Strangely Warmed

This is what late 19th century Anglicans had to say to Rome about the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist: But we think it sufficient in the Liturgy which we use in celebrating the holy Eucharist, while lifting up our hearts to the Lord, and when now consecrating the gifts already offered that they may become to us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, to signify the sacrifice which is offered at that point of the service in such terms as these. We continue a perpetual memory of the precious death of Christ, who is our Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins, according to His precept, until His coming again. For first we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; then next we plead and represent before the Father the sacrifice of the cross, and by it we confidently entreat remission of sins and all other benefits of the Lord’s Passion for all the whole Church; and lastly we offer the sacrifice of ourselves to the Creator of all things which we have alre...

The United Methodists collect a special offering on the first Sunday in October, but its name is very misleading. We call it "World Communion Sunday," but our understanding of communion and our catholic communion liturgy ought to make it clear: every Sunday is world communion Sunday. By its very nature, every communion service is a celebration of the world wide unity of the church in Jesus Christ. (And, by the way, we ought to be offering our people Christ in accordance with his promise every Sunday. To withhold communion is to withhold Jesus!) World Communion Sunday is observed in a handful of denominations on the first Sunday in October. It was the 1940 creation of the U.S. Federal Council of Churches, predecessor to the increasingly irrelevant National Council of Churches. I think it is amusing that a group of American mainline Protestant denominations in the mid-20th century thought that they were inventing something new when they proposed the observance...