The Holy Eucharist
As taught in the Anglican / Episcopal tradition
The central act of Christian worship: the Lord's Supper as a means of grace and communion with Christ.
In the Anglican tradition, the subtopic of the Holy Eucharist—variously called Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or the Divine Liturgy—answers the fundamental question: "How does the risen Christ continue to nourish and unite His people until His coming again?" For the Anglican, the Eucharist is not merely a memorial of a past event, nor is it a mechanical transaction of grace. It is the "source and summit" of the Church’s life, the "outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace," as the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) defines it. It is the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day, where the local community is gathered into the eternal worship of heaven, joining their voices with "Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven."
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the distinctives of the Anglican "Via Media" regarding the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, distinguishing it from Transubstantiation and Memorialism.
- **Articulate** the relationship between the Passover of the Old Covenant and the institution of the Eucharist as the New Covenant meal in the Lucan and Pauline accounts.
- **Trace** the "four-fold action" (Take, Bless, Break, Give) within the biblical narrative and the historic Anglican liturgy as identified by Gregory Dix.
- **Explain** the concept of "Spiritual Manducation" (eating by faith) as defined in Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.
- **Defend** the necessity of the Eucharist for the "sustenance and growth" of the Christian life using the "Bread of Life" discourse in John 6.
- **Apply** the communal implications of the "breaking of bread" in Acts 2 to contemporary Anglican practices of fellowship, social justice, and church unity.
- **Compare** the 1662 BCP "Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper" with modern liturgical revisions to understand the continuity of Anglican eucharistic theology.
- **Distinguish** between the "one, true, and sufficient sacrifice" of Christ on the Cross and the "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving" offered by the Church in the Eucharist.
Scripture
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