What is the Lord's Supper? What is the Eucharist? Was it always understood as a Sacrament? Throughout the history of Christianity, the overwhelming majority of Christians have consistently believed that Jesus Christ, in a mystery, imparts His Body and Blood to His people though the vehicle of the Lord's Supper. Bypassing all the Biblical references, here is a small, non-exhaustive sampling of what they've had to say in every generation. If you're going to read any of them, please read them all. Ignatius of Antioch AD 35-107 "Mark ye those who hold strange doctrines touch the grace of Jesus which came to us, how they are contrary to the mind of God... They abstain from Eucharist and prayer, because they allow not that the Eucharist is … [Read more...]
Why the Seder?
Part three of our republishing of 'The Contemporary Protestant Seder: Anachronistic Revisionism?' by the Rev. Dr. Dcn. Timothy J. Wilkinson Why the Seder? Given the clear linkage between the Passover, the Seder meal, and the Eucharist – and the apparent lack of understanding of, or interest in this linkage – motives for participation in the Seder meal appear to fall into two categories. The first revolves around the well-known philo-Semitic evangelical desire for rootedness and connection with the early Church and its predecessor, the Jewish religion. Since the publication of Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in 1978, ancient source literature, particularly as it relates to individual spirituality, has become attractive to many … [Read more...]
The Early Church, the Seder and the Eucharist
Part two of our republishing of 'The Contemporary Protestant Seder: Anachronistic Revisionism?' by the Rev. Dr. Dcn. Timothy J. Wilkinson. The Early Church, the Seder and the Eucharist What kind of meal was the Last Supper? At first blush it appears to be a Passover meal imbued with new meaning. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus specifically mentions the desire to eat the Passover meal with His disciples: Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover? And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples (Matthew … [Read more...]
The Contemporary Protestant Seder: Anachronistic Revisionism?
by the Rev. Dcn. Dr. Timothy J. Wilkinson The protestant Evangelical world has, for many years now, appropriated the Jewish Seder service in an attempt to 'reconnect' with something more ancient, and I would contend, something more authentic. We offer this excellent piece by Dcn Tim Wilkinson, Reprinted (with permission) from Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56 (2015), published by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, this article is being published in three installments, with endnotes included on the third installment. Introduction The Jewish Seder has become a routine part of contemporary Easter services in many American churches. Augmented at times with elements drawn from … [Read more...]
