Study day: eucharistic prayer

Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge
Study Day: The Eucharistic Prayer
with Dr Peter Coughlan
Saturday 4 May 2024  |  9.30am to 4.00pm
More information

This study day will consider, briefly, the origins of the eucharistic prayer and its development in different geographical areas in the early centuries of the church. The principal focus of the day, however, will be the content and meaning of the eucharistic prayer, its theological and spiritual significance. Within this focus, and as a way of illustrating the specific nature and structure of the eucharistic prayer, the study day will also consider the specific questions of why, firstly, it was decided (in the “Latin Church”) to introduce three new eucharistic prayers in 1968 for use alongside the existing Roman Canon, and secondly, it will illustrate how each of these prayers came into being, thus taking the shape they have today.

The day will be led by Dr Peter Coughlan, who was appointed in August 1965 to the Vatican’s Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and who followed closely the development of the three new eucharistic prayers published in 1968. He was also a member of the commission charged in 1973 with drawing up three new eucharistic prayers for use with children and two new eucharistic prayers on the theme of reconciliation.

The event will be available in person.