The Lord's Supper in the Prayer Book

The need and importance of ascertaining the teaching of the Church of England on the Supper of the Lord are evident on several grounds. The position of the ordinance in the Prayer Book clearly requires us to understand its spiritual significance in our life and worship. We shall thereby be taught what is required in faith and practice of the members of the Church. In ascertaining the meaning of the Prayer Book and Articles we shall also be enabled to see whether the Church adheres to her own standard, laid down in Article VI. and other Articles, which requires all essential doctrine to be based on or warranted by the Word of God. At the same time we shall be afforded a touchstone wherewith to test everything that may come before our notice claiming to be Church doctrine.

It is perhaps not wholly unnecessary to say that the authoritative teaching of the Church of England on this subject is found in the Prayer Book and Articles and nowhere else, and is to be gathered from a due consideration and interpretation of every expression in those formularies. Of course, in any controversy as to interpretation, the views of the compilers of the Prayer Book are deservedly of very great weight, and the opinions of representative English theologians, together with the decisions of Courts, are worthy of careful thought. But the ultimate and final Court of Appeal is the Prayer Book and Articles, and we must be acquainted first of all with what the Prayer Book and Articles actually say.

We proceed, therefore, to collect the various statements of the Prayer Book and Articles with reference to the Lord’s Supper, and to consider them, as they stand, in their natural meaning.

The Lord’s Supper is brought before us in the Prayer Book in four places, and they are typical and representative of the variety of Church life.

To read the entire chapter from W. H. Griffith Thomas' A Sacrament of our Redemption — An Enquiry into the Meaning of the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament and the Church of England, click here.

To read other chapters from this book on the Church Society web site, click here.

To download the book from Internet Archives, click here.