www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Now I've seen it all!

Read and enjoy, it appears to be the wave of the future!

http://www.thecompakcompaniesllc.com/Communion_Packaging.html

Jaw hit ground with a terrible thump.

This I really do NOT believe

AS positively strange, casual and irreverend as it is, I *suppose* that in certain specific situations it *might* come in handy (?)--though wafers as the means of the Eucharist are not all that difficult to distribute and handle are they?

What is the procedure of blessing the wafers? Is there something like the 'proskomide' before the Mass? Where are they made? Would this impede any blessing, or does it not really matter?

I guess this is just another further 'casualization' of the Roman Catholic experience. No offense to anybody but 'traditional' seems to carry alot of baggage with alot of Roman Catholics today. It may be a sort of rebellion that simply needs time to ease--kind of like a rebellious teen that needs to grow up to appreciate the values of their parent.

Alice

P.S. Kind of reminds me of the plastic spoon experience a bishop in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America had suggested (and may have briefly implemented) in reaction to the fears of faithful about AIDS.

That is suited for the types of communion I had at a Baptist church. They see communion is seen as a symbol of faith and fellowship. We would keep the unleavened bread in our hands until the pastor gave the communion prayer and eat it with "this is my body". Our pews even had cup holders for the grape juice. I used to collect the spent shot-size cups.

Yes, this ad is clearly directed toward Protestants. I didn't see anything in it to suggest otherwise.

Catholics and Orthodox who are not familiar with typical Protestant communion practice may find all this extremely odd, but the only thing odd from a Protestant perspective would be the use of the sealed cups.


Peace,
Deacon Richard

Dear Alice:

What made you think that this is done, or the way it is done, in the Roman Catholic Church?

The marketing of the communion packet, or packaging, is obviously directed at Protestant ecclesial communities which have the occasional "communion!"

The "pieces of unleavened bread" (not the normal communion wafers) have not been consecrated by a Roman Catholic priest and the coummunion cup contains grape juice, not wine.

Amado

Dear Amado,

I am sorry. I thought this was created for Catholics. I admit that I did not search the website thoroughly...

Again, forgive me for jumping to conclusions!

I guess the old adage of 'when you assume, you make....' refers to me!

Alice

Just saw this on another message board. Truly Communion, American consumer style. I can see theologically conservative, unliturgical Protestants going in for this. (Liberal Protestants tend to be at least somewhat liturgical and have better taste.)

The 'wee cuppies' (as Scottish Presbyterians call them) are used from the less liturgical version of Lutherans on down the Protestant spectrum.

The plastic seal is like a parody of consumer culture. Hooray, more landfill waste.

Reminds me of when Oral Roberts sent wafers through the post.

tasteless! that's all I can say about such a mockery of the Lord's Supper, that and the insult to GOD's creation by, like Young Fogey says, more landfill waste. I thought it was bad enough to have shot glass "wee cuppies" and everyone sit on their butts in the pew and have "Hi, I'm Jonn, I'll be your Communion server this morning" type goings on. hopefully, more than a few sensitive (and sensible) evangelicals will have enough of this rubbish and turn Catholic, Orthodox or conservative Anglican.
Much Love,
Jonn

Jonn, Alice, et al.,

In some of the communities that already use disposible cups in their communion trays, this might be a good way to set up Communion Services the night before. Simply go through the church and place these in the little holders on the back of each pew and its already for the next day's Service.

It's interesting to note that theology is expressed in how one approaches the logistics of distributing the Eucharist. The community's understanding is expressed in this type of concrete usage. To me it's interesting that the more quickly one can "get it done" the less one focuses on what the Apostolic Churches refer to as the Body and Blood of Christ.

BOB

The closest I ever came to this was a lecture/sermon on the Vietnam War which was held (the lecture/sermon, not the Vietnam War) in some sort of Protestant place of worship in Washington D.C. I notice the "holders" on the pew in front of me, and quietly asked what they were. When I was told, I assumed it was a joke, in bad taste.

Fr. Serge

Shlomo John,

This makes me think of the commercial where they say: "...but wait, there's more!" This is the Ronco [ronco.com] for the low Church Protestant class. I think we should all order a sample and use it as an example of sin of commercialism.

And we need to get to our fellow Catholics and Orthodox to make sure this type of trash does not infect our Churches.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Yes, I recall communion in my local Baptist church as a teenager. We only had it three times a year. The containers for the "Grape Juice" were glass, however, not saramental sippy cups.

Go easy on Miss Alice...unless you've spent a lot of time with Baptists, it would be easy to be confused.

Especially when this guy has a web page:

http://www.thepunkpriest.com/

I will now curl up into the fetal position....

Fr. Deacon Daniel

not just Baptists, Fr Deacon

As a 15yr old [ many many moons ago ] I remember Communion in my father's Methodist Church - monthly with individual wee glass cups and cubes of bread - all prepared by the Society Stewards beforehand and brought round on trays with holes for the glasses and a central dish for the bread. You took one of each and placed them on the shelf of the pew in front of you - fine for the glass and the bread just went on the varnished wood. There they sat during the ordinary morning service till the youngsters went out and the Communion Service started.

Thank you.