invitation to open communion
This is the current communion invitation statement in our bulletins:
Believing in the real presence of Christ, this congregation invites all baptized persons to the table. Those who have not received first communion are welcome to the table for a blessing. Grape juice is available by request.
It’s not perfect. I wrote it, based on “The Use of the Means of Grace” and passed it by the senior pastor last August/September when I wrote it as a substitute for a previous statement that was too wordy and confusing.
I spent a little over 45 minutes this afternoon hearing from the “outreach” pastor (recently retired) about how using the word “baptized” isn’t hospitable and is a “stumbling block” and how he took it out of his invitation at his last church…even though he knows that it’s what the ELCA teaches. We talked about the 3 (3!!!!) confirmation students (this year alone) that need to get baptized before they can get confirmed next fall (even though they have been in confirmation now for 3 years and have been taking communion since 4th grade.) They shared stories of people who have been leaders of their congregations and come to communion for years before coming to them and saying something like “oh, before I become council president, I think I should be baptized” (or similar stories.)
The proposed change is to simply drop the word baptized so the statement reads something like: “…invites all persons to the table.”
I do NOT want to be part of a church that has to examine every visitor before serving them communion. But this feels like it is confusing “stumbling block” with “teaching the usual order of things” and worshiping “hospitality” over all. I know we can’t do a single thing to deserve the grace received in this sacrament, but how far does one have to go before free grace is cheap?
At this point my suggestion is “…invites all persons who believe the words ‘given and shed for you’ to the table.” I frankly don’t know whether that will fly either and seems like we should probably add that “Christ is present in, with and through the bread and wine” but then we’re back at too long and complicated for a bulletin.
Could any of you please answer 3 simple questions for me:
1. At what point do pastors give up on standing up for, or daring to teach any doctrine? (ok, I know that’s a generalization…you get my point.)
2. Why am I such a FREAK about this stuff? And
3. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE?
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
