes present this once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ. It is therefore possible to say that “the Eucharist is a sacrifice in the sacramental sense, provided that it is clear that this is not a repetition of the historical sacrifice.”[86] “In the Eucharistic Prayer, the Church continues to make a perpetual memorial of Christ’s death, and his members, united with God and one another, give thanks for all his mercies, entreat the benefits of his passion on behalf of the whole Church, participate in these benefits, and enter into the movement of his self-offering.”[87] The action of the Church in the eucharistic celebration “adds nothing to the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross” but is rather a fruit of that sacrifice. In the eucharistic celebration Christ’s one sacrifice is made present for us.[88]
41. Anglicans believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The real communion with Christ crucified and risen presupposes his true presence, which is “effectually signified by the bread and wine which, in this mystery, become his body and blood.”[89] “What is here affirmed is a sacramental presence in which God uses the realities of this world to convey the realities of the new creation: bread for this life becomes the bread of eternal life. Before the Eucharistic Prayer, to the question: ‘What is that?’, the believer answers: ‘It is bread’. After the Eucharistic Prayer, to the same question he answers: ‘It is truly the body of Christ, the Bread of Life’.”[90] While Christ is present and active in a variety of ways in the entire eucharistic celebration, so that his presence is not limited to the consecrated elements,[91] the bread and wine are not empty signs: Christ’s body and blood become really present and are really given in these elements.[92]
42. The real presence of Christ depends not on an individual believer’s faith but on the power of the Holy Spirit, whom the Church invokes in the liturgy in order to receive the Lord’s real gift of himself.[93] Nevertheless, Anglicans and Catholics agree that faith is required in order that, partaking of the sacrament of the Lord’s real presence, a life-giving encounter may result.[94] “The bread and wine become the sacramental body and blood of Christ in order that the Christian community may become more truly what it already is, the body of Christ.”[95]
The Reverend Canon Kevin Francis Donlon, Ph.D., LL.M
Canon for Ecclesiastical and Ecumenical Affairs
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