Open Communion?

There’s been some discussion this week about open communion over at Titusonenine and Pontifications among other places.

As I’ve mentioned before, like most American conservative Christians, I’m ecumenically minded when it comes to other conservative Christians of differing backgrounds. That’s a quality I like about the Reformed Episcopal Church. It’s even in their liturgy when they invite all baptized Christians to come to the communion table.

That’s the kind of open communion I like. But now open communion too often means that anyone may come regardless of their beliefs.

I have a confession to make. I exercised naive judgment a couple years back and participated in such an open communion at a family member’s United Church of Christ at Christmas. As I took the raison bread (Please forgive me!), the server said, “Happy Hanukkah.�

Now I have nothing against Hanukkah. I think it’s an excellent holiday. But I do strongly object to dragging communion down into an interfaith mishmash, where anybody can come and believe anything. At the very least, that is disrespectful to the Christ who instituted communion as a remembrance of Him and His sacrifice for us.

Yes, we need to be inviting and strive to make non-Christians feel welcome in church. But to give the impression that what you believe doesn’t really matter – “You don’t believe Jesus is Lord? Noooo problem! We’ll baptise you, confirm you, serve you communion. Heck, we’ll serve you communion right now! Come on down!� – THAT is another matter altogether.