DESCRIBE & EXPLAIN THE WAYS IN WHICH CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE HOLY COMMUNION

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        Niral Patel 11D

DESCRIBE & EXPLAIN THE WAYS IN WHICH CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE HOLY COMMUNION

Holy Communion is regarded in different terms for different denominations of the church:

They all have common views on the factors of Holy Communion. Even though they are four different types of the Christian religion, all denominations share the idea that Jesus was Christ, the chosen one, meaning that they believed Jesus was sent by God as our Saviour showing no difference in this case. Holy Communion remembers, celebrates and re-enacts the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for forgiveness of sins and salvation. The Roman Catholic (R.C.), Orthodox and the Church of England (CoE) see it as a Sacrament which ‘contains the body and blood, soul and divinity, of the Lord Jesus Christ in the representation of bread and wine.’ The Holy Communion shows the idea that Christians are joined together in a community, with Christ, by sharing the bread and wine.  The Eucharist is one of the main acts of worship for both Catholics and Anglicans.  It is celebrated at least once a week; every Sunday.

The Eucharist is one of the only sacraments established by all Christians. A sacrament is a ‘sacred ceremony which is a sign of Christ's presence in the Church and the lives of Christians’. The Anglican accept only two sacraments; baptism and Eucharist, as they are the only two which have a certain foundation in the New Testament. The churches of the Catholic tradition accept these two plus five others. It is known as: Eucharist, Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread.

 

Christians differ in their views of the Eucharist however all agree that it is the sign of the new covenant decided by God and "his" followers. The old covenant between God and Israel was created when God freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. They accepted God as their ruler in return for obeying his laws and becoming a group of people specially dedicated to him. The Hebrew people became a separate community through this covenant. The covenant was sealed with the Passover meal at which the Jews still smear their doorposts with the blood of the Pascal lamb which they had sacrificed that night. When the Israelites were in Egypt, they were slaves to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt.  Moses told Pharaoh that he had to let the people go, because if he did not, Egypt would suffer a series of plagues.  In the last of these plagues, an angel of death would come and kill the eldest son of every Egyptian family, but would pass over every Israelite home.  One essentially important point is that at the Passover meal, a Jewish father reminds his children that they, not just their ancestors, were freed from slavery in Egypt by the Lord. The Passover is seen as a reliving of the past from Egypt.

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This is important for the Eucharist as Christians believe that Christ is the new Pascal lamb. Just like the Pascal lamb was the sacrificed victim whose death marks the start of the old covenant, so Jesus is the Lamb of God whose death was meant for sin and in a way ‘signing’ the new covenant. The celebration meal of the new covenant is the Eucharist, at which Christians eat bread and drink wine as Jesus did at the Last Supper.

While all Christians would agree on the above the different churches now have different opinions about what ...

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