Matthew's Journal

The Sacrament Act 1547 established that communion should be given in both kinds (i.e. bread and wine), "excepte necessitie otherwise require"[1]. In response to government advice[2], the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have advised that Communion should be given in one kind only for the time being.

This struck me as slightly odd advice, so I went and looked at PubMed. There isn't a great deal of literature on the subject, but there are a few papers from the late 1980s, when there was concern regarding transmission of HIV. For example, this article from someone working at the Public Health Laboratory says "No episode of disease attributable to the shared communion cup has ever been reported. Currently available data do not provide any support for suggesting that the practice of sharing a common communion cup should be abandoned because it might spread infection." Maybe the HPA has more up-to-date research on the risks involved?

I wonder if the advice was based on the idea that there is no cost whatsoever involved in people receiving in one kind only, so even if there is no evidence of risk reduction, "it can't hurt"? It strikes me that the effort would be better spent in encouraging people who have (or have recently recovered from) flu-like symptoms to stay at home - an infectious individual is going to transmit flu more readily to the people they sit next to in the pew than they are to people via the chalice.

[1] picking out the nuances from Sixteenth-century legalese is left as an exercise for the reader.
[2] page 19 of the PDF downloadable from that page

Dr Nazir-Ali, bishop of Rochester, says to the Telegraph about those Christians who think homosexual relations are OK "We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made. People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible. The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature." At the FoCA meeting a week or so back, John Broadhurst, bishop of Fulham said "I now believe Satan is alive and well and he resides at Church House".

I find this attitude rather astonishing. Christians disagree on a range of important issues like stem cell research, abortion, whether war is ever justified, how to deal with poverty, etc. without anyone suggesting seriously that we should schism over them. And yet if you disagree as to whether homosexual relationships are sinful or not, you're not a Christian? It makes you wonder what our collective priorities are :-(

( obviously this calls for a poll :) [largely aimed at the Christians on my fiends list] )

Feel free to comment, but please try extra-hard to be polite! The Remember Rule 163 got rather too bad-tempered in places.

Yesterday was the Fresh Expressions National Pilgrimage, which was about "forming fresh expressions of the church in a sacramental and contemplative tradition", as well as the feast of the conception of the BVM. Conveniently, it was held at Coventry Cathedral, so I thought I'd go along. I wasn't really quite sure what to expect...

( So, what happened? ) As I turned to leave, I looked back and the entire void of the cathedral was filled with incense smoke - that should surely happen more often! :-)

Traditionally, the liturgy of Maundy Thursday is a continuum with the liturgies of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. There's a strong eucharistic element, too - we recall Christ's institution of the Eucharist; additionally, it is the last time most people will receive communion until Easter morning.

After the Liturgy of the Word, we had the Maundy Washing, in which we recall Christ's washing of the disciples feet. In Coventry, this is done by people washing each others' feet - the ministers sit and wait for a member of the congregation to wash their feet, and then recipricate; other members of the congregation may come up and wash each others' feet, too. This seemed to capture the call not just to wash others' feet, but to let our feet be washed too. In typical Anglican fashion, however, only a small number of the congregation actually took part - we're all too reticent!

After the Eucharistic rite, there was a short gospel reading (Matthew 26, after the Last Supper, as Christ prepares to go to Gethsemane), and the altar was stripped, whilst the choir sang the lament of Psalm 88. Coventry's not the most decorated of places to begin with, and they couldn't remove or cover the tapestry, which meant this perhaps lacked the impact it has at, e.g. LSM. None the less, the lights were also extinguished as this happened (echoing, perhaps, Tenebrae, which won't happen in Coventry this year?), and we were left in near-darkness by the end (we needed some light to avoid the BBC's trip hazards!). We stood in silence as the last torch was carried down the length of the cathedral, through the eerily-lit West Window, and up into the ruined cathedral, flickering away towards the old altar. Some will watch until midnight, like the disciples tried to do while Christ prayed in Gethsemane; the rest of us departed in silence, reflecting once more upon the Passion, and the liturgies to come before Easter.

This morning's service was a joint service between the Cathedral, Holy Trinity Church, Coventry Methodist Central Hall, and Cornerstone Methodist Church. We started in University Square, moved to the ruins, and thence to Holy Trinity Church. Thankfully, given all the outdoor bits, the weather was dry and sunny, if a little bracing in the wind!

We had the usual hymns: All glory, laud, and honour; Ride on, ride on in majesty; My song is love unknown; and When I survey the wondrous cross. Additionally there was a Modern Worship Song during communion (King of kings, majesty). The liturgy was fairly traditional, despite the range of traditions represented, although we had one of the lower eucharistic prayers, and the second gospel reading was acted by a Zimbabwean group (from one of the Methodist churches), which was very effective. The congregations mixed happily, with people being true to their own traditions - some people genuflected, whilst others waved their hands during the hymns.

As the notes inside the order of service said, Palm Sunday doesn't just remind us of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but also prefigures his coming torture and execution; we who sing Hosanna to Jesus also shout "Crucify him!" to Pilate. The outdoor processions also act as a public act of witness, and an invitation to onlookers to join us on the journey through Holy Week to Easter; in this regard, the ecumenical nature of today's service is especially to be welcomed.

If I was to criticise, it would be that there wasn't really an opportunity for the congregation to mingle socially after the service.

On Tuesday, I gave another microsermon (three minutes or less / around 300 words); I doubt I'll do that again in Selwyn for a very long time, and possibly no-where ever again...

The readings were Ezekiel 33: 1-20 and John 13: 12-20. I found this harder to write than some of my previous efforts, but it seems to have been well-received. Joe (the chaplain) particularly liked it. Below the cut is the text I wrote, which will have been roughly what I said...

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This evening, I gave another micro-sermon (3 minutes/300 words). The lections were 2 Chronicles 28 and Romans 4 13-end.

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I preached at Selwyn last tuesday - 3 minutes on Isaiah 49:1-13 and Acts 22:3-16.
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