Anglican communion in the hand was mandated in the Prayer Book of 1552 specifically to disabuse congregants of any belief in the Real Presence.
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Communion in the hand was one of a slew of changes deliberately instituted to undermine belief in the Real Presence.
I am not suggesting the architects of Catholic communion in the hand had the exact same motives as Cranmer, but the fact remains that symbols mean things; they convey objective messages about what we believe and how we act those beliefs out ritually. The deliberate altering of long-established symbolic actions will result in a corresponding shift in what we be believe we are doing. The Anglican reformers clearly understood this principle, which is why Cranmer’s 1552 order mandated communion in the hand as deliberate gesture to erode belief in Transubstantiation.
The single greatest thing our bishops could do to bolster belief in the Real Presence is mandate communion kneeling on the tongue. Why don’t our own bishops understand what was so plainly evident to the likes of Thomas Cranmer?
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