Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: conan@wish-bone.berkeley.edu (David Cruz-Uribe) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: doctrinal standards Message-ID: Date: 30 Jun 91 17:39:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department. Lines: 52 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu writes: >What particularly angers me (as most readers surely know by now) is >closed communion. (I'm speaking of closing communion for doctrinal >reasons. I don't want to get into church discipline here.) Communion >is the symbol of our unity in Christ. It is *his* table. It is the >last place we should be trying to do doctrinal quality control. I do >understand about "discerning the body". Certainly anyone who >participates in communion should understand that they are >participating in an act where Christ is expected to be present. But I >can't accept requiring a specific theory of Christ's presence. >Fortunately God is presumably willing to forgive offenses here. But >it's hard for me to conceive of a more offensive action than trying to >keep a fellow Christian from Christ's table. Let me take a stab at this question from another perspective. As most of you are aware, the Roman Catholic Church practices closed communion. (There are deviations from this by individual pastors, but these are exceptions to the rule.) Over and above the question of "discerning the body" OFM mentions above, there is the question of unity. Catholics believe that the Eucharist is a sign and a source of our unity. Further, Catholics believe that to open communion up to those christians we are _not_ fully united with is to contrary to the nature of the sacrament. It has been argued (especially strongly by an Episcopalean friend of mine) that Catholics are preventing unity by practicing closed communion. However, the Church feels that opening up communion without healing the deeper underlying divisions which separate us, is to put "the cart before the horse". Union at the table of the Lord will mark the healing of the divisions between christians--it will not be the cause of it. I realize that to some this will sound chauvanist. Therefore, let me repeat (or at least paraphrase) the American bishops' instruction on communion--let us all pray fervently for the restoration of unity in the Body of Christ. Yours in Christ, David Cruz-Uribe, SFO [I don't understand. I realize the unity of the body of Christ is imperfect. It seems appropriate to me for the sacrament to symbolize something that won't be complete until we are finally united in heaven. If that doesn't seem appropriate to you, then maybe you should abstain from the sacrament completely, and simply keep an empty cup on the communion table as a sign of hope that we will eventually be united in Christ. To believe that the body is sufficiently broken that we can't join other Christians in the sacrament, but continue to practice it within our own denominations, seems to be turning the sacrament into a symbol of the unity of our denomination, rather than of the body of Christ. --clh]