St. Thomas Evangelical Fellowship of India - Basis of The Reformation

Basis of The Reformation

The changes made by Abraham Malpan Achen (Achen means Priest) in the liturgy for the Holy Communion and accepted by the General Synod of the Mar Thoma Church show the fundamental tenets of the Reformed Church enumerated below:

• Expurgated all invocations to the saints.
• Expurgated all prayers for the dead.
• The following prayers were expurgated:
  • the prayer said by the minister while taking the consecrated bread in his hand, "Thee who holdest the extremities of the universe, I hold in my hand, Thee, who rulest the depths, I grasp with my hand", and after putting the bread into his mouth, "Thee, who are God, I put into my mouth",
  • Instead of the prayer: "We offer into Thee, O Lord, this bloodless sacrifice (referring to the Eucharist) on behalf of Thy Holy Church which is in all the world", the following prayer was inserted: "We offer into Thee, O Lord, this prayer on behalf of Thy Holy Church which is in all the world", leaving out the words "bloodless sacrifice" and inserting instead "this prayer".
  • The declaration that “Living Sacrifice is offered” (the reference is again to the Eucharist), was changed into: "living sacrifice, which is the sacrifice of grace, peace, and praise".
• The declaration: "this Eucharist is sacrifice and praise" was expurgated.
• The declaration that “the Holy Spirit is the sanctifier of the censor” was removed.
• The note that the censor should be sanctified was taken away.
• The prayer: “Let Him (Holy Spirit) make this bread the life-giving and saving body of Jesus Christ”, was replaced by: “Let Him (Holy Spirit) come upon and make this bread to those who partake of it, the body of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting”. (This clearly teaches the Receptionist Theory.)
• The prayer: "Thou are the hard rock which was set against the tomb of our Redeemer" (referring to the Eucharist bread), was replaced by: “Thou art that tested and precious hard rock rejected by the builders” (converted it into a reference to Christ).

The following changes were made to the practices of the Church:

• It was decided that the Eucharist should be administered in both kinds.
• The practice of auricular confession and obtaining absolution from the priests was abolished.
• The practice of celebrating the Eucharist when there was nobody to partake of it was abolished.