Anglican Sacraments - Eucharist

The Eucharist (Holy Communion, Mass, or the Lord's Supper), is the means by which Christ becomes present to the Christian community gathered in his name. It is the central act of gathered worship, renewing the Body of Christ as the Church through the reception of the Body of Christ as the Blessed Sacrament, his spiritual body and blood. The matter consists of bread and wine. Traditionally in the Western Church the form was located in the words "This is my body/blood" or at least in the repetition of the Institution Narrative as a whole, that is there was a moment of consecration. However, the modern trend is to understand the thanksgiving expressed in the whole Eucharistic Prayer as effecting the consecration. In 1995, the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation involving liturgists from over half the Provinces of the Anglican Communion unanimously agreed that:

The fundamental character of the eucharistic prayer is thanksgiving, and the whole eucharistic prayer should be seen as consecratory. The elements of memorial and invocation are caught up within the movement of thanksgiving.

In this sacrament, Christ is both encountered and incorporated. 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.