Word: eucharists
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...their notable successes in interfaith cooperation, Roman Catholics and Protestants are still separated by knotty doctrinal differences as old as the Reformation. Among the major problems are varying notions of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, differing concepts of priesthood and ministry, and conflicting definitions of apostolic succession, that essential tie to the Apostles that most Christians see-in various ways-as a necessary mark of an authentic church. By Catholic standards, neither the ministry nor the Eucharist of Protestant churches is valid, and until recently, any hope of unity seemed to lie in Protestant submission to those standards...
...Protestant reformers radically reinterpreted these doctrines. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin explained the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist in different ways. Other reformers declared that the sacrament was merely a commemorative act recalling the Last Supper. In preaching the "priesthood of all believers," Luther acknowledged the need of ministers to preach the Gospel, but nearly all Continental Protestants rejected the necessity of bishops and the notion of holy orders as a sacrament...
...Church of England, while retaining bishops and an ordination ceremony, also played down the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and the sacramental status of the priesthood. In the view of traditional Catholic theology, the Church of England (and other churches of the Anglican communion) thus lost apostolic succession and validity...
Bishops and Batons. Today, two important developments in 20th century theology have made it possible for Catholics and Protestants to reconsider the whole argument and think of intercommunion. One is a broadened, more flexible understanding of the Eucharist among many Catholic and Protestant theologians. In 1967, an Anglican-Roman Catholic study group produced a statement indicating substantial agreement on the Eucharist. Later the same year, in an important but little-noticed move, Roman Catholics and Lutherans in the U.S. issued a scholarly, 200-page book on the Eucharist that ended with a remarkable ten-page statement of consensus. Father George...
Shannon still wears his episcopal ring as well as a wedding band. He attends Mass regularly at St. Anne's Church in Santa Fe, but carefully honors the excommunication penalty and does not receive the Eucharist; to take communion, he feels, "would be disruptive of the good order of the church." He cares deeply about that order, still reverently referring to Pope Paul as "the Holy Father." Shannon says grace before every meal. He conducts simple home devotions-Scripture readings and a few prayers-several times a week...