Eucharistic Prayer C

11 Eucharistic Prayer C

Eucharistic Prayer C draws the Church of England back to the Reformation era and to Thomas Cranmer. Influenced by the continental reformers, the Second English Prayer Book of 1552 departed significantly from Catholic theology and liturgical practice, not least in the order of the prayers of the Eucharist. The flow of the Eucharistic Prayer was interrupted after the Sanctus by a devotional prayer (‘the prayer of humble access’, see Chapter 18) and after the words of institution by the reception of Communion, leaving the final part of the prayer, with its sense of self-offering and its doxology, until after the distribution. The central part of the prayer, with the narrative of the institution, but without any epiclesis, came to be called the ‘prayer of consecration’. The 1662 wording, although it made some changes to the text and rubrics, did not challenge this arrangement, which became normative for the 300 years following…