{"id":11799,"date":"2015-10-22T12:25:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T16:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=11799"},"modified":"2015-10-22T12:25:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T16:25:06","slug":"how-to-offer-community-without-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2015\/10\/how-to-offer-community-without-communion.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Offer Community Without Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>
(H\u00e5kan Svensson \/ Wikimedia<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I\u2019m over at\u00a0First Things<\/em> today<\/a>, talking about why people may want to drop barriers to Communion out of fear of excluding the people who most need strength and support, and offering suggestions for other ways to see, know, and love our pewmates:<\/p>\n

\n

Communion is often the sign of acceptance that people seek\u2014not just because it\u2019s at the heart of the faith, but because it may be the only form of love that people know how to ask for or see offered at their parish.<\/p>\n

In many parishes, it\u2019s easy to attend church anonymously, without speaking to anyone else except for a quick \u201cHave a nice day, Father\u201d and without any contact with fellow parishioners beyond a quick handshake at the sign of peace. A \u201cHi\u201d from a greeter at the door can be nice, but it doesn\u2019t really give people a sense of being known in the \u201cJesus looked at him and loved him\u201d sense. Communion is asked to do all the work of inclusion.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Churches can include more\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWinter Christian\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0themes in homilies and hymns.\u00a0<\/span>Winter Christians are both intensely engaged with their faith, but also intensely stymied by spiritual dryness, doubts, a persistent sin, or some other difficulty. (They\u2019re unlike \u201cSummer Christians\u201d who are joyfully drawn to the faith, and completely unlike people who like or dislike the church, but don\u2019t yearn for it). The psalms of lament sound familiar to them, but \u201chis yoke is easy, and his burden is light\u201d is a little closer to how cartoonist\u00a0Allie Brosh describes attempts to jolly people out of depression<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cAre you taunting me? Is this some weird game where you name all the things I can\u2019t do?\u201d<\/p>\n

A hymn like\u00a0\u201cConflict\u201d<\/a>\u00a0from the Shenandoah Harmony collection of shape note songs is much closer to their experience. (\u201cIt\u2019s seldom I can ever see \/ Myself as I would wish to be \/ What I desire I can\u2019t attain \/ From what I hate, I can\u2019t refrain.\u201d). It may not be the end of the Gospel story, but it\u2019s part of most people\u2019s experience of it over their lives. Leaving it out is like having Easter without Lent.<\/p>\n

Read more at First Things\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m over at\u00a0First Things today, talking about why people may want to drop barriers to Communion out of fear of excluding the people who most need strength and support, and offering suggestions for other ways to see, know, and love our pewmates: Communion is often the sign of acceptance that people seek\u2014not just because it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":11800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-11799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parsing-catholicism","tag-quest-for-community"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Offer Community Without Communion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm over at\u00a0First Things today, talking about why people may want to drop barriers to Communion out of fear of excluding the people who most need strength\" 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