Anglican service: I don't understand this service.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Abira
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Abira

Guest
I was thinking about a service that happened last Easter in a Church of England service…

it was maundy thursday and communion happened like usual, then the rest of the bread was taken to the lady chapel next to the altar and left there overnight and it was left open to people.

then the next day on good friday the bread was processed back to the altar for communion again!

I’ve gone to church of england services all my life and have never seen this before. what is it and why? or was it something of little significance etc?

Thanks

S
 
I’ve never been to anything Church of England, but I did grow up Episcopalian and later was Anglican, so here’s what I think:

On Good Friday there is no full Eucharistic service (meaning there are no Eucharistic prayers). But it was my understanding that people are still allowed to receive the Eucharist. It’s already been consecrated during Maundy Thursday. There is no full service because Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the cross. I’ve never seen the species from Maundy Thursday left open to the people, but maybe different churches handle that differently…
 
THutch04 said:
I’ve never been to anything Church of England, but I did grow up Episcopalian and later was Anglican, so here’s what I think:

On Good Friday there is no full Eucharistic service (meaning there are no Eucharistic prayers). But it was my understanding that people are still allowed to receive the Eucharist. It’s already been consecrated during Maundy Thursday. There is no full service because Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the cross. I’ve never seen the species from Maundy Thursday left open to the people, but maybe different churches handle that differently…
Click to expand...
thanks, that partly explains it… Anglican is Church of England it comes from ecclesia anglicana, a Medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 meaning ‘the English Church’… so any anglican church is based upon the principles of the Church of England.

I’d never seen the bread left open to people either 🙂

S
 
I’m guessing that was the reserved Body taken to the Altar of Repose, after the main Altar was stripped. I’m not sure just what “left open to the people” implies. In our parish, parishioners keep a watch at the Altar of Repose all night, before the sacrament. But it is not exposed. Then it is returned to the tabernacle for the Easter service. During the period when the Alatr of Repose is in use, and the main Altar stripped, one genuflects toward the Presence on the Altar of Repose during services.

GKC
 
GKC said:
I’m guessing that was the reserved Body taken to the Altar of Repose, after the main Altar was stripped. I’m not sure just what “left open to the people” implies. In our parish, parishioners keep a watch at the Altar of Repose all night, before the sacrament. But it is not exposed. Then it is returned to the tabernacle for the Easter service. During the period when the Alatr of Repose is in use, and the main Altar stripped, one genuflects toward the Presence on the Altar of Repose during services.

GKC
Click to expand...
hi GKC,

left open to the people - it was kinda processed through to the lady chapel…this prayer chapel thing down the side of the main church… and then it was left there for people to go and pray overnight and then the next day they processed it back in as part of the main service… so it was left open in that people could go there and it wasn’t locked up or anything.
 
Abira said:
hi GKC,

left open to the people - it was kinda processed through to the lady chapel…this prayer chapel thing down the side of the main church… and then it was left there for people to go and pray overnight and then the next day they processed it back in as part of the main service… so it was left open in that people could go there and it wasn’t locked up or anything.
Click to expand...
Was it in a tabernacle, or monstrance or anything like that? Or left in a ciborium?

Otherwise, that fits the Altar of Repose, as we do it at my parish. I think I’m correct in my guess.

GKC
 
GKC said:
Was it in a tabernacle, or monstrance or anything like that? Or left in a ciborium?

Otherwise, that fits the Altar of Repose, as we do it at my parish. I think I’m correct in my guess.

GKC
Click to expand...
it was left in this strange kind of dish/plate thing that was kind of faced sideways so you could see it all on the middle of the altar and the wine I don’t remember being there but I could be wrong. lol, I’m afraid that’s as technical an answer I can give you…and I stammered more describing it to myself before typing 🙂

S
 
Abira said:
it was left in this strange kind of dish/plate thing that was kind of faced sideways so you could see it all on the middle of the altar and the wine I don’t remember being there but I could be wrong. lol, I’m afraid that’s as technical an answer I can give you…and I stammered more describing it to myself before typing 🙂

S
Click to expand...
I seriously doubt the Blood would have been there. And I’m unsure what it might have been you saw it held in. But I’m 99% sure it was an Altar of Repose. A Lady Chapel would have been a normal place for it.

GKC
 
cool, thanks…

I’ve been wondering for ages what it was, it puzzled me at the ime and even more afterwards lol.

Sarah
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top