Lord's Supper, Protestant rite commemorating the Last Supper. In the Reformation Reformation, religious revolution that took place in Western Europe in the 16th cent. It arose from objections to doctrines and practices in the medieval church (see Roman Catholic Church ) and ultimately led to the freedom of dissent (see Protestantism ).
..... Click the link for more information. the leaders generally rejected the traditional belief in the sacrament as a sacrifice and as an invisible miracle of the actual changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation) but retained the belief in it as mystically uniting the believers with Christ and with one another. The Lutherans held that there is a change by which the body and blood of Christ join with the bread and wine; this principle (consubstantiation) was rejected by Huldreich Zwingli who, in a controversy over the sacrament, held that the bread and wine were only symbolic. Calvinists, on the other hand, maintained the spiritual, but not the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. The Church of England affirmed the real presence but denied transubstantiation. However, since the Oxford Movement, Anglicans tend to accept either transubstantiation or the Calvinist interpretation. Lutheran and Anglican communion services follow the Roman Catholic Mass Mass, religious service of the Roman Catholic Church, which has as its central act the performance of the sacrament of the Eucharist . It is based on the ancient Latin liturgy of the city of Rome, now used in most, but not all, Roman Catholic churches.
..... Click the link for more information. in outline, although the service books have eliminated references to a sacrifice and have shortened the service. Anglicans hold to Western tradition in using unleavened bread. Most Protestant churches use raised bread; many use unfermented grape juice instead of wine. Communion in which the laity receive only the bread is rejected by Protestants; this was a crucial point with the Hussites. Lutherans and Anglicans (especially since the Oxford Movement) celebrate communion much more frequently than most other Protestant churches. The Quakers are one of the few Protestant groups to reject the sacrament entirely.

Eucharist

or Holy Communion or Lord's Supper

Christian rite commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. On the night before his death, according to the Christian scriptures, Jesus consecrated bread and wine and gave them to his disciples, saying “this is my body” and “this is my blood.” He also commanded his followers to repeat this rite in his memory, and the Eucharist traditionally involves consecration of bread and wine by the clergy and their consumption by worshipers. Although celebrated spontaneously when the first Christians gathered to share a meal, the Eucharist quickly became a central part of the formal worship service and remained that way despite the many controversies over its nature and meaning. Intended as a means of fostering unity in the church, it has also been a source of division because of differing interpretations of its nature. In Roman Catholicism the Eucharist is a sacrament, and the bread and wine are thought to become the actual body and blood of Jesus through transubstantiation. Anglicans and Lutherans also emphasize the divine presence in the offering and recognize it as a sacrament, while others regard it as a memorial with largely symbolic meaning. Also controversial has been the belief in the Eucharist as a sacrifice, the renewed offering of Christ each time the rite is celebrated at the altar.