wfn.org | Committee ponders questions of welcoming at communion

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 12, 2002  News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{299}

A UMNS Feature
By Linda Green*

A group of United Methodists is focusing on a critical question as it seeks
to help the church understand Holy Communion: Who comes to the table?

For the churchwide Holy Communion Study Committee, that question is
complicated by the tension between the implicit order of the sacraments -
baptism preceding Holy Communion - and the United Methodist Church's
unofficial but widely practiced "open table."  

"There is no question about serving anyone who comes to receive," said the
Rev. Dan Benedict, a staff executive at the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship and committee member. "The question is one of policy and
theological understanding: Who is invited to the table?"  

Hospitality toward seekers is important, said the Rev. L. Edward Phillips,
committee chairman and associate professor of historical theology at United
Methodist-related Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
The committee must determine the best way to express Christian hospitality
in relation to sacramental life, he said. 

"The issue is not whom do we bar from the table, but rather what practices
of baptism and Holy Communion bring seekers into responsible discipleship,"
Phillips said. 

The "welcoming nature" of the communion table surfaced several times during
the committee's third meeting, June 19-22, at a Boston abbey. The 19-member
group is developing a comprehensive document on the theology and practice of
Holy Communion in United Methodism. The findings will be reported to the
2004 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body.

The 2000 General Conference mandated that the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship, in collaboration with the Council of Bishops, organize the
committee. A petition to General Conference had noted that the church has a
strong sense of the importance of Holy Communion, but that it also has an
equally strong sense of the absence of a meaningful understanding of
Eucharistic theology and practice.

The General Conference resolved that a study is necessary because of
questions and varied practices related to frequency, "worthiness" of
recipients, appropriate elements, methods of distribution, authority to
administer communion, service length, presiding styles, tone or mood of
observance, and understandings of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

The study committee called the Lord's Supper a "vitally important" element
in the quest for unity of the church of Jesus Christ. The committee said
study and work are needed for United Methodists to find their place among
other churches on the issues of presence, frequency of celebration, baptism
in relationship to the Eucharist and other matters. Because of the
denomination's ecumenical ties, the study is also an attempt to help other
churches understand United Methodist beliefs about communion.

At the June meeting, each conversation brought the committee back to the
question of who comes to the table. While discussing the relationship
between Holy Communion and evangelism, the members determined that "all who
commune and are not baptized are to be invited to share in relationships
with pastors and mentors who welcome their questions and invite them to
share continuing conversion and growth as stewards of the grace given in
Holy Communion."

The committee devoted part of its meeting to a listening session with 35
representatives of the New England Annual Conference. Speakers shared their
reactions to draft documents about Holy Communion, as well as their own
hopes and concerns. The listening session will help committee members as
they develop a response to the denomination's mandate for a study.  Members
of the committee include bishops, top executives of churchwide agencies,
pastors, seminarians, lay people, seminary professors and theologians.   

"This Holy Mystery," a draft document written by the Rev. Gayle Felton, a
consultant to the Board of Discipleship, outlines the theological
significance of Holy Communion, its historical context, the United Methodist
understanding and appreciation of current rituals and practices, matters of
administration and points of tension in the church.

The committee also examined papers prepared by committee members and outside
writers who addressed issues ranging from how clergy and laity are
"celebrants together" to the relationship between Holy Communion and the
ethical dimension of Christian discipleship. Some of the documents and other
committee work can be found by going online to www.umcworship.org and
clicking "Holy Communion Study," found under the worship section.  

At the conclusion of the listening session, the committee discovered the
need for educating both clergy and laity; a concern that the path to the
table might be narrowed; a concern about the apparent "clerical privilege"
in the responsibility for presiding over the Eucharist; and "a concern about
both extremes of real presence - 'memorialism' that sees communion as a mere
remembrance of Christ and realism that identifies Christ present in the
elements themselves," Benedict said.

According to Thelma Flores, a laywoman and committee member from San
Antonio, the listening session "reminded us of how central and critical the
work we have to do on behalf of the church is."

Sophie Pieh agrees. The sophomore at Seaton Hall University in South Orange,
N.J., said the committee is "attempting to create a document that could be
used as a guide to help with communion and make it more understandable for
everyone."

For the Rev. Sally Havens, a permanent deacon and staff executive at
Aldersgate Renewal Ministries in Goodlettsville, Tenn., the listening posts
held by the committee and by individual members showed a uniform desire by
clergy and laity to be more educated about communion. 

E-mail messages to the committee from around the church indicate that many
people see a link between Holy Communion and works of justice and
compassion. "In Holy Communion, the Holy Spirit indelibly shapes our moral
and ethical lives, renewing us as God's new creation and drawing us to long
for the day of God's manifest justice in all of the world," the committee
said as a statement of principle. 

The findings also led the committee to acknowledge the need for a wide range
of study documents for a variety of ages and learning levels, including
seminarians, examining the connection between Holy Communion and social
justice. The committee said celebrations of the Lord's Supper must be
conducted in ways that make clear the "intrinsic link" between the table and
personal and social holiness.

Many people feel they are not worthy to participate in Holy Communion or the
Lord's Supper because the act of breaking the bread is considered to be a
sharing in the body of Christ and partaking of the cup is the sharing of the
blood of Christ, speakers noted. In some traditions and in some geographic
areas, children are restricted from taking communion because of the belief
that they don't understand the meaning and sanctity of the act.

The committee examined the question of "worthiness" and found a strongly
affirmed image of the Lord's Supper as being spiritual food and medicine
that nurtures one into joyful obedience. In receiving Holy Communion, "we
welcome Jesus Christ into our lives to heal us of personal and corporate sin
and give us freedom and strength for the coming of the Kingdom of God," the
members said.

The group also determined that the celebration of the Lord's Supper is the
work of all people and not something the congregation watches the presiding
minister or pastor do.

When the committee meets Nov. 14-17 in Nashville, Tenn., it will hold a
listening session with clergy and lay people from the Southeastern
Jurisdiction. In 2003, the committee will meet in Evanston and San Antonio
to listen to the North Central and South Central jurisdictions.
# # #
*Green is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville,
Tenn.

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United Methodist News Service
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