There will be an International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this June that features what organizers are referring to as “a unique element” of ecumenism. Eucharistic Congresses were established by the Roman Catholic Church to celebrate the doctrine of Christ’s continued sacramental presence in the Church; this year’s event will recognize the extent to which non-Roman Catholic Christian groups share this understanding. According to the Eucharistic Congress’s website:
Most Rev Michael Jackson, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin will celebrate a Liturgy of Word and Water. Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of the Russian Orthodox Church will preach the homily. Brother Alois Löser, Prior of Taizé, will give a catechesis on Baptism.
Speaking at the launch of the ecumenical programme, Father Kevin Doran, Secretary General in IEC2012 said: “These concrete expressions of our communion can help to place more focus on the unity which we already have as Christians.”
Many Christian subgroups either discourage or forbid “intercommunion,” the practice of receiving the elements of Christ’s sacramental presence in the services of other denominations. The idea behind the ban is to preserve the integrity of a particular denomination’s specific teachings on ecclesiology and sacramental theology. My own group, the U.S. Episcopal Church, generally encourages intercommunion, and I agree with that policy; but one need not agree with intercommunion to realize that the underlying unity of Christian beliefs on these questions is powerful and significant, and deserves the gratitude of all believers.
Many thanks to the Traditionalist Catholic website Rorate Caeli for reporting this highly welcome development.
Do I detect a slight shift away from the Catholic More-ings at the NRO? The Catholic boat is starting to drift into Protestant news? What's next? A post on the Gospel Coalition? Oh, the KLo horror.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMichael Potemra mainly posts Protestant news items. I wasn't keeping score between the number of Protestant news posts and those of the RCC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJPK, Potemra's religion posts are usually about some marvelous aesthetic ("oh look at the architecture" or "oh what wonderful music"). Even here, on a doctrinal matter, he skillfully avoids the plain truth that Roman Catholics didn't recognize protestants as Christian until Vatican II and they still believe their sacraments have special grace from God that protestants lack. You may not be keeping score, but there's no need to do so: even a supposed protestant post is at best neutral.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNor do I mind that Roman Catholics have a special place here: Buckley was Catholic after all. It does bother me when Catholic "news" like KJL's cheerleading about new bishops and papal statements are pushed on The Corner and when protestants disagree , we are treated like trolls. There should be a Roman Catholic sub-blog here (equivalent to Bench Memos). But it'll never happen because there is no conviction of sin, just license when you have a membership card in The Church.
Agreed on the open communion policy of the Episcopal Church.
Having grown up as a Fundamentalist/Pentecostal and then after the end of a 20 years relationship with a woman from a staunch Roman Catholic background where each and every Sunday I would have to stand up and let the other people sitting in the same pew proceed to the front for Communion it was refreshing when I discovered Anglicanism.
I love the church, just not their liberal politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think the discouragement of intercommunion has a lot to do with a desire not to offend worshipers in the service you are attending as a guest. For certain protestants that believe that the elements are metaphorically the body of Christ, to take communion in a catholic, orthodox, or some anglican churches might be viewed as profane.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Catholic Church, by the way, is one of those churches that discourages inter-communion. Since communion is an expression of (as well as a means of and hope for) unity in Christ, and since we Protestants are separated from Catholics, they say it would be turning the sacrament into a lie for us to partake.
For what it's worth, I concur.
To be sure, that institutional separation does not NEED to entail disunity and so I do not say it is inappropriate to participate across denominational lines, but in the case of the Protestant/Catholic separation, it does. At least for now. It is easing in the Episcopal-Anglican/Catholic arena, but for conciliar Calvinists like me, it's not likely to go away for many years.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The idea behind the ban is to preserve the integrity of a particular denomination’s specific teachings on ecclesiology and sacramental theology. My own group, the U.S. Episcopal Church, generally encourages intercommunion, and I agree with that policy; but one need not agree with intercommunion to realize that the underlying unity of Christian beliefs on these questions is powerful and significant, and deserves the gratitude of all believers."
Michael, might I suggest you consider how much of a bomb you dropped here? "Ban?" I don't mean to be snarky, but let me illustrate how offensive one might find your remarks:
I'm also sure you would agree that the Episcopal Church's "ban" on Budda statues on the alter is just about the "integrity of it's particular teachings." And I assume you would agree that one need not agree with religious pluralism to realize that the underlying unity of Unitarian Universalist beliefs on these questions is powerful and significant, and deserves the gratitude of all believers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWait a minute.
You take an issue with the word ban which he uses in reference to the issue surrounding the varying practices and belief surrounding communion in the christian churches. Ban seems like about as an appropriate word to use. What he says is his church doesn't mind sharing communion with other faith traditions but that our unity goes beyond that.
As we all know some churches believe that during communion the bread and wine becomes the actual body and blood, others that it is both, and others that it is symbolism and nothing more. His acknowledgement that some faiths worry more about those differences than others, but that should not impact our greater agreements, seems pretty benign. He is acknowledging the appropriateness of that distinction, even though his faith tradition doesn't hold them.
You however, appear to be much more than snarky, but in fact looking for a fight. I would suggest you return to church and pray to quit looking for an offense where none is intended.
If you take offense at his remarks
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd now I will get angry with myself for leaving dangling phrases out at the end of the comment - I am having problems on my computers keeping the comments up - they pop in and out. Sure it is a setting I have wrong somewhere, but no other site has the issue.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseyeah, you don't get it. Not even close. I'm not the one looking for a fight, Potemra is, whether he knows it or not. The offense has been done, whether I "take" it or not.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne of the single dumbest comments on the Corner ever. If communion actually _means_ joining in a communal act of belief then intercommunion is a waste of time and energy. That the Church here is engaging in a war with its own _traditional_ beliefs should strike a Conservative with horror.
You are no conservative.
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