Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Newbie at communion
|
betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by SvitlanaV2: In essence, you're saying that individuals should be confirmed before taking communion in the CofE, unless they've received adequate Christian instruction in some other way, or in some other setting.
well yes, which is also as stated upthread pretty much the official position of the CofE [ 06. December 2017, 14:42: Message edited by: betjemaniac ]
-------------------- And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
| IP: Logged
|
|
John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by betjemaniac: quote: Originally posted by SvitlanaV2: In essence, you're saying that individuals should be confirmed before taking communion in the CofE, unless they've received adequate Christian instruction in some other way, or in some other setting.
well yes, which is also as stated upthread pretty much the official position of the CofE
But not, for what it's worth, the official position of many, perhaps most, other parts of the ANglican communion.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by betjemaniac: quote: Originally posted by SvitlanaV2: In essence, you're saying that individuals should be confirmed before taking communion in the CofE, unless they've received adequate Christian instruction in some other way, or in some other setting.
well yes, which is also as stated upthread pretty much the official position of the CofE
And yet the CofE's leaders don't enforce the official position.
Myself, I think too many elements both inside and outside the CofE work against a strict policy on this kind of thing. If certain cultural shifts take place in the next few decades then maybe it'll happen.
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
|
Posted
SvitlanaV2 said: quote: And yet the CofE's leaders don't enforce the official position.
Proof, please?
IJ
-------------------- Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
|
Posted
The fact that this thread exists?!
What need would there be of this discussion if people in CofE congregations were in all cases made aware that they could only take communion if they'd been confirmed or were otherwise in good standing with another church?
Maybe I've misunderstood, but the early responses to the OP suggested that there was a range of beliefs about when and how someone should participate. That the denominational leadership allows this diversity (which I don't find objectionable) logically means that one particular custom isn't being enforced across the denomination.
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
|
Posted
The CofE's leaders don't 'enforce' anything.
It's part of their charm ...
Joking aside, what tends to happen, of course, is that each wing or tradition (should we say 'faction'?) within the CofE tends to teach whatever is in line with it's particular 'take' on things.
So, of course, you'll get a lot of emphasis on personal conversion and personal Bible study in an evangelical Anglican setting, a lot more emphasis on the Eucharist in a more High Church setting ... and various shades between.
-------------------- Let us with a gladsome mind Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
|
Posted
Just so.
Perhaps SvitlanaV2 might like to suggest how 'the C of E's leaders' could 'enforce' confirmation, should they decide that that course is desirable?
IJ
-------------------- Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
|
Posted
I didn't say they should enforce it. It's betjemaniac, not me, who thinks the CofE should ensure that confirmation or other training should occur before someone takes communion.
I'm for an open table, especially since mainstream Protestant denominations are hardly in the position to be able to enforce anything.
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Gamaliel: ... It's one thing to hear or recite the Nicene Creed, another thing to 'own' it. That said, I'm not that comfortable with the practice in some evangelical Anglican churches of giving a lengthy preamble before the recitation of the Creed to the effect that people should only say it if they really mean it, yadda yadda yadda ...
I agree. And I don't agree with leaving it out or simplifying it to make everything easier for people - usually defended as being 'in the interests of mission'. Reciting the Creed is not everyone making a statement of what each person individually believes and agrees at that moment. It's stating that this is what the church collectively believes, and what, one hopes, most people would aspire to believes irrespective of any doubts and uncertainties they might have that particular morning. And besides, if one says it regularly, it lays down foundations that one can build on at a later date.
That's what I think anyway, but I suspect most people I know just think I'm wrong, old fashioned or not spontaneous enough.
Rant over
-------------------- Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
BroJames
Shipmate
# 9636
|
Posted
At the beginning of our communion service books (in an area which has many visitors from all over the world) there is the following invitation quote: Christians of all denominations who normally receive communion in their own church are invited to share with us in receiving communion at this service.
and at the point in the service where people come for communion it says quote: If you are a visitor and would normally receive communion in your own church, you are welcome to come up to the rail and receive communion at this service.
Apart from that, and a similar invitation given orally, people ‘police’ themselves about coming up for communion. I have to operate on the basis that anyone who meets the criteria has been suitably instructed. The only ‘enforcing’ I then do at the rail is where people’s behaviour/body language leaves me in doubt about whether they wish to receive or not. Then I discreetly ask them.
I don’t tend to issue ‘anyone who loves the Lord Jesus’ invitations since, in my view, the C of E’s practice, which the invitations attempt to encapsulate, is consistent with what seems to me to be an NT pattern, that participants should have an informed idea (at a level appropriate to their capacity) of what it is they are doing. As Jengie Jon’s earlier post indicates, that understanding is unlikely to be static.
Posts: 3374 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|