I think that there are a lot of reasons pews are emptying, including people angry when their local church is welcoming.
But more importantly, I've been thinking lately about the importance of communion as an integral embedding of inclusive community-making in its origins. It's not like sacrifice. Hebrew Bible sacrifice has rules about the quality of the sacrifice brought and about what needs to be brought for what purpose, with a clear correspondence between the expensiveness of the sacrifice and the seriousness of what it's meant to atone for or achieve. Sacrifice is carried out by ritual specialists because bobbling a ritual is *dire* and dangerous. But communion is a meal.
A meal of the most basic food and drink, no quality specifications made (well hello, Mogen David and Boone's Farm!) in a faith tradition that emphasizes hospitality and the care of bodies, not the judgment of souls or lives.
TL;DR: Use of access to communion as a punishment or a tool of suasion seems to me an extremely sad thing, but it's certainly been practiced for centuries.
Amen to your point. All of this is so petty and eye off the ball, as you say. I really think Jesus intended that we think of him any time we break bread together (i.e. eat & drink together) and anywhere. And more importantly - he wanted us to treat each other with love, like we'd want to be treated. The way I see it, the Catholic Church hijacked it and turned it into a power move- controlling communion wafers, who can hand them out, what it means and who can be offered them. It's as if Jesus should only live in the church during mass, and if and only if you follow the directions of the priests will Jesus accept you. Just NO!
Catholic priest have "f" all to say when it comes to "godliness". They need to look in the mirror before they start weaponizing the sacraments. Hypocrisy, thy name is the Catholic Church.
More than simply partaking of it, those pedophile priests had the audacity to claim to have *consecrated* the communion elements. Was their consecration invalid? Are decades of Catholics unknowingly out of communion with the Church because they haven't been receiving a valid communion weekly? No, they are not. The communion is still valid even though the priest who consecrates it sins egregiously and repeatedly. At least, that's what the Catholic Church says.
I think that there are a lot of reasons pews are emptying, including people angry when their local church is welcoming.
But more importantly, I've been thinking lately about the importance of communion as an integral embedding of inclusive community-making in its origins. It's not like sacrifice. Hebrew Bible sacrifice has rules about the quality of the sacrifice brought and about what needs to be brought for what purpose, with a clear correspondence between the expensiveness of the sacrifice and the seriousness of what it's meant to atone for or achieve. Sacrifice is carried out by ritual specialists because bobbling a ritual is *dire* and dangerous. But communion is a meal.
A meal of the most basic food and drink, no quality specifications made (well hello, Mogen David and Boone's Farm!) in a faith tradition that emphasizes hospitality and the care of bodies, not the judgment of souls or lives.
TL;DR: Use of access to communion as a punishment or a tool of suasion seems to me an extremely sad thing, but it's certainly been practiced for centuries.
Amen to your point. All of this is so petty and eye off the ball, as you say. I really think Jesus intended that we think of him any time we break bread together (i.e. eat & drink together) and anywhere. And more importantly - he wanted us to treat each other with love, like we'd want to be treated. The way I see it, the Catholic Church hijacked it and turned it into a power move- controlling communion wafers, who can hand them out, what it means and who can be offered them. It's as if Jesus should only live in the church during mass, and if and only if you follow the directions of the priests will Jesus accept you. Just NO!
And re-amen to THIS.
Catholic priest have "f" all to say when it comes to "godliness". They need to look in the mirror before they start weaponizing the sacraments. Hypocrisy, thy name is the Catholic Church.
It's so disappointing to see these particular bishops throwing stones from the cheap seats.
As @RevDaniel so succinctly said, “it’s Grace and we’re not the ones giving it.”
https://twitter.com/revdaniel/status/1406368538802233352?s=21
More than simply partaking of it, those pedophile priests had the audacity to claim to have *consecrated* the communion elements. Was their consecration invalid? Are decades of Catholics unknowingly out of communion with the Church because they haven't been receiving a valid communion weekly? No, they are not. The communion is still valid even though the priest who consecrates it sins egregiously and repeatedly. At least, that's what the Catholic Church says.
Excellent (and sad) point.