When does this start? I know there were Lutherans who continue to use the word mass to describe a Eucharistic service (Augsburg Confession) but what did the English Reformers think of it?
1549 BCP 'The Supper of the Lorde and Holy Communion, commonly called the Masse.' The term 'Mass' was omitted in the 1552 revision of the Prayer Book.
I do not see why Anglicans should have a problem with this word. I know many will consider it to be "papish" or "romanish". They problem do not know that its name simply derives from the dismissal given at the end of the Eucharistic liturgy by the deacon: 'Ite missa est'. It is not a particularly Catholic term. Only Latin Catholics use it for the Eucharistic liturgy. Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox call it by various names, e.g. Divine Liturgy, Holy Qurbana, etc.
Generally the term Mass was avoided because of its R.C. association with a propitiatory sacrifice, during the middle ages... That association is fading now, so it's probably not as much of an issue as it used to be
Indeed so. Although to clarify regarding Eastern Christian nomenclature, it is as follows: Eastern Orthodox: Divine Liturgy, except for a Presanctified Liturgy in Lent (which the Roman Rite calls the Mass of the Presanctified). The Synaxis, or Liturgy of the Catechumens, or in modern day Roman terminology, the Liturgy of the Word, when observed without a Eucharist usually due to an impending Vesperal Divine Liturgy or the lack of a Priest, is called the Typika, whereas the Roman Rite calls this the Missa Sicca or Missa Venatoris (dry mass or hunters’ mass), and the Anglican liturgy calls this the Ante-Communion. Generally, however, in a vernacular context, “liturgy” tends to be used to refer to the Eucharist, whereas strictly speaking all EO sacramental services, the divine office, and various other services such as the Akathists, Molebens and the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, are also liturgical. Within Western Rite Orthodoxy, the word Mass also appears, but one will generally find the services named for a saint, for example, St. Andrew’s Prayerbook, used by the Antiochian Western Rite Vicarate, has the Divine Liturgies of St. Gregory and St. Tikhon. There are a vast number of liturgical and vernacular languages in use in the Eastern Orthodox communion, and in the Eastern Catholic churches of the Byzantine Rite, and I shall not go over each of them, as this would form a veritable litany of variant forms of the word “liturgy” or its Greek origin, “leitourgia.” Syriac Orthodox: Qurbono Qadisho (or in the East Syriac dialects, Qurbana Qadisha, but only some Indian Orthodox spell it that way), meaning “Holy Sacrifice.” The word Mass is commonly used by Syriac Orthodox speaking in English. The liturgy tends to be celebrated in a mix of Classical Syriac with one or two vernaculars, Arabic or Malayalam, depending on whether one is in a Levantine or Indian parish, along with a smattering of the local language, in the diaspora, which might be English, German, etc. (very few Syriac Orthodox still speak vernacular Aramaic). This also applies generally speaking to Syriac Catholics and Malankara Catholics. Maronite Catholics in very formal contexts will refer to their liturgy as the “Qurbono”, or Sacrifice, but to my knowledge the vernacular use of Aramaic (Classical Syriac is an Aramaic dialect) ceased among the Maronites some time ago, displaced by Lebanese Arabic. In English, the liturgy is invariably called the Mass, but like the other Syriac liturgies, it has multiple anaphoras, which are referred to as such. Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East: Raza, meaning mystery. Qurbana Qadisha can also be used; as a phrase I recall it appearing within the liturgy itself. However, Raza tends to be preferred for referring to the service. The word Mass is commonly used by Assyrians speaking in English. The liturgy itself is usually served in classical Syriac, but the scripture lessons will be read in the vernacular Assyrian dialect of Aramaic. Also, quite rarely, the Raza will be celebrated in English. The Chaldean Catholics and Syro-Malabar Catholics use the same Classical Syriac terminology, but most Chaldeans speak Arabic rather than Aramaic in the vernacular, and the Syro-Malabar Catholics, like other St. Thomas Christians (Nasrani) generally speak Malayalam as their native tongue (this is a Syriac-influenced South Indian language which is not of the Indo-Iranian-European family of languages such as Sanskrit, Hindu, Farsi, Latin or English). Armenian Apostolic Church: Soorp Badarak (Western dialect) or Surb Patarag (Eastern dialect), meaning “Holy Sacrifice.” In English, the Eucharistic service is formally known as the Divine Liturgy of St. Gregory the Illuminator with the Anaphora of St. Athanasius. There used to be 13 anaphorae (and a presanctified liturgy) including one attributed to St. Gregory the Illuminator, some taken from Syriac sources, and some from Byzantine sources (for example, as one would expect, there are Armenian recensions of the anaphorae of St. James and St. Basil); why these became disused I do not know. The liturgy itself is celebrated in Classical Armenian rather than vernacular Armenian of either the Eastern or Western dialects. This also applies to the Armenian Catholics. Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church: Kidsase, meaning “Holy”, compare Qadisha from the Syriac, another Semitic language. In this case the liturgy is celebrated chiefly in the ancient liturgical language of Ge’ez, a Semitic tongue used by Ethiopian Christians and Jews (the Beta Israel, who also use Hebrew), rather than the vernacular Amharic, the Semitic language most commonly used by Ethiopian Christians. This I believe also applies to the Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Catholics and Eritrean Catholics. The Coptic Orthodox use an Arabic word that translates as Liturgy to refer to their liturgy, which is usually sung in a mixture of Bohairic Coptic (which due to Islamic persecution fell out of vernacular use, although in the US several Coptic churches are teaching it to their children at an early age, and so perhaps it might come back as a result of increased literacy in it), and the vernacular (Arabic in Egypt, and Arabic plus English in the US or UK). and also refer to it as Liturgy most of the time in English, although rarely it might be called a “mass.” The Coptic Catholics on the other hand tend to use the word “Mass” frequently when referring to their liturgy. … Hopefully the above is of some use and interest to members. I myself tend to say Eucharist when referring to the Holy Communion liturgy in general. You might notice how for each Eastern church except the Maronites, who are unfortunately entirely in communion with Rome, there is a Roman Catholic affiliated church; these Eastern Catholic churches are predominantly the result of schisms that have occurred over the past 500 years. Some people call them Uniates, but this term is viewed as offensive by most Eastern Catholics. That said, their calling themselves Eastern Catholics annoys me, because this causes confusion with the churches from which they separated, which usually feature the word “Catholic” in their name, in the sense of “According to the whole” rather than “In communion with the Roman Pope.”
You are giving me flashbacks. During the summer my Rector was doing a Sunday School series on the Eucharist. I looked at his handout and it said: The word 'Mass' is not found in the Bible; by which he meant the Greek Bible, and possibly KJV. Come on man! Any scholar worth his salt knows 'Mass' comes from the Latin Bible.