Monday, March 7, 2011

Holy hands

Do hands matter when you receive communion?

I was serving at my husband's church yesterday while he was leading a college mission trip.
Met a new lady yesterday who told me before the service not to be offended because she only took communion from men. I told her I was celebrating if that mattered. She said it didn't.

So if it is the exact same communion, then what significance do the hands that distribute it have?

5 comments:

  1. Gosh, the hands surely should not. What a narrow view of the world and of God's grace.

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  2. What if you have broken hands? Ouch...

    Glad you are blogging!

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  3. Oh, good grief. The hands don't have anything to do with (see: heresy, Donatism). However, thinking of communion as one of the "means of grace", your graciousness to her, I hope, gives her a little something to think about. Of course, I'd be tempted to stack the deck with female communion assistants. Granted, in my church, if you don't take the host/bread from a woman, then I guess you don't get it. (There are no other clergy.)

    Glad you're blogging.

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  4. I suppose if one has to insist on making the sacrament all about themselves, then they can justify almost any fence around it. This makes me both sad and angry. And like Julia, my congregants did not have a choice.

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  5. there's a woman in my congregation who used to switch lines to receive bread from the male pastor. when he left and we got a female interim, she had to get over it. we have a new male head of staff now but she still comes through my line. (LOL)
    BUT--at a cottage meeting while I was away at the BE she apparently said "you know, some people have a real problem with female ministers...I mean, we love Teri, and I'm not talking about *myself* of course, but some people...."
    yeah. awesome.

    Glad you are blogging!

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