In its passion to pursue a progressive theological paradigm embracing cultural sensitivity (inclusiveness) and intellectual freedom, TEC cast aside fundamental Christian doctrines, professing, among other things:
* Jesus was not born of a virgin, was not God incarnate, and his resurrection is questionable at best;
* Man needs enlightenment, not salvation; we are to reconcile ourselves with one another, not with God;
* Scripture is not authoritative nor the revealed word of God, but rather metaphorical.
Simply put, Anglicans left TEC because of their faithfulness to the fundamental and historical Christian foundation that the Holy Scriptures are the final authority of its faith.
The tragic fallout of this split is multifaceted. A lady I have known and worshipped with for 30 years approached me, saying homosexuals were not welcome at St. Paul’s. I was taken aback by her misconception. I reminded her that on every Sunday, the priest who is celebrating Holy Communion invites “all baptized Christians as being welcome here at the Lord’s table.” Not blessing same sex unions is an unrelated issue.
[blockquote] I reminded her that on every Sunday, the priest who is celebrating Holy Communion invites “all baptized Christians as being welcome here at the Lord’s table.” Not blessing same sex unions is an unrelated issue.
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So you are cool with giving Communion to those living in open sin, but you draw the line at marrying them?
Angelo is a fine man.
No. 1: We all live in sin (open or otherwise). That is why we say the confession for sins known and unknown, before we take communion.
Ad Orientem is right. We have a written-down discipline — both Biblical and in our BCP — for how a member of the clergy is to deal with someone in public, scandalous, and unrepented-of sin. And it is certainly not to offer him or her communion.
Why do we wish to treat those living in *one* particular sexual sin any differently from how we should treat someone who publicly announced that he and his wife will now experience an “open marriage”?
Confession presumes repentance and amendment of life. Hence one who will not amend his life ought to abstain from communion until such time as he does truly repent off his sinful mode of living.
Nos. 4 and 5: I don’t think you were given the insight into the heart of the confessor nor the heart of God to intercede in your judgement here. I am not condoning sin of any kind; same sex relationships or the sin of self-righteous judgement. By your standard no 5, no one should take communion for we all continue to live in sin, but thanks to God for we have been given the grace of forgiveness for all sins and are given access to Holy Communion even if we are blind to our own sin and have failed to make ammendment to our lives as you say we must.
So what you are saying it’s that if I go to church with my shack-up, with no intention of rectifying the sin in which I am living, I should still go to Communion?
And you might want to check out the Book of Common Prayer. The prayers of confession and exhortations are pretty clear about going forth to lead righteous lives.
http://www.bcponline.org/PastoralOffices/reconciliation.htm
No, what I am saying is that you cannot judge others and presume that you are anymore sin-free and, thus deserving of Communion, whereas the one you are judging you are presuming should be denied Communion. The whole point of Communion is that access to it is not determined by our sinful state and whether we have accepted or even understood all our sins, but that by accepting the free gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ, we are washed of that sin in the moment we have made confession and asked for forgiveness and walked to the rail for Communion.
I have made no such judgements or assumptions, but stated the position of Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox Christianity. And most Protestant churches, I think.
You are confusing, I think, the fallen state of humanity (“sinfulness”) with specific sin, which it is our duty to repent. As to specific individuals, that is between their souls and God, unless their sin is public and thus creates scandal.
RE: “I don’t think you were given the insight into the heart of the confessor nor the heart of God to intercede in your judgement here.”
Thankfully, nobody needs to be given “insight in the heart of the confessor” to recognize public, scandalous, and unrepented-of sin. If you show up with your lover and you’re married, you’re in public, scandalous, unrepented-of sin. If your wife has black eyes from your beating her — you’re in public, scandalous, unrepented-of sin. That’s why the discipline of the church is so very very clear.
By your standard, nobody need be denied communion because “we’re all sinners” [merely a red herring, but no matter] which completely defies the very clear boundaries and criteria which clergy are given in their training about public, scandalous, unrepented-of sin.
I understand that you may believe that denying people communion just “isn’t done” — but Scripture and our church order don’t say so.
Sarah,
I’m sure you have driven down the highway once in the last week or so and said to yourself, I wished I had that BMW or told someone you couldn’t attend their dinner party because of a prior engagement (but you simply did not want to go out). By your account above, those are unrepentent sins since you know that “Thou shalt not covet” or ” Thou shall not bare false witness against thy neighbor” are commandments yet you do it anyway. How do you decide which unrepentent sin is worthy of ex-communication, when people have confessed their sins and are walking to the rail as individuals to receive the sacrament? Especially, when you know you are going to go out do your own sin again. I know it is easy to condemn the wife beater and the homosexual activity and look the other way at the coveter, luster or, dare I say, adulterer. But sin is sin. Its use for Christians is to drive us to our knees and confess our unworthiness and acceptance of God’s free gift of grace.
God wants us to confess our sins and then join him at the Communion Table. He doesn’t want other humans to set up barriers to his grace. If, indeed, the sinner is hypocritical enough or un-fearing of God to go unrepentently to the Communion rail, then God will deal with him or her in his time and ways.