The Stripping of the Words: Conflict over the Eucharist in the Episcopal Church

The article recounts and analyses conflict over the Eucharist in England with respect to the words of the 1662 rite in the Book of Common Prayer. It offers a brief historical background followed by an account of methods used to propagate new rites, and the character and arguments of the opposition. It focuses on the conflict between the clergy (in control of the administrative machinery, local and national) and the clerisy in the university and literary intelligentsia. The analysis is made in terms of cultural, social and theological warfare over symbols, and touches on linked issues, such a female ordination and social activism.