The Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond has told the nation’s only blended Catholic and Episcopal parish it must change its worship services so Catholics and non-Catholics meet in separate rooms for Holy Communion.
The parish, Church of the Holy Apostles, is led by Catholic and Episcopal co-pastors and has worshipped together for more than 30 years.
It’s an arrangement, parishioners say, that over the years has allowed families in mixed marriages to worship side by side and has helped build bonds that transcend denominational boundaries.
Odd arrangement but even odder is that this church has apparently operated this way for 35 years without demands that it change, through three popes!
Oh, wait, make that four popes. I forgot about John Paul I.
Teatime2,
I wonder if Rome ever heard about this church. The real surprise is that it has lasted so long into the current Bishop of Richmond’s tenure. The previous Bishop of Richmond was more “liberal” than the current one. (Not really way out liberal but liberal compared to the current Bishop and to Bishop Loverde who is over the other Diocese in Virginia-The Diocese of Arlington.)
That synergistic service would not fly in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
There has to be more to the story than this. A look at the stats chart for the Episcopal parish shows that something drastic happened in 2008 which brought ASA down to around 50 as opposed to about 150 the previous year. Splitting the church would kill the Episcopal parish.
Aging hipsters like myself (oh well, all right: 60+ folks) who have been to Taize in the 70s may remember that in those days there would be a eucharist and then people went to either the Catholic side or the Protestant side for communion. If it was a Protestant celebrant then the Catholics received communion from a vast tabernacle. Of course, this being a uniformly youthful congregation, everybody simply went to the nearest minister. I have not been for many years but doubt if it is like that now. The edumenical liturgy at Taize was beautiful and spiritually enriching; not exactly the Calvinist tradition into which Roger Schutz had been ordained at Geneva.
Typo slipped through: should read: ‘not exactly the Calvinist tradition’ …
Terry, I was there in 2003 and it was the same. Doubt it has changed much in the last few years.
Why not just celebrate morning or evening prayer together? Who could object?