Continuing with our recent examination of the Sunday liturgy, we now come to the “anaphora.” Though it is one piece and some believe it should be seamless and uninterrupted in execution, the Sunday celebration of Holy Eucharist divides into two parts. There is as some would say, the liturgy of the word and then the liturgy of the table. Said differently, there is the liturgy of hearing God’s word spoken and preached and then there is the liturgy for consecrating and receiving communion. Our practice and that seen in many other Episcopal churches is to have something of a pause between the two for announcements. But, as some might note, announcement time is not a piece of the liturgy and does not belong in the service. They would probably say “Do those before or after.”

Anaphora is a Greek word meaning “carry up” so meaning an offering. It is the offering of ourselves to be a “reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice”, an offering our gifts, and a memorial of Christ’s selfoffering. The anaphora portion of our worship has many names including The Great Thanksgiving, the Lord’s Supper, the Canon of the Mass, and Holy Eucharist, though the latter really refers to both the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the table as one piece. And to give you another liturgy term with which to impress or bore someone, the “pro anaphora” is everything that comes before the anaphora. So, the liturgy of the word. Got it? This will be on Jeopardy.

Now, grab your Prayer Book and turn to page 361. Rite I folks, I invite you into Rite II territory just for education. Thank you for playing along. You will see the text in bold, The Great Thanksgiving and a note in italics about alternative forms. The italicized notes are important. They are called rubrics and they provide guidelines and boundaries for the execution of the liturgy. The Prayer Book authorizes six forms of the Eucharistic Prayer. There are others authorized by the church that are found in the book Enriching our Worship. For now, just spend some time with Eucharistic Prayer A, its content and rubrics. Think about what you see on Sunday and what the rubrics require. Do you see me doing things differently?

The Prayer Book rubrics assume that the clergy are standing in front of the altar rather than behind it. Actually, the text says “holy table” not altar. There is a lot of history, and some of it a history of infighting and religious wars, hidden in these words. Likewise with the rubrics for touching the bread and cup, and that the bread and the cup are given to communicants. Did you know there was a time when the cup was not shared with the laity? That we do this and it is required that we do this is not small thing.

Lastly, we get to a critical piece of the liturgy. The post communion prayer is not a wrapping up prayer. It’s not “we are done, let’s get this over and off to coffee hour.” It is an affirmation that what we have just done has prepared us for the work we have ahead of us out in the world. It says that Eucharist is preparation for mission and ministry. So, while our time together has been valuable in itself, our time together has been for receiving what we need in order to be the people of God serving the mission of God in the world. Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord. And please mind the rubrics.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+