The Real Presence in the Formularies of the Church of England

http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/documents/CAT025_RealPresence.pdf

The Real Presence by the Rev’d. William Francis Taylor.

It is important to understand the historic and confessional Anglican position on this. This article spells that out.

The term “Real Presence” was, in the minds of the English Reformers, equivalent to the “Popish doctrine of Transubstantiation.” The Tractarians and Ritualists made much of this phrase. The Reformed Church of England does not hold to the natural and corporal body and blood of Christ in, with or under the elements at the Lord’s Table. His body or Christ is at God’s right hand, but He is very present to us—decisively and savingly—by His Word and Spirit. All redemptive benefits are apprehended by the faith of the believing recipient, just as surely as he or she eats the Bread and drinks the Cup. Articles XXVIII and XXIX spell this out. Cranmer, Hooker and Taylor spell this out also in contrast with the Lutheran and Roman views.

Rev. Taylor exhorts us:

“Protestant Churchmen, enough has now been written, not merely to assent, but to prove that the doctrine of the Real Presence as taught by the Ritualists of our day, is unscriptural, anti-Reformational, and expressly condemned by the formularies of the Church.”

You also won’t hear this from modern, Anglican centres of advertisement, news, and commentary. The Church Society does us a great service by the publication of their tracts.