I am picking up with my series of posts on The Priestless Parish after offering my views on the sacraments as the means of grace. If you have not read those posts, I invite you to do so now [Part I and Part II].
Since my last post, the small parish I belong to had an interested candidate make the trip from Texas to South Dakota to check my small parish out. We liked this candidate very much and unanimously offered a call to become our next rector. Unfortunately, the candidate chose to be the rector of a different parish. In the candidate's refusal notice was some noteworthy advice; foremost of which was that we did not come close to offering the candidate (freshly out of seminary with student loan debts) what the parish the candidate agreed to be a rector at was offering.
This is a reality my parish must come to terms with, as we have not heard anything from the diocese about someone who we can consider for this position. Our rector's position has been vacant for more than a year and a half. In addition, our interim priest has also retired. So we are truly a priestless parish at the present time, and it is uncertain whether another priest or seminarian will be willing to take a serious look at us.
Furthermore, when asked for a list of supply priests, our small South Dakota diocese directed us to look to the Diocese of Nebraska for supply priests. Of the eleven supply priests on their list only two showed interest in helping us out. To do so they may end up having to drive well over one hundred miles to get here. Doable on occasion and during the summer months, but not regularly or when the weather turns cold.
In this post I will offer some thoughts on how our small parish or any small parish like us maintains a sacramental ministry without a priest.
SACRAMENTAL LIFE
When it comes to the sacramental life of a parish, most parishioners see the sacraments as something they receive rather than something they offer. This is definitely true when it comes to the Sacrament of the Altar - Holy Communion. While most liturgical churches have been using lay servers to distribute the elements of bread and wine as the Body and blood of Christ to the communicants for some time, the consecration of the these elements remains strictly in the domain of the ordained priest or pastor.
The question being addressed here is what happens when a supply priest or pastor is no longer available to serve a small congregation on a regular basis or not at all? Does a congregation that had a regular eucharistic life just put up with whoever they can get, whenever they can get someone, and go without the sacraments for long periods of time or does the congregation take seriously their role as members of the royal priesthood of all the faithful and begin utilizing this sacrament as Jesus did?
Christians claim that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion. By that they mean Jesus took broken bread and took a cup of wine and declared them to be signs and symbols of his body and blood. Something that has been lost on most Christians throughout the centuries is that on the night Jesus instituted this sacrament every person in that room would have understood that Jesus was using bread and wine as an intimate symbol of his own being, his own body and blood given and poured out to and for others kenotically because the flesh and blood Jesus was standing right in front of them.
Jesus established that whenever this ritual is done in remembrance of him, the people participating in it; receiving it become one with him, one with each other in him, and one with God through him. It is not about literally changing bread and wine into his actual body and blood of Jesus. To render what Jesus was doing that night as such is nothing more than an attempt to perform some type of ecclesiastical alchemy.
Holy Communion is not transubstantiation or consubstantiation; rather it is the participants willfully desiring to become the presence of the risen and rising Christ in the world through the ritual ingesting of these signs and symbols of the man Jesus who lived and died as a flesh and blood one of us and who emptied himself on a cross to make room for us; in whose forgiveness of those who crucified him forgave the world with his dying breath. This is what we are called to remember and are called to be; one with this Jesus who was raised up by God to be the Christ. Holy Communion; as such, is what I have described in my previous post as ENSUBSTANTIATION.
WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED
As always, I do not pretend to have an inside track to know what God is up to, but in my reading of scripture God is frequently seen cutting things down to a manageable size and recreating what was into a new what is. Pruning comes to mind; cutting things back to a reset point in order to encourage new growth. We are well into what is being described as a Post-Christian era where pruning back seems to be the order of the day.
The need for a priest in my small parish is completely linked to Holy Communion and being served sacramentally. It is almost near impossible for members of my congregation to think of Holy Communion as something they can do for themselves. Yet, I see no reason why they can't; apart from a bishop saying no, but that's a discussion for another post. There is nothing in scripture that would prevent such a thing from happening.
Frankly, not much need change regarding the ritual practice in an Episcopal parish, apart from the rubrics in our prayer book. The major shift is in understanding what the sacraments mean; in particular, Holy Communion. The formula for a change in practice is written in the New Testament itself.
The fact is that the celebrant consecrates the elements in the stead and on the behalf of the people gathered. Holy Communion should never be consecrated or instituted by one individual but rather by two or three if there is a desire to maintain a liturgical structure to this ritual. The Gospel of Matthew has Jesus telling us that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he is present. What this Gospel is telling us is that the real presence of Jesus is found in the communal experience of those gathered in his name.
Holy Communion implies a communal experience; a shared experience ritualized by the community itself. The rite involved should require the whole congregation serving as celebrants. The point is that lacking a priest should not become a factor whether a parish has and maintains an active sacramental life. In fact, I would recommend that parishes with priests should be required to involve one or two lay people as co-celebrants when offering sacraments to signify that all present serve as celebrants. The Body and Blood of Christ is a communal presence, given by Christ to those willing to become the presence of Christ in the world. As suggested here, Holy Communion is a two-part ritual: Consecrating bread and wine as signs and symbols of Jesus's body and blood and instituting the recipients as one with all of humanity and one with God, in, through, and with the risen and rising Christ. Holy Communion and Holy Baptism are intended to be moments of transfiguration, of seeing and embracing a vision of the world through the eyes of God as Jesus did on the cross.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
No comments:
Post a Comment