Holy Nothingness

From Boston.com, news of the latest innovation in the Episcopal Organization:

Who is worthy to receive?

Open Communion trend stirs hearts, a quiet controversy

A quiet revolution is taking place at the altars of many churches - in the form of bread and wine.

Communion, the central ritual of most Christian worship services and long a members-only sacrament, is increasingly being opened to any willing participant, including the non-baptized, the nonbeliever, and the non-Christian.

The change is most dramatic in the Episcopal Church, particularly in liberal dioceses like Massachusetts. The denomination's rules are clear: "No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church." Yet, a recent survey by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts found that nearly three-quarters of local parishes are practicing "open Communion," inviting anyone to partake.

Wherefore? For the innovators it, like everything else, is a matter of civil rights. The 60s will never die.

"Who am I to say who should be at God's table?" said the Rev. Gale Davis Morris, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Acton. "Most of Scripture is pretty clear about who the ultimate judge is, and it's not anybody that's human. And I would much rather err on the side of inclusion than exclusion."

Readers more knowledgeable than I please correct me but I seem to recall a time in the Episcopal Church when even non-Episcopalians were not permitted to receive communion, first having to be confirmed or received. That changed, like so much else, in the 70s when communion was opened to all Christians, in the name of Holy Inclusivity as well in hopes of drawing more people into the Episcopal Church (click here to learn just how effective that gambit proved).

The Holy Catholic Church (as do the Orthodox and some Protestants) permits only her own to receive, not because she is mean-spirited and exclusive or passing judgment (which only God can do--the priestess quoted above at least got that part right, sort of) but because the Church regards communion with such seriousness, believing the bread and wine is transubstantiated into the actual Body and Blood of Christ, to be regarded with awe.

The Church teaches, in accordance with the Apostle Paul, that anyone who dares receive the Body and Blood without being in a state of grace, "eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (I Corinthians 11:29). The Catholic Church's job is to get everyone into heaven so she forbids those things that get us into hell. It is all part of the program and those who who don't like it are welcome to go elsewhere, even to the Episcopal Church.

For the sake of clarity and truth in advertising, however, the Episcopal Church should jettison the word "Catholic" from the Creeds (and increasing numbers of parishes are doing just that, by dispensing with the recitation of the Creeds altogether). To expand further the administering of communion to any and all without restrictions like, say, belief in God or repentance for sin; without making even the slightest effort to make oneself fit to receive Our Lord, renders communion into a meaningless and empty act, utterly devoid of significance; nothing more than a cracker washed down with a shot of cheap wine. You can do better in a bar.