Sacrament

Sacrament

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece
Instituted by	Jesus Christ
Entrusted to	Catholic Church
Number	Seven sacraments
Primary agent	Christ acting through the Holy Spirit
Visible constitution	Sacramental sign, including matter and form where applicable
Efficacy	Ex opere operato, with fruits conditioned by disposition
Indelible character	Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders
Canonical locus	CIC canons 840–1165; CCEO canons 667–895

A sacrament is an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the Catholic Church, through which divine life is dispensed to the faithful by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Authority level: Dogma

Overview

A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God's grace. Many denominations, including the Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Reformed (Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions), Anglican, Methodist and Baptist, hold to the definition of sacrament formulated by Augustine of Hippo: an outward sign of an inward grace, that has been instituted by Jesus Christ. Sacraments signify God's grace in a way that is outwardly observable to the participant.

The Catholic Church, Hussite Church and the Old Catholic Church recognize seven sacraments: Baptism, Penance (Reconciliation or Confession), Eucharist (or Holy Communion), Confirmation, Marriage (Matrimony), Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick (Extreme Unction). The Eastern Churches, such as the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Church as well as the Eastern Catholic Churches, recognize these as the seven major sacraments, but also apply the words sacred mysteries corresponding to Greek word, μυστήριον (mysterion), and also to rites that in the Western tradition are called sacramentals and to other realities, such as the Church itself. Many Protestant denominations, such as those within the Reformed tradition, preach just two sacraments instituted by Christ: the Eucharist (or Holy Communion) and Baptism. The Lutheran sacraments include these two, often adding Confession (and Absolution) as a third sacrament. Anglican and Methodist teaching is that "there are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord", and that "those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel."

Some traditions, such as the Religious Society of Friends do not observe any of the rites, or, in the case of the Plymouth Brethren, hold that they are simply reminders or commendable practices that do not impart actual grace—not sacraments but "ordinances" pertaining to certain aspects of the Christian faith.

Definition and sacramental sign

A sacrament does not merely remind Christians of an absent grace. Christ uses a perceptible ecclesial sign to signify and truly confer the grace proper to it. Words, material elements, bodily actions, and an authorized minister belong to a divine-human economy fitted to embodied persons: what the sign expresses, Christ accomplishes according to the nature and purpose of the particular sacrament.

The sacraments presuppose faith, nourish it, strengthen it, and express it. Their objectivity does not make faith irrelevant, and their ritual visibility does not make them magical. They are acts of Christ and the Church in which recipients are summoned to conversion, worship, and fruitful cooperation with the grace that precedes every worthy response.

Sign, cause, and mystery

Latin sacramentum and Greek mysterion overlap without being interchangeable in every historical text. A sacrament is both sign and instrumental cause: its visible reality discloses the saving mystery while Christ employs it to give grace. The sign retains its created integrity; water remains water and the spoken form remains human language, yet both are taken into an action whose principal agent is the risen Lord.

Not a private religious symbol

A community cannot create a new sacrament by assigning spiritual meaning to a ceremony. Nor can an individual minister redefine an instituted sacrament around personal intention or pastoral preference. Ecclesial authority regulates rites and determines lawful celebration, but it receives rather than authors the sacramental substance entrusted by Christ.

Institution by Christ and the sevenfold number

Christ instituted all seven sacraments of the New Covenant: Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. Institution need not mean that every later ceremonial detail appears as a fully developed rubric in one Gospel scene. It means that the sacramental reality and its essential saving commission derive from Christ and the apostolic deposit rather than a subsequent human invention.

The Church gradually distinguished the seven with technical precision while celebrating their realities from apostolic times. Medieval enumeration clarified terminology; the councils of Florence and Trent authoritatively named the seven, and Trent defined against denial that they were all instituted by Christ. Historical development in rites or vocabulary therefore cannot be turned into a theory that the Church manufactured grace-bearing institutions after the apostolic age.

The sacramental economy

The sacramental economy is the dispensation of the fruits of Christ's Paschal Mystery in the Church's liturgy. Christ died and rose once for all; he does not repeat Calvary. Through the Holy Spirit, his saving work is made sacramentally present and applied in distinct ways to persons, states of life, wounds, communion, and mission. The Eucharist stands at the center, and the other sacraments are ordered to it.

Sacraments are by the Church because she acts as Christ's priestly body, and for the Church because they form and manifest her. Baptism incorporates; Confirmation strengthens baptismal grace; Eucharist builds communion; Penance reconciles; Anointing unites sickness to Christ; Orders configures ministers for apostolic service; and Matrimony consecrates the covenant of baptized spouses for their vocation in the Church.

Matter, form, and ministerial intention

Catholic theology commonly identifies sacramental matter and form: the sensible element or action and the determinative words that together constitute the sign. Their exact application differs by sacrament and tradition. Penance, for example, has quasi-matter in the penitent's acts; Matrimony in the Latin tradition is brought about by the parties' validly manifested consent. The technical scheme serves the Church's judgment about identity and validity rather than reducing worship to a formula.

The human minister must intend at least to do what the Church does. Personal holiness, complete theological understanding, and explicit intention to produce every effect are not required for validity. A contrary intention or substantial alteration of the sign can invalidate the act. Gestis verbisque therefore rejects a minister's claim to ownership over matter and form: obedience protects the recipient's right to certainty about Christ's action.

Efficacy and fruitful reception

The sacraments act ex opere operato—by virtue of Christ's saving work accomplished through the valid sacramental action—not because the minister or recipient generates grace by intensity of feeling. This doctrine secures confidence in Christ rather than in clerical merit. A valid sacrament can be celebrated by an unworthy minister, although sacrilege and serious disciplinary offenses remain possible and demand correction.

The grace conferred is not fruitfully received where the recipient places an obstacle. Required dispositions differ: faith and repentance are essential in their proper ways; a communicant conscious of grave sin ordinarily requires sacramental absolution; valid matrimonial consent cannot be supplied by ceremony; and a subject incapable of receiving Orders cannot be ordained. Ex opere operato therefore excludes both magical automatism and the idea that subjective sincerity creates a sacrament.

Sacramental grace

Every sacrament gives or increases sanctifying grace when rightly received and also gives sacramental grace, a title to divine helps suited to its particular end. The effects are differentiated rather than seven interchangeable experiences. Baptism regenerates and incorporates; Penance restores communion after post-baptismal grave sin; Matrimony and Orders establish stable vocational relations with corresponding grace for service.

Obex and reviviscence

An obex is an obstacle in the recipient that prevents sacramental fruit without necessarily making the sacrament invalid. In sacraments that cannot be repeated, traditional theology speaks of reviviscence when a later removal of the obstacle permits the sacramental grace to bear fruit. These concepts explain objective validity and subjective fruitfulness without pretending to read an individual's conscience.

Sacramental character and non-repetition

Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders imprint an indelible sacramental character, a permanent configuration to Christ and participation in his priesthood according to distinct modes. They cannot be repeated. Apostasy, canonical penalty, laicization, or grave sin can impede lawful exercise and destroy charity, but none erases Baptism or the character of valid ordination.

Where prudent investigation leaves a positive and unresolved doubt whether one of these sacraments was received validly, the Church may administer it conditionally according to law. Conditional administration is not routine repetition and should never be used to satisfy anxiety after reliable evidence of validity. Records, testimony, the rite used, matter, form, minister, and intention must be assessed before a condition is employed.

Ministers, recipients, and ecclesial competence

The valid minister depends on the sacrament. Anyone with the requisite intention can baptize in necessity; only a validly ordained priest can confect the Eucharist; only a priest with the required faculty can validly absolve in ordinary circumstances; bishops are ordinary ministers of Confirmation and Orders, with defined provisions for presbyters; and Latin spouses ordinarily confer Matrimony upon one another through consent before the Church's witness.

Eligibility likewise follows divine and ecclesiastical law rather than consumer preference. Baptism is the gateway to the other sacraments. The unbaptized cannot receive them validly, except that a marriage between unbaptized persons is a valid natural bond rather than a sacrament. Catechesis, freedom, intention, canonical status, age, danger of death, and pastoral preparation are evaluated according to the sacrament concerned.

Validity, liceity, and certainty

Validity asks whether the sacrament truly occurred; liceity asks whether it was celebrated according to law. A valid but illicit act is real and may confer grace while gravely violating ecclesial order. An invalid attempt produces no sacrament however solemn, popular, or well meant. The distinction protects truth without excusing disobedience and prevents every rubric from being treated as if it belonged to the sacrament's immutable substance.

Ministers may not deny sacraments to those who seek them opportunely, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law. They must also refuse or defer where law or the sacrament's nature requires it. Pastoral charity includes preparation, accurate records, protection against coercion, remedy of doubtful defects, and prompt access in danger of death; it is neither mechanical rigor nor unauthorized relaxation.

Groups and order among the sacraments

The Catechism groups Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist as sacraments of initiation; Penance and Anointing as sacraments of healing; and Orders and Matrimony as sacraments at the service of communion and mission. Older Latin theology also distinguished sacraments of the dead, ordinarily giving or restoring spiritual life, from sacraments of the living, ordinarily received in grace. Each scheme illuminates one aspect without altering the sevenfold number.

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of sacraments because it contains Christ himself substantially and makes present the one sacrifice to which Christian initiation, ministry, reconciliation, and vocation are ordered. Baptism remains the gateway and cannot be displaced. No ranking makes one instituted sacrament optional where Christ and the Church require it or permits devotional practices to compete with sacramental life.

Latin and Eastern Catholic celebration

The same seven mysteries are celebrated across the Catholic Churches in legitimate ritual diversity. Eastern Catholics ordinarily speak of Chrismation and the divine mysteries, initiate infants with Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist together, and possess disciplines of ministry and marriage that differ from Latin law. Diversity of sequence, terminology, epiclesis, ceremonial form, or canonical governance does not imply different sacraments or unequal Catholicity.

A Catholic should receive the sacraments in his or her own Church sui iuris according to applicable law, while canonical provisions permit participation across Catholic rites. Sacramental sharing with non-Catholic Christians is exceptional and precisely regulated; genuine sacraments and degrees of ecclesial communion are acknowledged without treating intercommunion as a private gesture or denying the visible unity the Eucharist signifies.

Sacraments and sacramentals

Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church that dispose persons to receive grace and sanctify circumstances of life through the Church's intercession. Blessings, religious profession, consecrations, funerals, and exorcisms belong to this wider liturgical field, but they are not additional sacraments. Their efficacy is ecclesial and prayerful rather than identical to ex opere operato sacramental causality.

Calling an object sacramental does not make it a talisman. Holy water, medals, scapulars, palms, and blessed objects direct faith toward God and the communion of the Church. Their use must conform to approved prayer, avoid superstition, and remain subordinate to the Eucharist and the seven sacraments through which Christ gives the principal means of sanctification.

The Paschal mystery as sacramental source

Every sacrament draws efficacy from the saving work of Christ, above all his death and resurrection. The risen Lord acts through the Holy Spirit in signs entrusted to the Church, so sacramental celebration is neither a repetition of Calvary nor a community's attempt to make an absent event psychologically vivid. The one Paschal mystery becomes present according to the mode proper to each sacrament. Baptism joins a person to Christ's death and rising; the Eucharist makes his sacrifice sacramentally present; penance applies reconciling mercy; the other sacraments configure distinct dimensions of Christian life to the same mystery.

The Church is sacramental because she is a visible and spiritual communion through which Christ continues his mission, but she is not an eighth sacrament on the same numerical level as Baptism or Eucharist. Christ himself is sometimes called the primordial sacrament because his humanity is the visible instrument of the divine person's saving action. These theological usages illuminate why the seven rites involve created signs, ecclesial ministry, and divine grace while preserving their unique institution and canonical identity.

Faith, preparation, and mystagogy

The sacraments presuppose, express, strengthen, and nourish faith. Their efficacy does not arise from the recipient's intensity of feeling, yet fruitful reception calls for conversion and appropriate disposition. Catechesis therefore explains the mystery, prepares the person to participate freely, and guards against approaching a rite as a social milestone alone. Preparation should be proportionate: it must not impose arbitrary barriers beyond the Church's law, but haste that leaves a recipient unaware of the sacrament's meaning can harm the very person pastoral care intends to welcome.

Mystagogy continues formation after celebration by interpreting the rites, prayers, symbols, and new way of life from within the grace received. The newly baptized learn to live as members of Christ; spouses discover the daily demands of covenant fidelity; the ordained deepen pastoral charity; penitents practice reconciliation. This pattern corrects the assumption that sacramental education ends once requirements are completed. A sacrament initiates or strengthens a vocation whose meaning unfolds through worship, doctrine, moral conversion, and service.

The unity of Christian initiation

Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, and Eucharist form one initiation even where pastoral discipline separates their celebration. Eastern Catholic churches ordinarily communicate all three to infants; the Latin Church commonly reserves Confirmation and first Communion for later moments, while adults receive the sequence together in the same celebration when possible. Neither pattern implies a different set of sacraments. Comparing them helps distinguish theological order from local scheduling and prevents Confirmation from being reduced to a graduation ceremony or mature ratification that makes Baptism incomplete.

Sacramental communion and ecumenical limits

Sacraments both signify and build ecclesial communion. Eucharistic sharing therefore ordinarily presupposes full communion in faith, sacraments, and governance; it is not merely a gesture of hospitality. Catholic law permits carefully defined exceptions for some baptized Christians who manifest Catholic faith in the sacrament and meet grave-need conditions, and it recognizes the valid sacraments of Eastern churches not in full communion. These provisions express the real but incomplete bonds already present without pretending that the wounds of division have disappeared.

Baptism is the foundational bond among Christians when conferred with water, the Trinitarian formula, and the intention to perform Christian baptism. The Catholic Church normally recognizes such baptism across denominational lines and never repeats a certainly valid baptism. Doubt is investigated through records and facts rather than denominational prejudice; conditional baptism is used only when prudent doubt remains after inquiry. Communities whose doctrine and baptismal intention do not refer to the Christian Trinity require a different judgment even if familiar words appear in the rite.

Embodied signs in a technological age

Sacramental signs require the physical realities and interpersonal acts established by Christ and specified by the Church. A livestream can unite a homebound person to prayer and preaching, but it cannot transmit consecrated elements, baptismal washing, anointing, absolution, ordination, or marital consent through a screen as though data were sacramental matter. The limitation is not hostility to technology. It follows the Incarnation: grace reaches embodied persons through concrete created signs, not simulated presence.

Technology can still serve access by arranging pastoral visits, providing interpretation, preparing candidates, keeping records, or enabling participation in communal prayer when attendance is impossible. Ministers should make reasonable accommodations for disability while preserving valid matter, form, intention, and personal encounter. Pastoral creativity operates within sacramental reality, not against it. The sick and isolated are not spiritually abandoned when a sacrament cannot immediately be celebrated; the Church prays with them and seeks the earliest fitting embodied celebration.

Generic meaning

An example of the generic meaning of "sacrament" can be seen in the work of theologian Edward Schillebeeckx: Christ, the sacrament of the encounter with God, The Second Vatican Council referred to "the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church", and Pope Francis speaks of Jesus' love for humankind as a sacrament: "his human emotions became the sacrament of that infinite and endless love".

Etymology

The English word sacrament is derived indirectly from the Ecclesiastical Latin sacrāmentum, from the Latin sacrō ('hallow, consecrate'), itself derive from the Latin sacer ('sacred, holy'). In Ancient Rome, the term meant a soldier's oath of allegiance. Tertullian, a 3rd-century Christian writer, suggested that just as the soldier's oath was a sign of the beginning of a new life, so too was initiation into the Christian community through baptism and Eucharist.

Summary table

Denomination	Baptism	Confirmation	Holy Communion	Penance	Marriage	Holy orders	Anointing of the sick	Holy Leaven	Sign of the cross
Catholic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Eastern Orthodox	Yes	Yes (Chrismation)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Oriental Orthodox	Yes	Yes (Chrismation)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Church of the East	Yes	Yes (Chrismation)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Hussite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Moravian	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Lutheran	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Maybe	No	No	No
Anglo-Catholicism	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Broad Church Anglicanism	Yes	Maybe	Yes	Maybe	Maybe	Maybe	Maybe	No	No
Center Church Anglicanism	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Evangelical Anglicanism	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Methodism	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Reformed	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Baptists	Yes	Maybe	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Irvingism	Yes	Yes (Holy Sealing)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Latter-Day Saints	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

Catholicism

Catholic theology enumerates seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation (Chrismation), Eucharist (Communion), Penance (Reconciliation, Confession), Matrimony (Marriage), Holy Orders (ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, or episcopate) and Anointing of the Sick (before the Second Vatican Council generally called Extreme Unction). The list of seven sacraments already given by the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which stated:

CANON I. – If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord; or that they are more, or less, than seven, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be anathema.

[...]

CANON IV. – If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justification; – though all (the sacraments) are not necessary for every individual; let him be anathema.

During the Middle Ages, sacramental records were in Latin. Even after the Reformation, many ecclesiastical leaders continued using this practice into the 20th century. On occasion, Protestant ministers followed the same practice. Since W was not part of the Latin alphabet, scribes only used it when dealing with names or places. In addition, names were modified to fit a "Latin mold". For instance, the name Joseph would be rendered as Iosephus or Josephus.

The Catholic Church indicates that the sacraments are necessary for salvation, though not every sacrament is necessary for every individual. The Church applies this teaching even to the sacrament of baptism, the gateway to the other sacraments. It states that "Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament." But it adds: "God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments," and accordingly, "since Christ died for the salvation of all, those can be saved without Baptism who die for the faith (Baptism of blood). Catechumens and all those who, even without knowing Christ and the Church, still (under the impulse of grace) sincerely seek God and strive to do his will can also be saved without Baptism (Baptism of desire). The Church in her liturgy entrusts children who die without Baptism to the mercy of God."

In the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions."

While the sacraments in the Catholic Church are regarded as means of Divine Grace, the Catholic definition of a sacrament is an event in Christian life that is both spiritual and physical. The seven Catholic sacraments have been separated into three groups. The first three Sacraments of Initiation are Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation. The two Healing Sacraments are Anointing of the Sick and Penance. The two Sacraments of Vocation are Matrimony and Holy Orders.

The Church teaches that the effect of the sacraments comes ex opere operato, by the very fact of being administered, regardless of the personal holiness of the minister administering it. However, as indicated in this definition of the sacraments given by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a recipient's own lack of proper disposition to receive the grace conveyed can block a sacrament's effectiveness in that person. The sacraments presuppose faith and, through their words and ritual elements, nourish, strengthen and give expression to faith.

Though not every individual has to receive every sacrament, the Church affirms that for believers the sacraments are necessary for salvation. Through each of them, Christ bestows that sacrament's particular healing and transforming grace of the Holy Spirit, making them participants in the divine nature through union with Christ.

Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy

The Eastern Orthodox tradition does not limit the number of sacraments to seven, holding that anything the Church does as Church is in some sense sacramental. However, it recognizes these seven as "the major sacraments" which are completed by many other blessings and special services. Some lists of the sacraments taken from the Church Fathers include the consecration of a church, monastic tonsure, and the burial of the dead. More specifically, for the Eastern Orthodox the term "sacrament" is a term which seeks to classify something that may, according to Orthodox thought, be impossible to classify. The Orthodox communion's preferred term is "Sacred Mystery", and the Orthodox communion has refrained from attempting to determine absolutely the exact form, number and effect of the sacraments, accepting simply that these elements are unknowable to all except God. On a broad level, the mysteries are an affirmation of the goodness of created matter, and are an emphatic declaration of what that matter was originally created to be.

Despite this broad view, Orthodox divines do write about there being seven "principal" mysteries. On a specific level, while not systematically limiting the mysteries to seven, the most profound Mystery is the Eucharist or Synaxis, in which the partakers, by participation in the liturgy and receiving the consecrated bread and wine (understood to have become the body and blood of Christ) directly communicate with God. No claim is made to understand how exactly this happens. The Eastern Orthodox merely state: "This appears to be in the form of bread and wine, but God has told me it is His Body and Blood. I will take what He says as a 'mystery' and not attempt to rationalize it to my limited mind".

The seven sacraments are also accepted by Oriental Orthodoxy, including the Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Armenian Orthodox Church.

Hussite Church and Moravian Church

The Czechoslovak Hussite Church recognizes seven sacraments: baptism, eucharist, penance, confirmation, holy matrimony, holy orders, and anointing of the sick.

The Moravian Church administers the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, as well as the rites of confirmation, holy matrimony, and holy orders.

Lutheranism

Lutherans hold that sacraments are sacred acts of divine institution. Whenever they are properly administered by the use of the physical component commanded by God along with the divine words of institution, God is, in a way specific to each sacrament, present with the Word and physical component. He earnestly offers to all who receive the sacrament forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. He also works in the recipients to get them to accept these blessings and to increase the assurance of their possession.

Melanchthon's Apology of the Augsburg Confession defines sacraments, according to the German text, as "outward signs and ceremonies that have God's command and have an attached divine promise of graces". His Latin text was shorter: "rites that have the command of God, and to which is added a promise of grace". This strict definition narrowed the number of sacraments down to three: Holy Baptism, the Eucharist, and Holy Absolution. Lutherans do not dogmatically define the exact number of sacraments. Luther's initial statement in his Large Catechism speaks of two sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, in addition to Confession and Absolution, "the third sacrament". The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them. Although Lutherans do not consider the other four rites as sacraments, they are still retained and used in the Lutheran church.

Luther himself around the time of his marriage and afterwards became one of the greatest champions of Marriage (Holy Matrimony), and the other two (Confirmation and Ordination) were kept in the Lutheran Church for purposes of good order. Within Lutheranism, the sacraments are a Means of Grace, and, together with the Word of God, empower the Church for mission.

Anglicanism and Methodism

Anglican and Methodist sacramental theology reflects its dual roots in the Catholic tradition and the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic heritage is perhaps most strongly asserted in the importance Anglicanism and Methodism places on the sacraments as a means of grace and sanctification, while the Reformed tradition has contributed a marked insistence on "lively faith" and "worthy reception". Anglican and Catholic theologians participating in an Anglican/Catholic Joint Preparatory Commission declared that they had "reached substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist". Similarly, Methodist/Catholic Dialogue has affirmed that "Methodists and Catholics affirm the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This reality does not depend on the experience of the communicant, although it is only by faith that we become aware of Christ's presence." The Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council jointly understand the word "sacrament" as referring not only to the sacraments considered here, but also to Christ and the Church.

Article XXV of the Thirty-Nine Articles in Anglicanism and Article XVI of the Articles of Religion in Methodism recognise only two sacraments (Baptism and the Supper of the Lord) since these are the only ones ordained by Christ in the Gospel. The article continues stating that "Those five commonly called Sacraments... are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel... but have not the like nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained by God." These phrases have led to a debate as to whether the five are to be called sacraments or not. A recent author writes that the Anglican Church gives "sacramental value to the other five recognized by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches" but these "do not reveal those essential aspects of redemption to which Baptism and Communion point". Some Anglicans maintain that the use of "commonly" implies that the others can legitimately be called sacraments (perhaps more exactly "Sacraments of the Church" as opposed to "Sacraments of the Gospel"); others object that at the time the Articles were written "commonly" meant "inaccurately" and point out that the Prayer Book refers to the creeds "commonly called the Apostles' Creed" and the "Athanasian" where both attributions are historically incorrect.

Anglicans are also divided as to the effects of the sacraments. Some hold views similar to the Catholic ex opere operato theory. Article XXVI (entitled Of the unworthiness of ministers which hinders not the effect of the Sacrament) states that the "ministration of the Word and Sacraments" is not done in the name of the minister, "neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wickedness," since the sacraments have their effect "because of Christ's intention and promise, although they be ministered by evil men". As in Catholic theology, the worthiness or unworthiness of the recipient is of great importance. Article XXV in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglicanism and Article XVI in the Articles of Religion in Methodism states: "And in such only as worthily receive the [sacraments], they have a wholesome effect and operation: but they that receive them unworthily purchase for themselves damnation," and Article XXVIII in Anglicanism's Thirty-Nine Articles (Article XVIII in Methodism's Articles of Religion) on the Lord's Supper affirms "to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ". In the Exhortations of the Prayer Book rite, the worthy communicant is bidden to "prepare himself by examination of conscience, repentance and amendment of life and above all to ensure that he is in love and charity with his neighbours" and those who are not "are warned to withdraw".

This particular question was fiercely debated in the 19th century arguments over Baptismal Regeneration, culminating in the Gorham Case, wherein the Church of England decided in favor of Baptismal Regeneration, but the secular court overruled them.

Reformed (Continental Reformed, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian)

John Calvin defined a sacrament as an earthly sign associated with a promise from God. He accepted only two sacraments as valid under the new covenant: baptism and the Lord's Supper. He and all Reformed theologians following him completely rejected the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the treatment of the Supper as a sacrifice. He also could not accept the Lutheran doctrine of sacramental union in which Christ was "in, with and under" the elements.

The Westminster Confession of Faith also limits the sacraments to baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sacraments are denoted "signs and seals of the covenant of grace". Westminster speaks of "a sacramental relation, or a sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other". Baptism is for infant children of believers as well as believers, as it is for all the Reformed except Particular Baptists and some Congregationalists. Baptism admits the baptized into the visible church, and in it all the benefits of Christ are offered to the baptized. On the Lord's supper, Westminster takes a position between Lutheran sacramental union and Zwinglian memorialism: "the Lord's supper really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance as the elements themselves are to their outward senses."

Baptists

In the Baptist tradition, both the terms "sacrament" and "ordinance" have been used in reference to Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Irvingism

Irvingian denominations such as the New Apostolic Church teach three sacraments: Baptism, Holy Communion and Holy Sealing.

Latter-day Saints

Members of the Latter-day Saint movement often use the word "ordinance" in the place of the word "sacrament", but the actual theology is sacramental in nature. Latter-day Saint ordinances are understood as conferring an invisible form of grace of a saving nature and are required for salvation and exaltation. Latter-day Saints often use the word "sacrament" to refer specifically to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, also known as the Lord's Supper, in which participants eat bread and drink wine (or water, since the late 1800s) as tokens of the flesh and blood of Christ. In Latter-day Saint congregations, the sacrament is normally provided every Sunday as part of the sacrament meeting and, like other Latter-day Saint ordinances such as baptism and confirmation, is considered an essential and sacred rite. Latter-day Saint ordinances which are considered "saving" include baptism, confirmation, sacrament of the Lord's Supper (Eucharist), ordination (for males), initiatory (called Chrismation in other Christian traditions), endowment (similar to a monastic initiation involving the taking of vows and reception of priestly clothing), and marriage. In the Community of Christ, eight sacraments are recognized, including "baptism, confirmation, blessing of children, the Lord's Supper, ordination, marriage, the Evangelist Blessing, and administration to the sick".

Other traditions

The enumeration, naming, understanding, and the adoption of the sacraments formally vary according to denomination, although the finer theological distinctions are not always understood and may not even be known to many of the faithful. Many Protestants and other post-Reformation traditions affirm Luther's definition and have only Baptism and Eucharist (or Communion or the Lord's Supper) as sacraments, while others see the ritual as merely symbolic, and still others do not have a sacramental dimension at all.

In addition to the traditional seven sacraments, other rituals have been considered sacraments by some Christian traditions. In particular, foot washing as seen in Anabaptist, Schwarzenau Brethren groups or True Jesus Church, and the hearing of the Gospel, as understood by a few Christian groups (such as the Polish National Catholic Church of America), have been considered sacraments by some churches. The Assyrian Church of the East holds the Holy Leaven and the sign of the cross as sacraments.

Since some post-Reformation denominations do not regard clergy as having a classically sacerdotal or priestly function, they avoid the term "sacrament", preferring the terms "sacerdotal function", "ordinance", or "tradition". This belief invests the efficacy of the ordinance in the obedience and participation of the believer and the witness of the presiding minister and the congregation. This view stems from a highly developed concept of the priesthood of all believers. In this sense, the believer himself or herself performs the sacerdotal role.

Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostals, among certain other Christian denominations, use the word ordinance rather than sacrament because of certain sacerdotal ideas connected, in their view, with the word sacrament. These churches argue that the word ordinance points to the ordaining authority of Christ which lies behind the practice.

Non-sacramental churches

Some denominations do not have a sacramental dimension (or equivalent) at all. The Salvation Army does not practice formal sacraments for a variety of reasons, including a belief that it is better to concentrate on the reality behind the symbols; however, it does not forbid its members from receiving sacraments in other denominations.

The Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) also do not practice formal sacraments, believing that all of life has the potential to be the means of God's grace. Quaker emphasize the inward transformation of one's whole life. Some Quakers use the words "Baptism" and "Communion" to describe the experience of Christ's presence and his ministry in worship.

The Clancularii were an Anabaptist group in the 16th century who reasoned that because religion was seated in the heart, there was no need of any outward expression through the sacraments.

See also

• Filakto
• Sacramental bread

External links

• Conybeare, Frederick Cornwallis (1911). "Sacrament". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.).
• Kennedy, Daniel Joseph (1912). "Sacraments". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Exploring the Sacraments in Anglican Ministry
• The Sacraments in the Orthodox Church