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Ask Pr. Sophie
Abstract: Even more reflections on the decision to attend or to abstain from communion, the shape of the table, and the name of the roster.
Pr. Sophie Fortresson, our resident expert on all matters of theology, Lutheran etiquette, and social protocol, answers questions submitted by our readers and occasionally simply volunteers advice when no question has been asked. If you have questions (and who among us doesn't?) send them to pr_sophie@lutheranconfessions.com.
Dear Pr. Sophie:Thanks for taking on this diversity of practice regarding the Eucharist among all of us who want full participation around the font and table.
For me, fasting from tables where I am not fully welcome is less about what it will do for the ELCA or any other institutional church but about conscience, spiritual practice and what it does for me. It is almost as scandalous for me as tab collars and multi-colored clergy shirts (don't even get me started on breast pockets!). Each time I choose not to go forward to accept the meal that I am promised - and as a good confessional lutheran know is valid and effective for me regardless of the integrity of the presider (and I would extrapolate, the institutions and traditions that create sides of the table and who gets to play where) - I am viscerally aware that I could be wrong. Am I adding to my separation from the body or fasting with the hope that a more whole expression of that body might be experienced? I don't know. So as Luther advised, I sin boldly and trust in G_D's grace even more boldly. For now, especially in Lent, that is enough.
My hope is that this or other diversities of spiritual practices and acts of conscience find room within the hospitality of ELM -including the rather Disciples of Christ (or Arthurian?) interpretation of guest and host at the table suggested in your thoughtful response to the Vermont Refugees. Which leads to my question:
So ELM is calling what used to be the ECP roster the "Collegium", Neither is a very snappy name which could be why there has not (to my knowledge) been a huge influx of pastors who have come out in recent years. Maybe "Knights of the Round Table" would be a more attractive collective identity that gets at how truly cool we are. Thanks as always for the inspiration, Pr. Sophie!
Pr. Pellinore
Dear Pr. Pellinore: Well, what can Pr. Sophie say? She came very close to saying she was speechless, but that just wouldn't do now, would it? So Pr. Sophie says, "Wow!"
Pr. Sophie remembers that in the early days of her theological education (at a largish Missouri Synod congregation that shall remain nameless) there was a great deal of talk about "eating and drinking to your own damnation" which was a particularly dramatic way to advise impressionable catechumens that one should not approach the table "unprepared," as it were.
Pr. Sophie (though at the time she was neither female nor a pastor) spent much of her adolescence terrified that she might not be adequately prepared for the Lord's Supper. She inferred that perhaps it is not always automatically right to approach the table. Much has changed since those days, but Pr. Sophie believes that the "visceral awareness" that one might be wrong is an experience that she and Pr. Pellinore share. Pr. Sophie is convinced that the absence of certainty is not necessarily a bad thing, and indeed she hopes that behind our current "diversity of practice" we find common ground in the realization that even in our best efforts to be conscientious, we might nevertheless be mistaken.
With respect to the roster/collegium, Pr. Sophie appreciates the "round table" metaphor, but in her heart of hearts she knows that the reference to "Knights" will be a deal breaker for many.
