No "Words of Institution"... ?

[The Liturgist]

Here's a possible explanation, especially if this happened at a UCC church. The UCC for a number of reasons has a relationship with the Disciples of Christ that they refer to as "full communion", which is far more comprehensive in practice than the intercommunion agreement they have with the ELCA. The agreement falls just short of a merger, and ministers ordained in the UCC are also considered credentialed in the Disciples (and vice versa).
Now here's why that's relevant. The Disciples grew out of the Second Great Awakening with the intent of abolishing denominations in favor of Christian unity. Historically, the movement failed on a massive scale; the movement itself split three ways over 150 years giving us the Church of Christ (those guys that don't use musical instruments), the Disciples, and the Christian Churches (Church of Christ with instrumental accompaniment). The one thing that all three of the splinter groups still have in common is weekly observance of Communion; however, they are rather anti-liturgical. Because of some of their theological quirks, the preaching minister plays no role in the observance save the taking of the elements like everyone else. Communion is generally prefaced in these churches with a brief devotional and prayer.
Boring long church history lesson short, I'm betting there's some Disciple influence in that service somewhere.

Perhaps, but I have acquired several liturgical books of the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ and all of their Eucharistic prayers feature the Words of Institution.

Additionally, increasingly the Eucharistic prayer is led by the Pastor with the Elders merely assisting, as opposed to in the past, or in the more traditional Church of Christ, where the Elders say the Eucharistic Prayer and the Pastor only preaches. This was done for reasons of ecumenical compatibility with other Protestant denominations, in order to follow as closely as possible the standard liturgy proposed in dialogue by the different mainline churches.

I would also note that the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ are much less liberal than the United Church of Christ. It was only a few years ago that they capitulated on the issue of homosexual marriage, for example.

 

[The Liturgist]

I think what happened was the pastor simply forgot the words. But it did lead me to researching why a church might not have the Words of Institution in the Eucharist.

The particularly emphasis at the church is on the anaphora and epiclesis, though, and the sacramental theology seems to be receptionist. Lutherans traditionally didn't consider those parts as important.

Even in the Church of the East, when celebrating the Liturgy of Nestorius or the Liturgy of Theodore of Mopsuestia, it is inconceivable that the priest would forget to say the words of institution. Indeed if he did so it is quite possible it would cause the altar to become deconsecrated (one peculiarity of Assyrian canon law and tradition is that a large number of liturgical mishaps cause the altar to become desecrated, requiring the priest send for a bishop to reconsecrate it; these include, but are not limited to, accidentally filling the Chalice with the oil of healing instead of with wine, accidentally touching the altar with one’s bare feet (the altar being defined as what in the West we would call the Apse or Chancel - the raised area behind the curtain, like in most Eastern churches, as opposed to just the Holy Table, which in Western churches is commonly called the Altar), and several other potentially easy accidents.

 

[FireDragon76]

Even in the Church of the East, when celebrating the Liturgy of Nestorius or the Liturgy of Theodore of Mopsuestia, it is inconceivable that the priest would forget to say the words of institution. Indeed if he did so it is quite possible it would cause the altar to become deconsecrated (one peculiarity of Assyrian canon law and tradition is that a large number of liturgical mishaps cause the altar to become desecrated, requiring the priest send for a bishop to reconsecrate it; these include, but are not limited to, accidentally filling the Chalice with the oil of healing instead of with wine, accidentally touching the altar with one’s bare feet (the altar being defined as what in the West we would call the Apse or Chancel - the raised area behind the curtain, like in most Eastern churches, as opposed to just the Holy Table, which in Western churches is commonly called the Altar), and several other potentially easy accidents.

The Words of Institution are not found in the liturgy of Adai and Mari, used in Syriac churches. The liturgy used is more similar to the Didache, which also doesn't mention the Words of Institution.

Liturgy of Addai and Mari - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[FireDragon76]

Both the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, which you are referring to, have a larger presence in Iraq than Iran (their largest concentration of members being in the Nineveh Plains), however, it is true the Assyrians are one of the two main Christian denominations in Iran, the other being the Armenian Apostolic Church. In Iraq, the other traditional denomination is the Syriac Orthodox Church, and then in the area around Baghdad you have the Chaldean Catholic Church, which broke away rrom the Church of the East in the 17th century. Today, most Chaldeans speak only Arabic, whereas of the million or so Assyrians, at least 700,000 continue to speak a dialect of Aramaic (which is related to but not directly descended from Classical Syriac), making them the largest Aramaic speaking population in the world. Additionally, like in the Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean churches, the Church of the East uses Classical Syriac as its liturgical language, and uses the Peshitta as its Bible.

The Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East became separated as a result of a schism in the late 1960s after some bishops of the Church of the East discovered their hereditary Patriarchate was a violation of their own canon law, and fuel was added to the fire when the Assyrian Church of the East adopted the Gregorian Calendar, so for a time, even after the assasination of the last hereditary Patriarch and the election of the reforming Patriarch, Catholicos Mar Dinkha IV, memory eternal, the Ancient Church of the East under its own Patriarch Mar Addai II, memory eternal (who was just 20 when he was consecrated as Patriarch) existed as a sort of Old Calendarist alternative to the much larger Assyrian Church of the East, with about 100,000 members to the million or so in the Assyrian church. Additionally, in the 1920s, the Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East had been relocated to Chicago (which is home to a huge Assyrian diaspora), but the Ancient Church of the East established its rival Patriarchate firmly on the shores of Iraq. Recently, since the death of Mar Dinkha IV, the Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East relocated to Iraq, and the two churches have been in the process of reunification for some time now, so hopefully within the next decade or so there will once more be a single unified Church of the East, as was the case since the first century AD.

The Church of the East does have a particularly glorious past, for at its peak, it was the largest church in the world in terms of geographic territory, extending from Aleppo to Mongolia and from Socotra (an island off the south coast of Yemen) to Tibet, but then in the 13th century, the evil Muslim warlord Tamerlane initiated a genocide against the Assyrian church and the large number of converts of different ethnicities who were members of it, which resulted in its members being killed off everywhere except India and the Fertile Crescent. I am at a loss as to why Tamerlane is celebrated as a national hero in Uzbekistan; to my eyes the tomb of Tamerlane in Tashkent produces a similar emotional reaction to what I expect I would feel if Germany built an elaborate monument to Adolf Hitler in the center of Berlin.

At any rate, the Assyrians are absolutely lovely people and there are a large number of Assyrian churches in the United States and Europe, both of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East.

Additionally, unlike the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, the Assyrians allow anyone who believes in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist to take communion in their churches. So I would strongly encourage anyone interested to visit the nearest parish of the Church of the East. They are extremely friendly and loving people.

That's new to me. I learn something every day, I guess.

 

[FireDragon76]

It strikes me that like much of what the United Church of Christ does, it is entirely possible that the raison d’etre for omitting the Words of Institution amounts to shock value.

Perhaps in some congregations. I've encountered a number of pastors in the UCC who don't fall into that mold. I am still feeling out the culture of the UCC. I've also learned not to attribute to malice what can't be attributed to ignorance. However, I'd rather associate with the ignorant rather than the malignant.

For alot of mainline Protestants in the US, it seems like they are the flip-side of Evangelicalism, with all the anti-intellectualism that entails. Consequently, they can become enamored with academic or political fads at the denominational level, but not as much necessarily at the local level. The UCC also seems to be struggling with a sense of identity and mission, more than any other large denomination in the US.

I think I'd honestly be happier in a liberal Episcopal church but down here the Episcopal churches are aligned with Sydney and GAFCON.