wfn.org | New committee digs into Holy Communion study

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 7, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.     10-21-71B{375}

NOTE TO EDITORS:  A list of committee members is attached to the end of this
story.

By Tom McAnally*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - When it comes to Holy Communion - one of two
sacraments in the United Methodist Church - most members "don't have a
clue."

That opinion from a respondent to a recent survey captures vividly what
delegates to the church's General Conference observed in May 2000, when they
said there is "an absence of any meaningful understanding of Eucharistic
theology and practice." 

Acting on a recommendation from the church's Board of Discipleship, the
conference mandated a study of Holy Communion. Thirteen members of the new
study committee met in Nashville for the first time Sept. 4-6 and faced the
daunting challenge of developing an interpretive document on the theology
and practice of Holy Communion in the denomination. A consensus of the new
group was that the final document going to the 2004 General Conference
should be an easy-to-read "teaching and guiding resource."     

Holy Communion --- also referred to as the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist -
is one of two sacraments in the United Methodist Church. The other is
baptism. Most United Methodist churches offer the Lord's Supper the first
Sunday of each month as part of weekly worship services. A common method of
receiving the elements of bread and grape juice is for individuals to kneel
at the front of the church and be served by their pastor and assistants.  

The church completed an eight-year study on baptism in 1996 that resulted in
a document titled, "By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist
Understanding of Baptism." The study also prompted proposed constitutional
changes regarding membership voted upon by annual conferences this year. 

The Rev. Gayle Felton, a widely known consultant, writer and speaker, was a
member of that baptism study and is now serving on the new Holy Communion
committee. "A lot of people who participated in the baptism study in one way
or another started to ask, 'When are we going to do a similar study of the
other sacrament of the church?'" she said.

Felton shared with the new committee a survey she conducted of more than 200
clergy and lay people from a wide spectrum of organizations and positions in
the church. In both baptism and Holy Communion studies, she said a fear
exists that if the church goes in a liturgical direction it will lose its
evangelical fervor.  

"Some are concerned that if we elevate the role of liturgy and sacraments,
we will denigrate the role of conversion," she said. That fear was discussed
several times during the three-day meeting, always culminating with the
observation that in Wesleyan tradition it must not be "either/or" but
"both/and."

 From her survey regarding Holy Communion, Felton identified eight points of
upon a fuller understanding and more meaningful practice.
and practice.
described by one respondent as "activist holiness."
theology, practice and teaching.
7 The need, expressed by both clergy and laity, to have Eucharistic
Wesleyan tradition.
authoritative interpretation.
theology and practice firmly grounded in Scripture, theology and the
consensus: 
church. "No one said, 'Why are we bothering about this?'" she said.
superintendents should hold pastors accountable for their sacramental

Issues raised by committee members early in the meeting paralleled those
identified in the survey conducted by Felton. They were:
7	the frequency of offering communion;
7	openness to young children and unbaptized people;
7	a sense of "unworthiness" that keeps some from participating;
7	the appropriateness of elements;
7	the methods of distributing communion;
7	who has authority to administer the sacraments;
7	the length of the Sunday service, which prompts some to see the
Eucharist as an "appendage" to the "real service";
7	concern about gestures, body language and effective presentation of
the liturgy; and
7	concern that the service is "too somber."

The Rev. Ed Phillips, a faculty member at Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary in Evanston, Ill., is the chairman of the new committee.

Other members, prescribed by the General Conference, include two bishops,
two representatives from outside the United States, and top staff executives
of the Board of Discipleship, Board of Higher Education and Ministry, and
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. Lay people are
included as well as clergy.   

The Nashville-based Board of Discipleship sent the request for a study to
the General Conference and is now administering the work for the 2001-2004
quadrennium. The agency plans to hold five meetings before its final report
goes to the board's governing members in the fall of 2003. The General
Conference will be held in the spring of 2004 in Pittsburgh.

Committee members reviewed a paper on the meaning of Holy Communion in the
United Methodist Church written by the Rev. E. Byron Anderson, a faculty
member at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. They also
discussed the Articles of Religion related to the Lord's Supper and two
sermons written by Methodism's founder, John Wesley, one on "The Duty of
Constant Communion" and the other on "The Means of Grace."

Broader implications of the committee's work in the larger Christian
community were explored under the leadership of the Rev. Bruce Robbins, top
staff executive of the denomination's Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns in New York.

The Rev. Karen Westerfield Tucker, a faculty member at Duke's Divinity
School, shared portions of her new book, American Methodist Worship,
published this year by Oxford University Press.

 From the beginning of American Methodism, tension has existed between
the point made earlier in Felton's survey, she said there is tension between
freedom and form, Tucker explained. "There has been the desire for standard
work." She advised the committee to identify the tension but to resist any
texts that are acknowledged and authorized by the denomination but also the
sacramental objectivity and personal subjectivity, "God's work and our
desire for freedom to depart from these texts," she said. Concurring with
attempt to resolve it. 

Tucker also noted that Methodists' expressions of who they are as a church
(ecclesiology) have tended to come in reaction to other churches. "Our
practices and theologies today came about in reaction to Baptists in the
19th century," she observed. "For example, we have never created a
systematic theology." Some in the committee suggested this is the case
because Methodism began as a renewal movement in the Church of England and
still finds itself more of a movement than a church.

Arturo L. Razon Jr., a veterinarian from the Philippines said, "There is
attractiveness in knowing who we are and who we are going to follow." In his
own country, he said members of other denominations sometimes say the United
Methodist Church is "just a little Catholic church."  Tucker observed that
Baptists made the same accusation about early Methodists in America.  

In her presentation to the committee, Tucker approached the topic of the
Lord's Supper from the perspective of 14 "myths" about Methodist history or
about John Wesley. One is that Wesley invented grape juice for use at
communion. Although the historic and ecumenical practice has been to use
wine, the use of unfermented grape juice by Methodists since the late 19th
century has usually been explained as a means of expressing pastoral concern
for recovering alcoholics, enabling the participation of children and youth,
and supporting the church's witness of abstinence from alcoholic beverages. 

Another myth cited by Tucker is that Wesley insisted on confirmation before
a person could take communion. She noted that the first official rite of
confirmation was produced in 1965. 

Two major issues discussed throughout the meeting were the need for
understanding what a sacrament is and for understanding the Eucharist as a
"means of God's grace." A third related issue is what theologians in the
group called experiencing the "real presence" of Christ in contrast with
participating in a simple intellectual "remembering" of the Lord's Supper.
The Wesleyan heritage stresses "real presence," but it was noted that
today's Methodists tend to fall into the latter group of "memorialists." 

Committee members agreed that their final document would have a broad
audience and be written in simple language. While the audience will include
clergy, scholars and academicians, the committee responded positively to a
suggestion from the Rev. Hans Vaxby of Finland that it should "start at the
pew and altar, not the desk."

In the closing hours of their meeting, the committee members identified what
will be on and off the table as they proceed. It was agreed that the meaning
of sacrament and the tension between sacramental and evangelical are "on the
table." Not on the table will be the revision of Holy Communion texts and
liturgy and legislative changes in the Book of Discipline. 

For the committee' s next meeting, Jan. 26-28 in Seattle, Felton and Tucker
were asked to develop an orderly summary or digest of issues and concerns
raised so far. The group also discussed means of getting input from across
the church through such avenues as focus groups, interviews and a Web site.

# # #
*McAnally is director of United Methodist News Service, the church's
official news agency, based in Nashville, Tenn., and operating bureaus in
New York and Washington.

MEMBERS:

The Rev. Daniel T. Benedict, Nashville, Tenn., Board of Discipleship worship
staff member.
Bishop Michael J. Coyner, Fargo, N.D., Dakotas Area, who was unable to
attend the first meeting.
The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, Nashville, top staff executive nominee for
the Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
The Rev. Gayle C. Felton, Durham, N.C., consultant, writer and speaker.
The Rev. Tyrone D. Gordon, Wichita, Kan., pastor of St. Mark United
Methodist Church.
Barbara Thorington Green, Port Crane, N.Y., a doctoral candidate at Boston
University School of Theology.
The Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, Nashville, top staff executive of the Board of
Discipleship.
Bishop Susan Wolfe Hassinger of the church's Boston Area.
The Rev. Ed Phillips, Evanston, Ill., faculty member at Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary.
Arturo L. Razon Jr., Echague, Isabela, Philippines, a veterinarian.
The Rev. Bruce W. Robbins, New York, top staff executive of the Commission
on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. 
The Rev. Frank Trotter, pastor of the Reisterstown (Md.) United Methodist
Church.
The Rev. Karen Westerfield Tucker, Durham, a faculty member at Duke
University Divinity School.
The Rev. Hans Vaxby, Helsinki, Finland, pastor of Christ United Methodist
Church. 
The Rev. Josiah Young, Washington, a faculty member at Wesley Theological
Seminary.
Two vacancies for lay people will be filled before the second meeting.   
 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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