Sir, — The answer to the question at the end of Mr.
Harold Danby's letter in your issue of February 10 is 'yes'.
An altar is a place of sacrifice. At the Reformation the sacrifice of the Mass was rejected by the Church of England to be replaced by, the Scriptural service of 'the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion'. In the second Prayer Book of 1552 the word 'altar' was care- fully omitted and has never appeared in any subsequent revision, being replaced by the word 'table'.
Stone altars were removed from our churches and replaced by wooden Communion tables.
Our Holy Communion service refers to the death of Christ as 'a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world'. Such a sacrifice need not and, indeed, cannot be repeated or re-pre- sented. Therefore no altar is required but only a table where the Lord's Supper is received 'for 'a continual remembrance of the death of Christ, and of dthe benefits which we receive thereby'.—Yours faithfully, JOHN P. BALLEY
Sr Saviour's Vicarage, Brixton Hill, SW2
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