Published on 12 Sep 2011

Toward Generous Hospitality

 

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 Generous Hospitality—Eucharist and Baptism—in dynamic relationship

at

Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver,

Easter 2011

This paper is written as a contribution to the conversation about how Anglican Eucharistic communities invite and welcome new believers into Christian community and its sacramental life.[1]  At Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver we value the relationship between Baptism and Eucharist: we have come to understand these two sacraments to be in dynamic not necessarily sequential relationship.  Out of our specific pastoral experience in a large, urban and intentionally inclusive parish, we offer a voice promoting a generous hospitality as a hallmark of Anglican Christianity in the context of a predominantly secular urban culture.

 

Generous Eucharistic Hospitality at CCC

We describe the current practice at CCC as “generous Eucharistic hospitality” a modified form of “open table”.    On Sunday mornings at the principal celebration of the Eucharist the invitation to receive communion is offered in two ways. In the announcements before the beginning of the liturgy an invitation is extended to all those who “seek God and are drawn to Christ” to receive Holy Communion. Printed in the Order of Service under the title Share the Gifts is this statement:

If you know the brokenness of life, its fractures within and its division without, then you have participated in the broken body of Christ, and you are invited to share in the breaking of the bread.  If you desire to know the love of God that overcomes indifference and despair, if you desire the reconciliation that overcomes estrangement and alienation, then you are invited to share the cup of the new covenant.[2]

In other words, we welcome those who are on a spiritual journey which includes a serious exploration of the truth of God in Christ to share as fully as they feel called in the sacrament of Holy Communion.  We are not suggesting that communion is for everyone nor that it can be separated from a journey towards the God revealed in Christ. We do however see it as sustenance and support along the road to full faith and commitment rather than as a privilege that awaits only at the end of that road.

In the Cathedral, the font and the Altar are physically located in close proximity to each other, enabling many communicants to dip their hand in the water of the font and make the sign of the Cross prior to receiving communion.  When seekers are baptized they stand in a space between the font and the Altar and then are brought to the water for the sacrament of baptism.  This physical arrangement has helped shape our experience of the dynamic relationship between the two Dominical sacraments: rather than restricting them to a sequential understanding—baptism and then Eucharist–we experience them functioning creatively together—normally baptism before Eucharist, but sometimes it is in receiving the elements of the Eucharist that leads seekers toward baptism.

 

Experience

Generous Eucharistic hospitality comes as a response to the circumstances in which we seek to live out God’s mission to the world. Our large, urban and eclectic congregation is made up of those who are seeking spiritual answers to life’s deepest questions, as well as of those who feel that they have already discovered such answers (or, at least, a home for their questioning) within the revelation of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Some come from traditions where adult baptism is the norm; they have not yet been baptized but are increasingly drawn to sacramental life in Christ.  Others are new to the Christian way and begin an exploration of the practices of the community.  The Cathedral is situated in the midst of one of the most secular community within North America amongst a people happy to be ‘spiritual but not religious’ and we are constantly looking for ways to communicate the love and truth of God in Christ within this context.

A central part of our missional response is to be as open and hospitable a worship space and community as is possible for us to be. We seek to welcome all; respectful of those who want to remain anonymous, but ready to welcome any who signal that they want to move into the journey of faith.   Eucharistic hospitality is but one aspect of very intentional community practices that seek to make genuine connections with those who are drawn to explore their spirituality through the liturgies of the Anglican Church.   We affirm our identity as Anglican Christians and we live it out in a way that expresses the welcoming and inclusive ministry of Jesus Christ. We have learned that many coming to the Christian faith for the first time bring with them preconceptions about Christianity, based either on their own experience or the portrayal of Christians they see in the media, which often include expectations of judgment and exclusion. In May 2011, a participant in a course offered for new members expressed her delighted surprise at the openness she found – especially around the invitation to communion. Such expressions of surprised appreciation are frequently heard when newcomers and seekers explain why they feel they have found a spiritual home at CCC. They may love the music, and sometimes the preaching, but it is the openness and hospitality that seems to speak to their hearts.  We take hospitality very seriously as an expression of evangelism: during every season of the Christian year there are courses and conversations offered that invite people into a deeper relationship with Christ and the church.  For us, it is a both/and situation: both generous Eucharistic hospitality AND clear and faithful invitation toward baptism to those who Christ calls.

We believe that radical hospitality is at the heart of the gospel: over and over again Jesus is seen extending welcome to and engaging in conversation with those who were considered less than full members of the religious community: women, the disabled or sick, tax collectors, sinners.  At CCC our hospitality reaches out through groups offering education and formation to provide a fuller understanding of what Christian faith entails and what membership of a Christian community requires, as well as what it offers. Those who reveal to us that they are not baptized are encouraged to grow towards baptism – and to see their place at the table as part of the preparation for this commitment. Some choose to refrain from Eucharist prior to baptism, most continue in their faithful and devout reception of the sacrament.  As we engage in this generous hospitality we may well, of course, sometimes be offering communion on Sundays to those who are not baptized and not interested in greater commitment – there is no way with the number of weekly visitors that we can police this.  But overwhelmingly we hear, over and again, how refreshing it is for those who seek to know that they can participate fully in the sacramental life of the community: it makes baptism even more meaningful.

Our current approach is showing fruit in the number who have been baptized. From 2006 to May 2011 we have baptized 150 people, of whom 102 were children and 48 were adults. Since beginning a ‘Liturgy of Inclusion’ – a short service of commitment for those who want to publicly confirm their membership in the cathedral congregation – in April 2010 there have been 45 people taking part, adults and children.

These statistics, and our own observations Sunday by Sunday, show us that those who come as seekers are drawn toward baptism through the hospitality they receive and the formation that is offered to them. We rarely have the experience of people who continue to receive communion without seeking further and deeper formation in the Christian faith. Of course, those few who do fall into this category, there are likely to be many who have already been baptized but choose not to engage in opportunities for spiritual growth.

 

Historic Tradition

In taking this stance we would acknowledge that we are stepping into relatively new territory for the Christian Church. However we do this within a historical context that has not itself remained static, and with the understanding that what we are experiencing at CCC is not just a local phenomenon, but a particular expression of a much broader historical trend in the relationship of the church and society in the west.

There are in fact 3 fundamental periods in the history of the church.[3] The first is the period up to the fourth century in which the church was a minority community in Graeco-Roman society and suffered periodic persecutions. The second period is the period from the 4th to the 18th century, which historians call the period of “Christendom,” where Christianity became the established religion in Europe and church and state were two sides of the same coin. This situation persisted through the Reformation period. There was a division of the churches at the Reformation, but all the major reformers argued for the unity of church and state. The 18th century Enlightenment in Europe ushered in a new period of increasing secularization of western societies, which has come to full fruition in our own time.

While the foundational character of baptism remained consistent between the first and second periods, the actual practice differed in a fundamental way. In the pre-Christendom period those who were seekers and searchers became catechumens and went through a two or three year period of preparation for baptism in which they grew in their understanding of the faith and sacramental life of the church and what is entailed in living the Christian life. The catechumens participated in the Liturgy of the Word on Sunday mornings, but did not remain for the Eucharist. They participated in the Eucharist for the first time after their baptism at the end of this long period of preparation.[i](see end note p. 11)

After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and the legal establishment of the church, the catechumenate broke down. As the majority in western society became Christian, infant baptism became the norm and increasingly all who were not Jews in western Europe could be assumed to be baptized – so it could be assumed that all who participated in the Eucharist were baptized. However, the process of secularization in the west has led to the increasing marginalization of the church in western society, the full impact of which we feel particularly strongly in British Columbia, which is one of the most secular places in North America. The upshot of this is that fewer and fewer people in our society have any Christian formation or even elementary knowledge of Christian faith and life. Those who come to Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver as seekers and searchers are most often in this category. They are part of the “spiritual but not religious” group in our society, who are nevertheless for any number of reasons drawn to explore the Christian faith at CCC.

Until the late 20^th century, the church did have another stage of membership for people to pass before they could share in communion – confirmation. The rationale for this was that there should be a level of understanding before the sacrament of communion was shared: those receiving the bread and wine should be able to articulate the basics of their faith, and make an adult commitment to that faith, as the necessary and appropriate response to the grace being offered. But there was a challenge to the practice of withholding reception of communion until after Confirmation.  Some parishes were administering communion to children prior to Confirmation (including CCC Vancouver) and witnessed the devotion with which young un-confirmed children received the sacrament.  This led to a re-examination of the discipline of Confirmation as a necessary step before receiving Holy Communion:  it was local pastoral discernment that led to a national decision.  Many parishes—CCC included– conscientiously relaxed the discipline of requiring confirmation and brought resolutions to Diocesan Synods: ultimately this led to decision making by the Canadian Church’s General Synod and House of Bishops.   By 1973 the church resolved to end the practice of withholding Communion to the non confirmed.   Theologically, it has led to a focus on the gratuitous and unmerited grace of God which is beyond all human understanding and comes before any human commitment. In this case we have accepted that receiving communion can be a help on the way to full commitment rather than its ultimate gift.   It is gift whenever it is received because Christ is present.

Interestingly, in a statement from the House of Bishops dated December 1973, as part of their rationale for removing Confirmation as a necessary prerequisite for communion, the Bishops (led by David Somerville and Barry Valentine) wrote:

“We discern a new awareness, new commitment, new sense of mission, in the life of the Body of Christ.  We see that it is this renewal in our membership which is enlivening our worship and our ministry and which is driving us to questions about the way of entry into the community of faith.  Whether it springs up negatively in a resistance to indiscriminate Baptism or affirmatively in a seeking after new patterns of family involvement in worship, the overriding pastoral concern is rooted in the meaning and style of membership.  Our pattern of Christian Initiation, if it is to have significance must be appropriate to the new found meaning and style of membership. We cannot, in this sense, separate being from becoming.”  (the whole statement is included in Appendix A).

The 1973 statement from the bishops puts it succinctly: being and becoming Christian are inextricably linked together—we contend that generous Eucharistic hospitality enables being and becoming Christian to be in dynamic rather than necessarily sequential relationship with each other.  Like those bishops, but from our local perspective, we ‘discern a new awareness, new commitment, new sense of mission, in the life of the Body of Christ.’

 

Theology

There is a theology, as well as a practical concern for hospitality within our particular context, that underlies our practice of generous Eucharistic hospitality.   It is rooted within an understanding of God’s radical gift of love and grace to all of humanity: a profligacy of love seen most clearly in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sound theology teaches that the grace and invitation of God always comes before any human response of faith in and love of God, and is indeed a necessary prerequisite to any such response.

It, therefore, makes theological sense to welcome all who seek God in Christ to experience the grace and presence that comes through the Eucharist before insisting upon a faith commitment on the part of seekers. There are those who would argue that it is only through our participation in Christ’s death and resurrection in the sacrament of baptism that we are incorporated into the Body of Christ that the Eucharist both feeds and re-creates each time it is celebrated. However we would argue that it is our common identity as children of God, bearing God’s image within us, that is the only necessary qualification for a place at Christ’s table – the same qualification to fellowship with Jesus that we see in his earthly ministry as recorded in the gospels. The testimony from some recently baptized adults affirms that it was through participation in the sacrament of Eucharist that their desire for deeper incorporation into Christ’s body grew, leading them to baptism.  In these cases, the Table led to the Font.

This experience of how God can work through the sacrament of Holy Communion is consistent with the premise that the Altar is God’s table and that there should be no human barriers to participation that would hold people away from it. We expect, as any family would, that the traditions and courtesies of this holy table should be respected by all who share our food, but we do not want to refuse this offering of God in Christ to any who are drawn to receive it. Neither would we invite to it those whose faith or spirituality leads them to God in different ways – our occasional Jewish and Islamic visitors have never been invited to take part in this specifically Christian practice.

Roman Catholic theologian Ronald Rolheiser writes, “True orthodoxy asks us to hold a great tension, between real boundaries beyond which you may not go and real borders and frontiers to which you must go. You may not go too far, but you must also go far enough. … There is danger in bad dogma but there is equal danger in not radiating, with sufficient compassion and understanding, God’s universal will for the salvation of all peoples.”[4]

 

Formation

Formation is a key component of Christian life and faith at Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver.  In pastoral ministry we have found that many who were baptized as infants are grateful for opportunities to grow in their understanding of Christian faith and admit to not knowing even the most basic elements of the tradition.  Paradoxically some who have not been baptized have been very thoughtful about the Christian way and are seeking to discover life in sacramental community.  What we have learned is that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to Christian formation is not effective in the secular culture where we live and minister.  We provide classes for those seeking baptism and we also offer individual adult formation shaped by the needs, personal history and experience of each seeker.  The formation of new Christians is based on a hope of growth towards commitment and an important part of that formation is the experience of being part of a welcoming Eucharistic community.

Many adults who come to this Cathedral parish bring with them wounds from their earlier experiences in other Christian communities where they have been rejected because they did not fit into a preconceived model of membership. They are wary of making a new commitment and of the possibility of further rejection. Wounded people seek and need support and their injuries take time to heal.  Our “generous Eucharistic hospitality” is a quiet yet powerful model of inclusiveness which allows such seekers to believe in the welcome we offer them and which enables them to move from wariness to trust. It is a sign of the good news of Jesus Christ offering the love of God to all God’s children.

Formation at Christ Church Cathedral is complex and thorough. It includes group teaching, individual conversation and spiritual counseling, and the experience of being part of a community which seeks to model the inclusive hospitality of God. Its aim is to move the minority of seekers who are not baptized towards that sacrament as they feel able to make a commitment which reflects their growth into membership, while offering to those already baptized the opportunity to grow into that membership. In our ongoing reflection on our ministry plan, formation toward baptism remains a high priority and we continue to seek the best ways in a new time to bring people into the life of Christ and the church.

 

Conclusion

Our practice at Christ Church respects and values both the Dominical sacraments – Baptism and Eucharist. It reflects a dynamic rather than sequential relationship between the two.  Our assumption is that those who present themselves to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion are either baptized (the majority) or sincerely on a journey to baptism (a minority).  It is because we value the intention of that small minority that we seek to offer a generous hospitality. At Christ Church Cathedral we have come to believe that the invitation “All who seek God and are drawn to Christ are welcome” adequately and honestly expresses faithful Christian theology and practice.

Our fear is that God’s mission will be made much less effective if we restrict the table to those who have already been baptized.  We know that statements of exclusion, such as “only baptized Christans are welcome to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion” are perceived, by some seekers, as punitively restrictive, reminiscent of a narrowly interpreted understanding of the Christian way and rejecting their stumbling steps towards faith.  But, and more importantly, we have witnessed that gracious and generous Eucharistic hospitality leads toward deeper commitment to life in Christ, signified through baptism.

We hope that the conversation continues.  It’s an important conversation about the relationship between evangelism, formation and hospitality within the Eucharist.   A key vocation of the church is to invite new disciples into relationship with God in Christ.  That, to us, is a more urgent preoccupation than to insist on a sequential ordering of the sacraments. We respect the ecclesiastical context in which the spring 2011 statement of the Canadian Anglican House of Bishops was made. We understand the bishops are re-affirming the Anglican, catholic, and ecumenical theological and pastoral norm. The ecumenical dimension is of particular importance, since the fundamental theological ground for our communion as churches is our common baptism. Our local experience of the way seekers find their way to baptism leads us to practice and advocate for a generous Eucharistic hospitality.

Written by Ellen Clark-King and Peter Elliott

June 2, 2011.

Appendix A

Source: HB / 1973 December 3-7 / Resolution

 

(VII) THE FIFTH SESSION

 

Moved by: Bishop Burch

 

Seconded by: Bishop Creeggan

 

Prologue: Moved by:  Bishop Gartrell

Seconded by:  Bishop Somerville

“That, subject to the Statement and Guidelines on Christian Initiation from the House of Bishops’, the Province of British Columbia be an experimental area until the General Synod of 1977, with permission to use the new rite, on the understanding that their experience be communicated to the Doctrine and Worship Committee and shared with the House of Bishops.’”

This Motion produced other Motions amending the reference to the Province of British Columbia to “any Bishop” and, eventually, these Motions were withdrawn in favour of the one presented by Bishops Gartrell and Seaborn.

The disposition of the document was decided on Friday morning when it was [moved and seconded]

 

TEXT: “That a copy of the Statement on Christian Initiation, as amended, be sent, with a covering letter from the Primate, to all members of the Doctrine and Worship Committee, and to the Bishops’ for distribution to the Clergy in their dioceses.”  CARRIED

 

(Notes: The Bishop of Athabasca expressed appreciation, on behalf of the House, to Bishops Somerville and Valentine, for their work in preparing the Statement and the Guidelines.  These will be found in Appendix A.

APPENDIX A

CHRISTIAN INITIATION — A STATEMENT FROM THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS

The House of Bishops has confronted the problems and possibilities of the Initiation Rites of the Church in response to requests and hopes from a number of sources.  The General Synod, both in 1971 and 1973, gave major attention to the subject and in 1973 requested the House of Bishops to give careful pastoral consideration until the next General synod, to the effects on the life of our Church of using the proposed Rite of Initiation.  It further resolved that Christian Initiation be the subject of intensive study both from the theological and pastoral points of view throughout the Canadian Church.  Similarly the Doctrine and Worship Committee for whose ongoing work in this field the House continues to be grateful, has asked the House of Bishops to offer recommendations and suggestions about various specific questions in this matter.

Above all, however, our response is to a strong pastoral concern throughout the life of the Church which focuses on the meaning of our membership.  We discern a new awareness, new commitment, new sense of mission, in the life of the Body of Christ.  We see that it is this renewal in our membership which is enlivening our worship and our ministry and which is driving us to questions about the way of entry into the community of faith.

Whether it springs up negatively in a resistance to indiscriminate Baptism or affirmatively in a seeking after new patterns of family involvement in worship, the overriding pastoral concern is rooted in the meaning and style of membership.  Our pattern of Christian Initiation, if it is to have significance must be appropriate to the new found meaning and style of membership. We cannot, in this sense, separate being from becoming.

It follows then, that all of our statements and proposals must be set within the contest of the living community of faith.  We have tried to pay attention to practicality, to reason and to tradition because they are all part of life lived in the community.  We have rested our assumptions and our visions in our being as the Body of Christ, the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the People of God.  It is to nothing less than this, that we are called as Christians and the way of entry to it can point in no other direction.

In assessing the possible variations in the Rite of Christian Initiation we believe that there are four basic elements underlying any consideration of differences in practice.

1.  The basic elements of Christian Initiation are Baptism, the Laying-on-of-Hands, the First Communion, all three are seen as essential parts of the process by which we enter into full membership in the Body of Christ.

2.  Water Baptism in the Name of the Trinity is the first step in the process.   The Apostolic Laying-on-of-Hands and First Communion then follow, but the sequence in which they take place can be varied provided that Baptism always precedes them.

3.  In any unified Rite of Baptism and Confirmation, the Bishop must participate.  We believe that the Laying-on-of-Hands by the Bishop expresses clearly that we belong to an Episcopal Church and that membership in the Community of Faith involves being in communion with the Bishop and through him, with the Catholic Church.

4.  The whole process of Initiation must always take place in the midst of the community of faith.  It should always be given great importance and must be accompanied by careful preparation and instruction.  It follows that it cannot be treated lightly or administered indiscriminately.

Looking beyond the basic elements on which we are all agreed we wish to make certain further observations.

1.  Children who have been Baptized should not begin their communicant life until the age of five or six.

2.  We do not believe that the use of Chrism should be made obligatory in any revision of the Rite of Initiation.

3.  Christian Initiation and Christian nurture must go together.  We believe that a new vitality and seriousness in our approach to membership must be accompanied by and indeed could produce a renewed emphasis on learning and worshipping together as Christian families.  At each step in the process the parish community must accept the responsibility of making sure that the new members are offered both instruction and support.

4.  We want to see provision made for a Service at which people who have grown up within the Christian community can commit their lives afresh to Christ, take upon themselves the duties of membership and celebrate with the whole parish a renewed and strengthened discipleship.

We reiterate that the desire to revise our Services of Christian Initiation arises from a renewed sense of membership and mission in the Body of Christ as well as dissatisfaction with our present practice related to Baptism and Confirmation.  There does not seem to be at present any clear indication of the way in which our Church should move.  In this whole matter General Synod has called for study and consideration.  While this is going on we issue the following Guide Lines related to our present Services of Baptism, Confirmation and Communion.  It should be understood that while permission is given for children to receive Communion in accordance with these Guide Lines, they will in due course, be presented to the Bishop for Confirmation.

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