IV.

The Eucharistic Service

The service is called the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion in most Protestant Churches; the Divine Liturgy in Eastern Orthodoxy; and the Mass among Roman Catholics and some Anglicans. It is the central and most solemn Christian liturgy.

Normally the service consists of two parts. The first, the “liturgy of the Word”, consists of Scripture readings, a sermon, and prayers. This part of the Eucharist, apparently adapted from Jewish synagogue worship, has been prefixed to the service of bread and wine at least since the mid-2nd century. The second part of the service, the “liturgy of the Eucharist”, consists typically of an offering of bread and wine (together with the congregation’s monetary gifts); the central Eucharistic prayer (a prayer of consecration); the distribution of the consecrated elements to worshippers; and a final blessing and dismissal. This particular part of the service has its roots in the ancient traditional table prayers said at Jewish meals.

The central Eucharistic prayer, the Anaphora (Greek, “offering”), typically contains a prayer of thanksgiving for the creation of the world and its redemption in Christ; an account of the institution of the Last Supper; the oblation, or Anamnesis—the offering of the bread and wine in thankful remembrance of Christ; the Epiclesis, or invocation of the Holy Spirit on the bread and wine and on the congregation; and prayers of intercession.