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5 - Eucharistic ministry: controversies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

George Hunsinger
George Hunsinger
Affiliation:
Princeton Theological Seminary
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Summary

“Church ministry and authority” would not be an item that ranks high in the hierarchy of truths. Barriers to eucharistic sharing would initially seem more formidable elsewhere. The real presence of Christ in the eucharist, for example, as well as whether, or in what sense, the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice, are questions that loomed large for the Reformation and continue to loom large today. Greater progress has now been made among Lutherans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics on those matters than has yet to occur with the Reformed churches. Although promising resources for ecumenical convergence are available to the Reformed on real presence and eucharistic sacrifice, they remain largely untapped. Yet even if difficulties could be resolved at the conceptual level, entrenched habits of mind would still remain. As long as Zwingli remains our liturgical master, it will be hard for us in the Reformed tradition to benefit from the ecumenical progress occurring elsewhere.

The Reformed tradition has special problems to confront, both doctrinal and attitudinal, regarding eucharistic ministry. In recent decades the ministry issue has moved to the forefront of ecumenical discussion. It involves enormous perplexities. Although some of these are shared by Lutherans and Reformed alike, Lutherans may again find it easier than the Reformed to achieve convergence with historic traditions of ministry as found in Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Eucharist and Ecumenism
Let Us Keep the Feast
 , pp. 189 - 219
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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