Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mangoe@cs.umd.edu (Charley Wingate) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: open communion Message-ID: Date: 7 Feb 90 08:18:32 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 52 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Mike Bushnell's comments on the presbyterian views are a bit foreign to me, too. My parent's church (I have forgotten which of the pre-union groups it belonged to) withheld communion to children who had not been through "communicant's class". The situation in the Episcopal Church is twofold; there are two different levels of openness. As far as *individuals* are concerned, anyone properly baptized is welcome to partake. (Believing JWs, Unitarians, and Mormons are therefore not welcome.) Formerly it was commonly the custom that unconfirmed parishioners did not partake, but the push has been to eliminate this. (I have heard a report of a parish in this diocese (Maryland, not Washington) effectively deny communion to those who do not make private confessions, ala old RC practice.) There are disciplinary rubrics, but they do not extend to things such as theological agreement. When it comes to communion between church bodies, however, the situation is much more limited. About five years ago, the EC and the three Lutheran bodies which merged into the present main Lutheran body (the Evangelical Lutheran Church?) came to an agreement for intercommunion between the (now) two bodies, marked by a eucharist at the Washington Cathedral at which the episcopal presiding bishop, the episcopal bishop of Washington, and three Lutheran bishops concelebrated. This remains the only such agreement. Intercommunion requires a much larger alignment in theology and polity. However, the Episcopal Church does not believe that this division ought to be visited upon individual christians. -- C. Wingate + "The peace of God, it is no peace, + but strife closed in the sod. mangoe@cs.umd.edu + Yet let us pray for but one thing-- mimsy!mangoe + the marv'lous peace of God." [Probably we're showing our age. I also remember growing up in a Presbyterian church (the Northern one, whatever it was called then) in which children didn't participate in communion. I'm going to assume that this was a matter of procedure, because I can't imagine my parents' refusing it if it was at their option. This was in the late 50's. I don't know when the change occurred, but I'm pretty sure children have been invited for at least the last 20 years. A 76-77 Book of Order says it is at parents' discretion. The new Directory for Worship no longer mentions that explicitly. It says children who are being trained in the significance of the sacrament are invited to participate, realizing that the level of understanding will be different at different ages. On the matter of "communicants' class", it's dangerous to base too much on what Presbyterian churches call that class. At least half the time it's called "confirmation class", even though of course we don't actually practice confirmation, and "communicants' class" is also commonly used, even though children are communicants well before the class. I'm not sure what the official name is, if there is one. The rite it is preparing them for is called "commissioning", but I've never heard of "commissioning class". --clh]