Anglican eucharistic theology is diverse in thought and practice. Its sources include prayer book rubrics, writings on sacramental theology by Anglican divines, and the regulations and orientations of ecclesiastical provinces. The principal source material is the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), specifically its eucharistic prayers and Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Article XXVIII comprises the foundational Anglican doctrinal statement about the Eucharist, although its interpretation varies among churches of the Anglican Communion and in different traditions of churchmanship such as Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelical Anglicanism.
Anglican eucharistic theologies universally affirm the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, though Reformed Anglicans believe that this is a pneumatic presence, while those of an Anglo-Catholic churchmanship believe this is a corporeal presence. In the former interpretation, those who receive the form or sign of the body and blood (bread and wine) in faith, receive also the spiritual body and blood of Christ. Those who receive the form or sign without faith, or for those who are wicked, Christ is not present spiritually and they consume only the physical signs of this holy presence, which further adds to their wickedness – in accordance with Article XXIX. In the latter interpretation, there exists the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, although the precise manner of how that presence is made manifest is a mystery of faith. To explain the manner of Christ's presence, some high-church Anglicans, however, teach the philosophical explanation of consubstantiation, associated with the English Lollards and, later, erroneously with Martin Luther, though Luther and the Lutheran Churches explicitly rejected the doctrine of consubstantiation and actually promulgated their dogma of the sacramental union. A major leader in the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Edward Pusey, championed the view of consubstantiation. A number of Anglicans who affirm a corporeal presence have embraced the Evangelical-Lutheran doctrine of the sacramental union.
Sacramental theology
With the Eucharist, as with other aspects of theology, Anglicans are largely directed by the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi which means "the law of prayer is the law of belief". In other words, sacramental theology as it pertains to the Eucharist is sufficiently and fully articulated by the Book of Common Prayer of a given jurisdiction. As defined by the 16th-century Anglican theologian Richard Hooker, the sacraments are said to be "visible signs of invisible grace"; similarly the Catechism of the 1662 version states that a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." It thus has the effect of conveying sanctification in the individual participating in the sacrament. 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.
Sacraments have both form and matter. Form is the verbal and physical liturgical action, while the matter refers to material objects used (bread and wine). In an Anglican Eucharist the form is contained in the rite and its rubrics, as articulated in the authorised prayer books of the ecclesiastical province. Central to the rite is the eucharistic prayer or "Prayer of Consecration", as called in the Book of Common Prayer.
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. For the majority of Anglicans this event constitutes the renewal of the Body of Christ as the Church through the reception of the Body of Christ as the Blessed Sacrament, his spiritual body and blood. In this sacrament, Christ is both encountered and incorporated (they "partake" of him). As such, the eucharistic action looks backward as a memorial of Christ's sacrifice, forward as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and to the present as an incarnation of Christ in the lives of the community and of individual believers.
Anglican doctrine concerning the Eucharist is contained in Article XXVIII – Of the Lord's Supper and XXIX – Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ of the Thirty-Nine Articles. The Catechism of the Church of England, the foundational church of the Anglican Communion, is found in the Book of Common Prayer and states that, as with other sacraments, the Eucharist is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof". The outward sign, in this instance, is the bread and wine; and the thing signified is the body and blood of Christ.
Varieties of eucharistic theology Because of the various theological movements which have influenced Anglicanism throughout history, there is no one sacramental theory accepted by all Anglicans. Early Anglican theologians, such as Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker, held to a sacramental theology similar to John Calvin. Cranmer's belief was substantially Calvinist, Receptionism and Virtualism, as shown by Peter Brooks in 1965.The Study of Liturgy, 1991, p. 316 Hooker's was a more nuanced combination of Receptionism and Real Presence but agnostic as to what the elements were in themselves but insistent that "the sacrament is a true and a real participation of Christ, who thereby imparteth himself even in his whole entire Person as a Mystical Head".John R. H. Moorman, The Anglican Spiritual Tradition, 1983, p. 77, He brushes aside transubstantiation and consubstantiation and urges people to meditate in silence and less to dispute the manner 'how'.Moorman, p. 77 The views were congenial for centuries to the majority of Anglicans.Study of Liturgy, p. 316 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. Anglicans now hold a variety of sacramental theologies, representing a spectrum of theories found in other Christian traditions.
Pneumatic presence
The reformed Anglican belief in a real spiritual presence (pneumatic presence) has roots going back to the English Reformation, particularly to the theology of Thomas Cranmer, the guiding figure of the Protestant Reformation in England; Thomas Cranmer aligned himself with the Eucharistic theology of John Calvin, which is reflected in the 28th Article of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England: "the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner." The view of the real spiritual presence (pneumatic presence) is held by denominations of the Reformed (Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Reformed Anglican) tradition.
Low-church Anglicans reject belief in a corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and accordingly, usually any belief in the reservation and adoration of the sacrament. 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". Instead, they hold to a "spiritual real presence" view of the Eucharist similar to the views held by Reformed Protestant denominations such as Presbyterians. 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". This view has historical precedent. During the seminal years of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer was in correspondence with many continental Reformers, several of whom came to England at his request to aid in reforms there. They included Martin Bucer, Paul Fagius, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Bernardino Ochino and Jan Łaski. The views of these men were in line with the Reformed doctrine of the sacrament.
Cranmer wrote on the Eucharist in his treatise On the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Lord's Supper that Christians truly receive Christ's "self-same" Body and Blood at Communion – but in "an heavenly and spiritual manner" which is close to the Calvinistic doctrine.Farris, Joshua; Hamilton, S. Mark; Speigel, James S. Idealism and Christian Theology: Idealism and Christianity. Vol. I, . This emphasis on the faith of the receiver instead of the elements, common to both the Continental Reformed churches and the Church of England, has also been called receptionism. This is in agreement with the continental Reformed view found in Chapter XXI of the Second Helvetic Confession:
A term used to define the Reformed doctrine of the real spiritual presence common amongst 16th- and 17th-century Anglican theologians is known as "receptionism", a term not found before 1867. 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. 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". It is important to remember that it is "a doctrine of the real presence" but one which "relates the presence primarily to the worthy receiver rather than to the elements of bread and wine".Crockett, William R., "Holy Communion", in Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John, The Study of Anglicanism, 1988 p. 275
Corporeal presence Anglicans of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship, as well as some high-church Evangelicals, hold to a belief in the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but maintain that the details of how Christ is made present remain a mystery of faith, a view also held by the Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church, and Methodist Church. Holding this view, "the Tractarians were concerned ... to exalt the importance of the sacrament", but were "generally hostile to the doctrine of transubstantiation". Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles declares that "Transubstantiation ... cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." Edgar Gibson, the Bishop of Gloucester, who was Anglo-Catholic in churchmanship, defended the phrase "cannot be Proved by Holy Writ" in Article XXVIII, stating,
A number of Anglicans have embraced the Evangelical-Lutheran doctrine of the coporeal presence—the sacramental union.
The doctrine of consubstantiation, which originated out of the pre-Reformation Lollardy movement in England, is a view of the corporeal presence with which some Anglicans identify. The 19th-century Anglo-Catholic divine Edward Bouverie Pusey (a leader of the Oxford Movement) argued strongly for the idea of consubstantiation. Discussing Pusey's view, Thomas S. L. Vogan wrote:
In this doctrine, the bread and wine do not disappear at the consecration, but the Body and Blood become present without diminishing them.
Although it originated with Lollardism, consubstantiation is erroneously said to be the doctrine of Martin Luther and the Lutheran churches, which actually reject consubstantiation and instead teach the doctrine of sacramental union.
A maxim in Anglicanism concerning Christ's presence is that "it may not be about a change of substance, but it is about a substantial change." Cited in . If substantial denotes a spiritual property of the sacraments themselves this is the Reformed view, since, after consecration, the elements are only fit for holy use and may no longer be used as common bread and wine.