Eucharist

====Anglican====
{{Main|Eucharist in Anglicanism}}

[[File:Holy Communion, Owen Jones.png|thumb|Illuminated title of "The Holy Communion" from the [[Book of Common Prayer (1845 illuminated version)|1845 illustrated ''Book of Common Prayer'']].]]
Anglican theology on the matter of the Eucharist is nuanced. The Eucharist is neither wholly a matter of transubstantiation nor simply devotional and [[Memorialism|memorialist]] in orientation. The Anglican churches do not adhere to the belief that the Lord's Supper is merely a devotional reflection on Christ's death. For some Anglicans, Christ is spiritually present in the fullness of his person in the Eucharist.

The [[Church of England]] itself has repeatedly refused to make official any definition of "the presence of Christ". Church authorities prefer to leave it a mystery while proclaiming the consecrated bread and wine to be "spiritual food" of "Christ's Most Precious Body and Blood"; the bread and wine are an "outward sign of an inner grace".<ref>Book of Common Prayer Catechism</ref>{{rp|859}} The words of administration at communion allow for real presence or for a real but spiritual presence (Calvinist receptionism and virtualism). This concept was congenial to most Anglicans well into the 19th century.<ref>''The Study of Liturgy'', Revised Edition, SPCK London, 1992, p. 316.</ref> From the 1840s, the Tractarians reintroduced the idea of "the real presence" to suggest a corporeal presence, which could be done since the language of the BCP rite referred to the body and blood of Christ without details as well as referring to these as spiritual food at other places in the text. Both are found in the Latin and other rites, but in the former, a definite interpretation as corporeal is applied.

Both receptionism and virtualism assert the real presence. The former places emphasis on the recipient and the latter states "the presence" is confected by the power of the Holy Spirit but not in Christ's natural body. His presence is objective and does not depend on its existence from the faith of the recipient. The liturgy petitions that elements "be" rather than "become" the body and blood of Christ leaving aside any theory of a change in the natural elements: bread and wine are the outer reality and "the presence" is the inner invisible except as perceived in faith.<ref>''The Study of Liturgy''</ref>{{rp|314–324}}

In 1789, the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in the United States restored explicit language that the Eucharist is an [[oblation]] (sacrifice) to God. Subsequent revisions of the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' by member churches of the [[Anglican Communion]] have done likewise (the Church of England did so in the [[Book of Common Prayer (1928, England)|proposed 1928 prayer book]]).<ref>The Study of Liturgy</ref>{{rp|318–324}}

The so-called "[[Black Rubric]]" in the [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|1552 prayer book]], which allowed kneeling when receiving Holy Communion was omitted in the [[Book of Common Prayer (1559)|1559 edition]] at Queen [[Elizabeth I]]'s insistence. It was reinstated in the [[1662 prayer book]], modified to deny any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood, which are in Heaven and not here. {{citation needed|date=August 2023}}