The mixed chalice

Next time you attend a Eucharistic service, look closely when the bread and wine are brought up to the Altar. A small jug of water is also pres ented. Now look more closely still: after the wine is poured into the chalice, a small amount of water is also added. We call this practice the ‘mixed chalice.’

     The mixed chalice derives from an ancient Jewish custom and was most probably observed by Jesus himself at the Last Supper.

      The mixed chalice has been used in communion ser vices since then. The Anglican Church followed the practice before the Reformation, but only in 1926 did it became legal again in modern England.

      In the very earliest Jewish times, wine was always drunk undiluted; wine mixed with water was said to be ‘ruined’ (see Isaiah 1:22). But by the second century BC, the Greek custom of diluting wine had become so widely acc epted that the writer of 2 Macc a bees could refer to diluted wine as ‘sweet and delicious,’ and undiluted wine as ‘harmful’ (2 Mac 15:39).

In the following centuries, this dilution became so normal that ancient Jewish commentaries took it for granted; indeed, in some cases, it was forbidden to say the traditional table-blessing over wine that was not diluted. In this context, the wine of the Last Supper was almost certainly a sweet red wine and highly diluted.

     The early and mediaeval church attached allegorical meanings to the mixed chalice. It reflects the two natures of Christ: he was both divine and human, the wine was understood to represent his divine nature and the water his human nature.

     The mixed chalice was the invariable practice of the early church. It was rejected by Luther at the Reformation and not practised in the Calvinist tradition. The first version of the Book of Common Prayer (published in 1549) directed the continuance of this usage, but the instruction was dropped in the 1552 edition. Its revival in the Church of England during the nineteenth century became a matter of dispute between the Anglo-Catholics and their opponents. It is now very widely practised.

     The mixed chalice has been described as a sign of union of Christ with his people, a sign of the flow of blood and water from Jesus’ side at the crucifixion (John 19:34), and a sign of the union of Christ’s divine and human natures.

      In the eastern Churches, the water added to the chalice is hot, and is only added after the breaking of the bread. This aspect is meant to symbolise the descent of the Holy Spirit and the vibrant energy of faith. 

For more information, go to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_chalice

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/glossary/mixed-chalice

http://philorthodox.blogspot.com/2008/03/mixed-chalice.html