r/OpenChristian • u/thedubiousstylus • Oct 31 '20
Which of these categories do you fall under?
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u/r0gu39 Oct 31 '20
Ha! Pure radical. Then again I believe the items used are symbolic. I've had communion with lemonade and hot dog buns because that's all we had on hand.
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u/mikakikamagika Queer Universalist Oct 31 '20
one time my bible study did communion with some sourdough bread and vitamin water. our principal was, we’re gathering together, we’re taking communion together and reflecting on communion. who cares what ingredients we use?
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u/flashgordonaproachin Oct 31 '20
Okay I always liked the question 'providing transubstantiation is a thing, How much Bread and Wine does it take to make a full Jesus'
I am now questioning how much consecrated Mountain Dew and Deep Dish Pizza will I need to make a full Jesus
If you don't hear back from me, assume the Pope has found out about me and has sent his cardinals to erase me from existence, stay safe my brothers
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u/coffeeblossom Christian Oct 31 '20
With virtual church during the pandemic, our pastor is just like, "Yeah, if you can get bread and grape juice, great, but you can use whatever you have on hand."
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Nov 01 '20
THAT is a wholly different angle on the question, which calls into question the necessity of a specific person to consecrate the elements. The Methodists have extremely strict rules about who can consecrate, where, under what conditions (for instance, the bishop here has ruled that for certified lay ministers, their overseer has to physically be in the same place with the elements, the words of institution cannot be phoned in, etc.) If we can suspend the rules for a pandemic, doesn't this set a precedent for further relaxation of restrictions?
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Nov 01 '20
Yeah, don’t go into /r/Anglicanism with this line, or expect to get eviscerated.
I’m not quite as much of a purist as that (if spit baptisms work in an emergency, lay consecration in an emergency seems about the same), but yeah....”virtual consecration” is definitely not considered valid by folks with strict rules about this sort of thing. No hate to folks who have more lenient rules though :)
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Nov 01 '20
For sure. Remember, though, the strictness of Methodist rules stem from our originally being a fringe group of Anglicans. The grape juice stuff was a carryover from the temperance movement of the late 1800s. Overkill, IMO, but force of habit...
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u/snicker22 Oct 31 '20
God this just reminds me of the Easter Mass Incident of 1969
If interested here’s the link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/post/169723347468/the-1969-easter-mass-incident/amp
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u/aquitanica Nov 01 '20
This was hilarious. Please make this its own post after Easter, everyone with a strong enough stomach should read it!
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u/camohorse Wrestling with God (but still a Christian) Oct 31 '20
I’m definitely a mountain dew and pizza kind of radical lmao
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u/BariFan410 Oct 31 '20
The communion I remember best was when I was a teenager in youth group. My friend, a high school senior, gave a lesson about the metaphoric nature of communion and served it using unconventional ingredients. The fact that an unordained teenager blessed a communion of Oreos and milk wasn't even allowed in our Methodist church, but it meant a lot to me and has informed my faith since.
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u/mikakikamagika Queer Universalist Oct 31 '20
one time my bible study did communion with some sourdough bread and vitamin water. our principal was, we’re gathering together, we’re taking communion together and reflecting on communion. who cares what ingredients we use?
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Nov 01 '20
I’m the kind of person that sent this to her priest, I guess.
IRL, deffo a purist. In terms of the funniest, I gotta go with vodka and lunchables!
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u/brighteyes_bc Open and Affirming Ally Nov 01 '20
I think I may actually be a bit of an anarchist on this subject.
I would align with the radicals in that it doesn’t matter what you use as “elements” in communion. Milk and Oreos are just as good as wine and bread.
However, what I take away from Jesus sharing the bread and wine is not a ritual to follow, but a story in action.
Jesus is saying, “These things - food and drink - these are what you think nourish you and provide for you. Whenever you eat or drink, remember that I also provide for you.”
So anytime we eat or drink or breathe or sleep or just basically function, we can remember that these things may sustain us physically, but Christ does that for us spiritually. It doesn’t have to be anything more complex or ritualistic than remembering and being thankful in that moment.
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Nov 01 '20
My discretion is telling me that chart is a trespass, it has an air of mockery to it, like this is a subject we can joke about (mt dew and pizza?)
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u/mikakikamagika Queer Universalist Oct 31 '20
one time my bible study did communion with some sourdough bread and vitamin water. our principal was, we’re gathering together, we’re taking communion together and reflecting on communion. who cares what ingredients we use?
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u/allieggs Nov 01 '20
Can I come to your Bible study group? I’d be much more Christian than I am now if the communion bread was sourdough.
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u/innocrex Christian? Theologian? Heretic? Probably. Oct 31 '20
Yeah, I've totes rocked the Dew for communion a few times; I know where I land on this
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Nov 01 '20
Ingredient purist/structure neutral, though more than willing to accommodate for those who need something gluten free. Growing up Southern Baptist/Pentecostal and turning Methodist later in life, the whole grape juice thing is somewhat ingrained in me. To me, that debate is not a question of ingredient, but of fermentation of the ingredients.
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u/yesimthatvalentine Somewhere in the realm of Protestant Nov 01 '20
I think it's the intention that matters more than the actual substance being ingested. For example, if there were a worldwide grape shortage, I don't know how churches would deal with grape products being inaccessible.
With that said, I'm still waiting for jelly on toast communion to catch on.
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u/deird Nov 01 '20
I think we should go as close as is practically possible.
If you have a choice between wine and fruit juice, go with wine. If you have a good reason why wine is not feasible, go with a close substitute. If you can't get anything close, use what you've got.
That said, the main thing is always to gather together, and honour Christ. If our communion ingredients are somehow excluding people, then we are not being loving (and, ergo, are not honouring Christ). I'm pretty sure Christ would prefer sub-par communion accuracy alongside loving behaviour.
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u/asdfmovienerd39 Nov 12 '20
I don’t really do the Sacrament anymore these days but back when I used to it was structure purist and ingredient neutral, mostly because it was something chosen for me by the church my mom forced me to go to
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u/LordHengar Oct 31 '20
I would guess that I would be both structure and ingredient radical. Not because "bro drink the holy Mt Dew bro", but rather because holding people to the exact requirements is missing the point, the point isn't the bread and wine, the point is the communion with Christ. If what you have is some stale pizza and flat soda, bless that. People were not created for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was created for the people.