The Great Thanksgiving
Last weekend, here at St Marks, we had a wedding on Saturday, on Sunday Waka Puhara joined us for the 10am service, reading the lessons and leading the prayers, and earlier in the week I had prayed with and anointed someone close to the time of death. It made me reflect on the journey we call life. It is a journey of ups and downs, twists and turns - but through it all God is with us. He is loving and loyal, never separating from us. This is the Good News that is revealed through the Cross.
So today I want to consider the altar and what it represents for us. The altar is the most ancient symbol of Christ that is in a church building. Traditionally, it is engraved with five crosses representing the five wounds of Christ and it is acknowledged reverently as the special place that the offering of the Eucharist is undertaken.
In The Great Thanksgiving prayer we pray “accept our sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, which we make through Christ our great high priest”. We are united in the one sacrifice made for all by Christ and we embrace this when we pray the prayer of humble access: “that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us”.
A more Reformed view is that of the communion table being the place of a shared sacred meal, as in our Prayer After Communion “May we who share Christ’s body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others...”
As Anglicans we embrace both a catholic and reformed view of the Eucharist.
God Bless you
Parish Officers
Parish Governance
Parish Groups
From the Vicar
