To address just one of your points, yes, I believe he skipped the lamb. I've written about some of the reasons in the article. Why is it so difficult for you to accept this possibility when an entire sect of Jews at the time were vegetarian? In Jesus’ time, there were three main sects among the Jewish people: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Essenes. As far as I know, the bible doesn't explicitly tell us which sect Jesus belonged to (correct me if I'm wrong). Nor does it explicitly tell us he ate lamb at the Passover feast. It does tell us explicitly that he ate bread at the Passover feast, however, which would be typical of the Essenes, who were vegetarian. Interestingly, with all the biblical references to Jesus being the 'lamb of God' would it not make more sense, if there had been a slain lamb on the table at the feast, for Jesus to have proclaimed of the lamb "THIS is my body"? A much more fitting analogy, don't you think?

You are right that 'The Church' is a fairly amorphous term. It would be more accurate to say that individual church leaders have suppressed the truth. Much as you appear to be attempting to do now, in fact.