Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Full communion on the ground

I assisted this morning at the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified at Belmont House. After the service, Father spoke with a woman who held his hand and tearfully thanked him over and over again. She said the ritual was the same as at her church and asked him if he was Lutheran and he replied that he was an Anglican, which was very close. "It's just like my church," she kept saying through her tears. And I was very pleased at that moment to be in full communion with her.

5 comments:

Tay Moss said...

I think you'll find memories like that to be very important to get stockpiled against the unpleasantness that you'll find from time to time in your ministry. Liturgy is all good and great and spiritually fulfilling, but nothing replaces the moment someone tells you how you've changed their life!

-t

G said...

Especially when you've changed it - with liturgy!

Anonymous said...

I thought the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified was a term only used for the particular rite on Good Friday - and that otherwise it is simply called "Communion from the Reserved Sacrament" or some similar term. Also, if "Father" were there, and "Father" refers to a Priest, why was there not a Mass ? Finally, you are in Narnia if you imagine you are in "full Communion" with any Lutheran. No matter what the folks at ACC may say, it is impossible to share real "Communion" with a denomination wherein a significant chunk (if not a majority) do not share belief in the Apostolic Succession and the nature of the Episcopate. Of course, many Anglicans don't either - but we know the heretics in our own midst ! (They bow the knee to the Green God and her votary KJS)

Davis said...

Why is it that those with the most to say are always "anonymous" I wonder?

G said...

I believe I recognize the prose of our Anonymous. If I'm correct, it's someone the opinion whereof I listen to, even when I do not assent to it.