About eucharistic communion for the "other specied" members.
I learned this morning about an Anglican giving their version of communion to a dog!
If you are worried about Our Lord’s admonition in Matthew 7:6, don’t. No sacrament was violated because Anglicans don’t validly consecrate anything … women or bread and wine. No canonical process at the CDF for them! But I am getting far afield.
I found this item in the Toronto Star:
St. Peter’s Anglican Church has long been known as an open and inclusive place.
So open, it seems, they won’t turn anyone away. Not even a dog.
That’s how a blessed canine ended up receiving communion from interim priest Rev. Marguerite Rea [A priestess is involved! Who could have known?] during a morning service the last Sunday in June.
According to those in attendance at the historical church at 188 Carlton St. in downtown Toronto, it was a spontaneous gesture, one intended to make both the dog and its owner – a first timer at the church — feel welcomed. But at least one parishioner saw the act as an affront to the rules and regulations of the Anglican Church. He filed a complaint with the reverend and with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto about the incident – and has since left the church. [Lest we forget that Anglicans also have tribunals, not just the Catholic Church’s CDF. And has anyone wondered why the dog was in church? Was this a service dog for the blind? Apparently not.]
[…]
According to the account Yu heard, the man asked the reverend to give the dog a wafer. But Needham says she doesn’t recall the man making such a request. Instead, she said Rev. Rea instinctively leaned over and placed a wafer on the dog’s wagging tongue. [This is the relational wisdom that women will surely bring to the priesthood!]
“I think it was this natural reaction: here’s this dog, and he’s just looking up, and she’s giving the wafers to people and she just gave one to him,” said Needham. “Anybody might have done that. It’s not like she’s trying to create a revolution.” [Let’s all sing: "… non mittendum canibuuuuuus…"]
[…]
I am reminded of the case, reported with glee, of Episcopalians in Pennsylvania during their "Canoeing for Creation" liturgy throwing their communion to the happy geese on the Schuylkill River.
Seriously, are the Anglicans/Episcopalians going to have to bolster their parish registries with "othered specied" members?
There was also the case of some Anglicans in Canada sharing their communion with the geese when they were bobbing around in kayaks… but I can’t find that link. Anyone? Can you find it? Let’s call it a Z-Hunt!
Given the number of wacky folks in the Catholic Church today… and do we wonder if some Extraordinary Minister of Communion never gave a Host to Fido? … I am compelled to remind you readers that Holy Catholic Church has norms for dealing with this sort of thing.
Pope Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.
Repeat with me…. Anglicanorum coetibus… Anglicanorum coetibus…
