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CHAPTER 10
The
Preparation of the Gifts
The
people and presiding priest prepare the table and set bread
and wine on it
Every significant Jewish meal involved seven actions: (1)
bread was taken, (2) a prayer of blessing was said over it,
(3) it was broken, and (4) it was shared; then there was a
common meal; then (5) a cup of wine and water was taken,
(6) a prayer of thanksgiving, the "Birkat hamazon", was
chanted over it, and (7) all drank from the cup. The Last
Supper (whether Passover or chaburah meal) included these
seven actions. It is these actions which were given a new
significance. When Christians did them, they did them to
remember Christ the action of God's eternal Word in
creation, the incarnation, birth, life and ministry of
Jesus, his death, resurrection, exaltation, giving of the
Spirit, and the promise of his coming in glory.
The separation of the meal from the seven actions
contributed to their conflation into the four classical
eucharistic actions: (A) bread and wine are taken, (B) a
prayer of thanksgiving is made, (C) the bread is broken,
and (D) the bread and wine are shared. Of these (A) and (C)
are preparatory. The bread and wine are placed upon the
holy table in order that the Great Thanksgiving may be
offered. The breaking of the bread prepares for the
administration of communion. This chapter concentrates on
the first of these actions the Preparation of the Gifts.
The altar is best kept as bare as possible until the
Preparation of the Gifts, when the focus moves from the
lectern to the altar.
Items such as the chalice and paten, purificators, and
corporal are not gifts, and so these are not brought
forward from the congregation. Before the service they are
placed on a credence at the side of the chancel.
Traditionally, the water is placed on the credence as well,
as it is not the work of human hands. There is no need to
use a burse or veil.
The white altar cloth and the candles could be placed on
the altar at the time of the Preparation of the Gifts. This
highlights the Eucharist as a meal, an aspect often
obscured by our inherited architecture and ceremonial.
Placing the corporal on the altar may be unnecessary if
this practice is adopted as the corporal is a shrunken
vestige of an altar cloth. In some churches it is possible
to have large candle sticks (or candelabra) next to the
altar rather than on it.
There are a variety of ways of taking the collection and
bringing forward the gifts. A collection plate may be
placed on the oblations table, at the entrance of the nave,
with the bread and wine. A food basket could be placed by
this table. In this way the people can place their gifts of
money and food in the plate and basket as they enter
church. These are then presented at the Preparation of the
Gifts.
It is easy for the symbolism of objects to be lost when
there are too many on the altar. The Prayer Book assumes
that there will only be one chalice and one paten on the
altar during the Great Thanksgiving in accordance with the
symbolism of one bread and one cup. A clear glass pitcher
or a flagon with wine may be placed on the altar at the
Preparation of the Gifts if more wine will be needed for
communion. Further empty chalices and baskets or patens can
be brought up as needed at the time of the distribution of
communion. The consecrated bread and wine is then placed in
these.
Supplementary consecration is normally unnecessary. "Care
should be taken to ensure that sufficient bread and wine is
placed on the holy table" (page 516). Although the Roman
Catholic Church normally reserves the Sacrament, liturgists
of that church deprecate the practice of administering from
the reserved Sacrament in a Eucharist. Our Prayer Book also
emphasizes that people have a right to receive the
Sacrament which has been consecrated during that
celebration. It highlights the purpose of reservation as
being "for the communion of persons not present" (page
516).
Only in the Eucharistic Liturgy Thanksgiving for Creation and
Redemption does the Prayer Book require a
prayer at the Preparation of the Gifts. The other rites all
allow for this preparation to be done without a verbal
prayer. This simplifies and clarifies a part of the liturgy
which, through centuries of accretions, had developed much
complexity.
At the Preparation of the Gifts bread and wine are taken in
order that thanks may be offered with them. Any prayer at
the Preparation is in danger of anticipating the Great
Thanksgiving. It is in the eucharistic prayer that thanks
is given and the gifts are "offered" (hence the Greek word
for the eucharistic prayer is the "anaphora" the
"offering").
It is because of this that the Roman Missal encourages the
priest to pray the prayers during the Preparation of the
Gifts quietly
rather than aloud. At
this point our own Prayer Book seems to depart from modern
liturgical consensus when it instructs that "the priest may
offer praise for God's gifts in the following or other
appropriate words" (page 420). The prayer which follows
obviously derives from the Roman Missal. However, scholarly
liturgical opinion would have the Great Thanksgiving as
being the prayer in which the priest offered "praise for
God's gifts." Furthermore, there is no description of what
sort of words would be "inappropriate." In defence of the
rubrics it is to be noted that the prayers on page 420 are
all optional, and so may normally be omitted.
In some communities there is more ceremony associated with
the collection of money than would ever be considered
appropriate for the eucharistic bread and wine! In the way
that the collection and/or bread and wine is passed from
person to person some places may appear to give the
impression that the chancel and more especially the
sanctuary are clerical spaces which only clergy (or at
least those who are robed) may enter. Such practices merit
serious reflection.
There is a wide variety of ways of preparing the gifts. The
following description is only one of a number of
possibilities, and not every celebration needs to be
identical.
Having concluded the sign of peace, the presider may return
to the presider's chair while others bring up the gifts
from the congregation. Because of the long period of
standing which follows, from the beginning of the Great
Thanksgiving until coming forward for communion,
communities may wish to experiment with being seated during
the Preparation of the Gifts. A hymn might be sung (texts
need not speak of the bread and wine, nor of offering, they
might be joyful, reflect the liturgical season, or speak of
community). There might be an anthem, instrumental music,
dance, or silence. On occasion (such as Harvest
Thanksgiving) the whole community might be involved in a
procession, all bringing forward some gift.
The bread, wine, money, and food offerings for the poor are
brought forward together. If it was desired to use one of
the optional prayers from the Preparation of the Gifts, the
presider, still at the presider's chair, could pray one of
these. Certainly those bringing the gifts present them
directly to the deacon, priest, or other minister who is
preparing the gifts rather than handing them to servers who
in turn present them to the deacon or priest. Assigning the
presentation of the gifts to a particular group such as
children, servers or the ushers, can detract from the
realisation that this presentation is on behalf of the
whole community.
The deacon, if there is one, or an assisting minister
oversees the whole preparation of the table: the covering
of the altar with the altar cloth, the positioning of the
altar book or cards of the Great Thanksgiving flat on the
altar, and the placing of the bread and wine (in chalice
and flagon) on the altar. Preferably this minister filled
the chalice with the wine and water at the credence.
The chalice and paten (or bread basket) are best placed
side by side so that they can be seen by all. Placing the
chalice on the right of the paten allows it to be close to
the deacon who stands to the right of the priest. The
chalice is only covered with a pall if there is a danger of
flies, for example.
The church's tradition is that there is nothing on the
altar during the Eucharist apart from what is actually
needed. Since 1662, however, money has been an exception to
this rule in Anglican practice. If the continuation of such
a practice is desired, a suggestion is that the money be
placed on the altar, but removed to the credence before the
Great Thanksgiving begins. An alternative location for the
money offering is at the foot of the altar where the food
basket could also be placed.
If incense is used, the presider puts some into the
thurible and censes the gifts and altar. This may be very
effective if done in silence. The deacon or thurifer then
censes the ministers and assembly without making
hierarchical distinctions. Those in the sanctuary and those
in the congregation are censed collectively and in the same
way. The thurifer may swing the thurible gently during the
Great Thanksgiving and the Lord's Prayer.
Ritual hand washings were customary at Jewish meals and
from earliest times the presider washed the hands
immediately before proclaiming the eucharistic prayer.
The Bread
Someone once said to me, "I have no problem believing that
it's Jesus, it's believing that it's bread that I find
difficult!" Another time I heard someone explaining, "it's
not supposed
to be bread, it's just
supposed to symbolise
bread." In the early
church, Christians used the same baking techniques and same
ovens for both their daily bread and that which was to be
used in the Eucharist. For about a thousand years the bread
of the Eucharist was ordinary, leavened bread. Then, in the
Western church, there came a growing distinction between
the "symbolic" and the "real." This resulted in changes to
the theology of the Eucharist. A dichotomy grew between our
daily bread and the "bread of angels," the "manna from
heaven." The eucharistic presence was too holy to occur in
ordinary bread. Furthermore, the growing practice of
reservation of the sacrament required the bread to be
unleavened.
If what we receive in communion appears neither as bread
nor as broken, how can we say that "We break this bread to
share in the body of Christ"? If children are not
encouraged to receive, and if we don't share from a common
loaf, how can we say "We who are many are one body, for we
all share the one bread"?
If wafers are used, it is worth reflecting what clericalism
is communicated by distinguishing between "priest's" and
"people's" wafers. If a larger wafer is used for visibility
it is preferable that it is shared with communicants other
than the presiding priest.
Using a ciborium or something else that looks like a cup or
chalice as a receptacle for the bread confuses the
symbolism of eating with drinking. So also does the visible
"pouring" of wafers from such a vessel onto (into?) another
container. Bread requires a plate, wine a goblet.
Breaking or cutting a loaf before the liturgy (into cubes,
for example) also obscures the symbolism. A very exciting
ministry for many is the chance to bake the bread for the
Sunday Eucharist.
Some
Questions
In this chapter the author presents some clear reasons for
proposing the ways that the preparation of the gifts may
best happen. Some of the reasons for the practice may be
unfamiliar. Review these carefully in the light of your own
understanding of what you believe this part of the liturgy
is designed to achieve.
Are there ways that you would like to change your practice?
Have other thoughts and ideas come to mind?
Who would it be best for you to discuss these
with?
