'We prefix prayer and invocation': the Prayer of Consecration in the Prayer Book Holy Communion
When contemporary Anglican liturgists lament and bewail the 1662 Holy Communion, they often point to the Prayer of Consecration, regarding it is as infinitely inferior to patristic forms. John Shepherd, by contrast, in his A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume II (1801), sees continuity between the 1662 Prayer of Consecration and patristic forms. Both seek the same purpose: The form of Consecration in the ancient Church was a repetition of the history of the institution, together with prayer to God, that he would sanctify the elements of bread and wine by his Holy Spirit, and make them to become the Body and Blood of Christ, not by altering their nature and substance, but their qualities and powers; and by exalting them from simple elements of bread and wine, to become types and symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, and efficacious instruments of conveying to worthy receivers all the benefits of his death and passion. What at least partly ex...
