The aspect of the Lord’s Supper referred to in the opening words of the Article, by which it is a symbol of the mutual love among Christians, was most evident when the Sacrament was celebrated as part of the proceedings of the Agape or love Feasts held in the Primitive Church.  At those meetings the poor received of the bounty of the rich; indeed their very purpose was to express the one‑ness and common fellowship of believers in Christ.  But primarily the Lord’s Supper is a Sacrament by which our Lord’s words in St. John 6:52‑57 about feeding upon Him are realized.  The earliest record of the Words of Institution is in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, and St. Paul claims the authority of Christ’s revelation to him for his version.  According to this, Jesus at the Last Supper ‘took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you. . .  In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This is the new Covenant in my blood’. The accounts in the Synoptic Gospels^[1] are in substantial agreement with St. Paul’s; Jesus describes the Bread and Wine which He gives to His disciples as His Body and Blood.  In what sense are the Lord’s words to be understood?  How are the elements in the Eucharist related to the Body and Blood of Christ?  It is an ironical reflection that at the Reformation this supreme act of the Church’s worship, which should have been the highest expression of Christian unity, was the centre of conflict; on no question was there wider divergence of opinion than on the presence of Christ in the Sacrament.

The Zwinglian view, which stressed the injunction: ‘This do in remembrance of Me’, and regarded the bread and wine as mere figures, and the Lord’s Supper as nothing more than a commemoration, or a reminder of the Lord’s Cross and Passion, is rejected in the first part of the Article.  Those who communicate ‘rightly, worthily, and with faith’, truly participate in Christ’s Body and Blood.