Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist

===Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian ===
[[File:Pokrov14.11.08.jpg|thumb|right|[[Eastern Orthodox]] [[Divine Liturgy]].]]
The [[Eastern Orthodox Churches]] and the [[Oriental Orthodox Churches]], as well as the [[Assyrian Church of the East|Churches]] [[Ancient Church of the East|of the East]], believe that in the Eucharist the bread and wine are objectively changed and become in a real sense the [[Body of Christ|Body]] and [[Blood of Christ]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oblation |url=https://assyrianchurch.org.au/about-us/the-sacraments/oblation/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East – Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and Lebanon |language=en-US}}</ref> Orthodoxy rejects philosophical explanations of the change that occurs in the elements during the Divine Liturgy:<ref name="Džalto2016">{{cite book |last1=Džalto |first1=Davor |title=Religion and Realism |date=11 May 2016 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-9410-4 |page=52 |language=en|quote=In general, Orthodox theologians reject transubstantiation in the way this doctrine was developed in the Roman Catholic Church.}}</ref><ref name="Harvey2016">{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=Graham |title=Religions in Focus: New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices |date=8 April 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-93690-8 |language=en |quote=Orthodoxy rejects transubstantiation but contends that something real takes place. However, what happens is a mystery and hence does not admit of precise explanation.}}</ref>
{{quote|While the Orthodox Church has often employed the term ''transubstantiation'', [[Kallistos Ware]] claims the term "enjoys no unique or decisive authority" in the Orthodox Church. Nor does its use in the Orthodox Church "commit theologians to the acceptance of Aristotelian philosophical concepts". ...Ware also notes that while the Orthodox have always "insisted on the ''reality'' of the change" from bread and wine into the body and the blood of Christ at the consecration of the elements, the Orthodox have "never attempted to explain the ''manner of the change''." —Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger<ref name="HarperMetzger2009">{{cite book|last1=Harper|first1=Brad|last2=Metzger|first2=Paul Louis|title=Exploring Ecclesiology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vw7MqyQYtLkC&pg=PA312|access-date=4 March 2015|date=1 March 2009|publisher=Brazos Press|isbn=9781587431739|pages=312–}}</ref>|author=|title=|source=}}

The [[Greek language|Greek]] term ''[[metousiosis]]'' ({{lang|grc|μετουσίωσις}}) is sometimes used by Eastern Orthodox Christians to describe the change since this term "is not bound up with the [[Scholasticism|scholastic]] theory of substance and accidents", but it does not have official status as "a dogma of the Orthodox Communion."<ref name="Moss2005">{{cite book|last=Moss|first=Claude B.|title=The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Dogmatic Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1NLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA363|access-date=4 March 2015|date=11 April 2005|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers|isbn=9781597521390|page=363|quote=The Greek term corresponding to transubstation is metousiosis, which, however is not bound up with the scholastic theory of substance and accidents. It was accepted by the Synod of Bethlehem, 1672, during the reaction against the Calvinizing movement of the Patriarch Cyril Lucaris, but it was never accepted formally by the Russian Church, and it is not a dogma of the Orthodox Communion.}}</ref><ref name="McGuckin2010">{{cite book|last=McGuckin|first=John Anthony|title=The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture|date=9 December 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781444393835|page=360|quote=But it does not care to dwell much on the scholastic theories of 'transubstantiation'.}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism|last=Azkoul|first=Michael|year=1994|publisher=The Orthodox Christian Witness, Vol. XXVII (48), Vol. XXVIII (6) and (8)|quote=At the same time, the Latins interpret the Sacraments in a legal and philosophical way. Hence, in the Eucharist, using the right material things (bread and wine) and pronouncing the correct formula, changes their substance (transubstantiation) into the Body and Blood of Christ. The visible elements or this and all Sacraments are merely "signs" of the presence of God. The Orthodox call the Eucharist "the mystical Supper." What the priest and the faithful consume is mysteriously the Body and Blood of Christ. We receive Him under the forms of bread and wine, because it would be wholly repugnant to eat "real" human flesh and drink "real" human blood.}}</ref> Similarly, [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Coptic Orthodox Christians]], a denomination of Oriental Orthodox Christianity, "are fearful of using philosophical terms concerning the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, preferring uncritical appeals to biblical passages like 1 Cor. 10.16; 11.23–29 or the discourse in John 6.26–58."<ref name="Houlden2003">{{cite book|last=Houlden|first=James Leslie |title=Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/jesushistorythou00houl_286|url-access=limited|year=2003|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=9781576078563|page=[https://archive.org/details/jesushistorythou00houl_286/page/n223 185]|quote=The Copts are fearful of using philosophical terms concerning the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, preferring uncritical appeals to biblical passages like 1 Cor. 10.16; 11.23–29 or the discourse in John 6.26–58.}}</ref>

While the Roman Catholic Church believes that the change "takes place at the words of institution or consecration", the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that the "change takes place anywhere between the Proskomedia (the Liturgy of Preparation)" and "the Epiklesis ('calling down'), or invocation of the Holy Spirit 'upon us and upon these gifts here set forth'". Therefore, it teaches that "the gifts should be treated with reverence throughout the entirety of the service. We don't know the exact time in which the change takes place, and this is left to mystery."<ref name=Martini>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/orthodoxyandheterodoxy/2013/08/14/the-doctrine-of-transubstantiation-in-the-orthodox-church/|title=The Doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Orthodox Church|last=Martini|first=Gabe|date=14 August 2013|publisher=Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy|access-date=3 March 2015|quote=In other words, Roman Catholics believe that transubstantiation is the 'change' that occurs in the 'whole substance' of the bread and wine set apart for the Eucharistic mystery. This is a change that takes place at the words of institution or consecration (i.e. 'This is My Body,' etc.). There's some Scholastic language here, of course, but that's the basic gist. In the Orthodox tradition, you will find it taught variously that this change takes place anywhere between the Proskomedia (the Liturgy of Preparation)—which is now a separate service prior to both Orthros and the Divine Liturgy on a typical Sunday, though traditionally it is done during Orthros—and the Epiklesis ('calling down'), or invocation of the Holy Spirit 'upon us and upon these gifts here set forth' (as in Chrysostom's liturgy). As such, the gifts should be treated with reverence throughout the entirety of the service. We don't know the exact time in which the change takes place, and this is left to mystery. As Orthodox Christians, we must be careful to balance and nuance our claims, especially with regards to the Latins or 'the West.' The last thing we want to do is oversimplify matters to the extent of seeming deceptive or—perhaps worse—misinformed. After all, this is typically what gets thrown our way from those unfamiliar with Orthodoxy (beyond literature), often justly putting us on the 'defensive' (an important distinction from 'triumphalism') in response to such misrepresentations.}}</ref>

The words of the [[Liturgy of Saint Basil#Coptic Liturgy|Coptic liturgy]] are representative of the faith of [[Oriental Orthodoxy]]: "I believe, I believe, I believe and profess to the last breath that this is the body and the blood of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which he took from our Lady, the holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of God."

The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]'s [[Synod of Jerusalem (1672)|Synod of Jerusalem]] declared: "We believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be present, not typically, nor figuratively, nor by superabundant grace, as in the other Mysteries, ... but truly and really, so that after the consecration of the bread and of the wine, the bread is transmuted, transubstantiated, converted and transformed into the true Body Itself of the Lord, Which was born in Bethlehem of the ever-Virgin Mary, was baptised in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, was received up, sitteth at the right hand of the God and Father, and is to come again in the clouds of Heaven; and the wine is converted and transubstantiated into the true Blood Itself of the Lord, Which, as He hung upon the Cross, was poured out for the life of the world."<ref>[http://catholicity.elcore.net/ConfessionOfDositheus.html Decree XVII] of the Synod of Bethlehem</ref>