Open Communion and Church Fathers
My Anglican friend believes in open communion, that is that in virtue of him being a Christian, he should be allowed to partake in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass. He has a great appreciation for the Church Fathers, and so I wonder what he will make of some of the following quotations (and I do intend to ask). St. Ignatius of Antioch views the Eucharist as a sacrament of Ecclesial Unity.
St. Ignatius in Letter to the Philadelphians 4 says,
Take care, therefore, to participate in one Eucharist (for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup that leads to unity through his blood; there is one altar, just as there is one bishop, together with the council of presbyters and the deacons, my fellow servants), in order that whatever you do, you do in accordance with God.
In his letter Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8, he writes,
Only the Eucharist which is under the authority of the bishop (or whomever he himself designates) is to be considered valid. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the congregation be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.
The problem for the Anglicans here is this: are you under the authority of our bishops? If not, you are not part of the congregation, and you cannot partake in the Eucharistic sacrifice. We certainly do not recognize your bishops (see here).
St. Justin Martyr says the same thing. In his First Apology, we read,
And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes the things we teach are true...For we do not receive these things as common bread nor common drink...so also we have been taught that the food eucharistized through the word of prayer that is from Him, from which our blood and flesh are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who became incarnate.
So we raise a similar problem: do you believe the things we teach are true? If they did, they would be Catholic and not Anglican. But as they are Anglican, they do not believe the things we teach are true, and my friend certainly doesn't believe in transubstantiation, though he does believe in the real presence (through consubstantiation is what I gather in our conversations, but I'm not certain). And St. Justin Martyr does seem to imply a substantial change in the species of bread and wine through the Eucharistic prayer. So St. Justin Martyr wouldn't think it appropriate for Anglicans to take Catholic communion (and especially inappropriate for Catholics to take communion from Anglicans).
Quotations and some phrasings are taken from Lawrence Feingold's book The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion
Quotations and some phrasings are taken from Lawrence Feingold's book The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion
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