Am

Submitted January 11, 2005

Am I in the twilight zone?

Christopher Orr appears to be a very gifted and prolific writer as is evidenced from his article submitted on January 4, 2005, entitled "Forthrightness in Communion". However, the article lacks footnotes, citations, specificity, etc., and cloaks the Mystery of Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church in a disguise with which I am not familiar. Although our prayer should be (and it truly is in the Church) that at some time we will all drink from the same Cup of Salvation, I have never been exposed to the cavalier attitude expressed by Mr. Orr of offering Holy Communion to heterodox. If anything I've only observed the opposite.

In many of the churches that I've visited throughout the Greek Orthodox Metropolises of Chicago and Atlanta, priests have encouraged their parishioners to be properly prepared to receive the Holy Eucharist and have wished God's blessings to non-Orthodox in attendance after explaining that Holy Communion is only to be received by members of the Orthodox Church. This leads me to believe that the Metropolitans have not given some unwritten okay or deal "under the table" for the priests to use their own judgment and just serve Holy Communion in a willy-nilly fashion. And I'm sure that this is not what Mr. Orr is saying. I can only report what I've seen and the Greek Orthodox priests I've observed, if anything, have become more vigilant about and to whom they are offering the Gift of Gifts.

Finally, if there is an Orthodox bishop who has commanded his priests, or an Orthodox priest who has been commanded by his Orthodox bishop to "commune non-Orthodox" under any circumstance, please step forward and explain your reasoning in light of the Dogmas, canons, and Holy Traditions of Orthodoxy. And send your message here, to The Orthodox Christian News Service, so that in the future, should Mr. Orr write another article about Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church, he will be able to cite a quote from you in a footnote. Personally, I'd like to hear "the rantings of fringe Orthodox demagogues fear mongering with nationalistic, reactionary rhetoric." I'm not sure what that means but, I'm sure this "fringe" group would add an air of intrigue to Orthodoxy and bring us crashing into the 21st century!



Volume 7 Number 3 - Tuesday, January 18th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY

Jim Rentas