General Convention to consider proposal to end Episcopal Church’s baptism requirement for Communion

Well, this should make for an interesting debate...

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.or...al-churchs-baptism-requirement-for-communion/

 

Oh Lordy....

 

It seems unlikely to gain traction, and even if it does I doubt our vestry would allow it in our parish. But I’ve been wrong before.

 

What is there reasoning?

 

Because we’re all God’s people, and Jesus loves everybody, because love, because tolerance, blah blah blah…

 

Oh, my...I do not know how to react to this. I will ask, is Baptism not one of the Sacraments that ALL confess to believe in?

 

The current edition of the Prayer Book certainly teaches that it is. That may be what it comes down to; the ones proposing this stuff may get told it would require a revision to the Prayer Book, which would render the subject moot.

 

That has been under discussion for several years and, naturally, there are individual congregations that have unilaterally shifted their practice to conform to the new belief. In all likelihood, many churches (and not just in TEC) practice a communion policy that could best be described as "don't ask, don't tell."

 

I wished more priests protected the chalice better. In general I wish the rule was to not commune people you don't know. Our priest always makes it a point to let people know to not come to communion if you have not been Baptized.

 

In my old Orthodox parish, if the priest did not (a) recognize you, or (b) know that you had been to Confession recently, your odds of taking Communion that day were virtually nil.

 

That is the way it should be. It is the communicants benefit

 

Actual instances of that happening were rare. Everything is so highly ritualized in Orthodoxy, most non-Orthodox don’t want to stand out. In most cases, it was an Orthodox person from a different jurisdiction. The priest would usually allow them to take communion but would also say they needed to go to Confession before their next communion.

 

That’s a good way to put it. Unless a congregation practices closed communion as a rule, that sort of thing is very hard to police. Even so, I am certain that plenty of non-Roman Catholics take communion in Catholic parishes all the time. It was common where I used to live for some of the Greek Orthodox in the neighborhood to go down the road to the Catholic parish during the week for daily Mass. Of course, in that particular instance, the Catholic clergy knew and had no objection.