Taking Communion

I dont think it was a swipe at a jurisdiction. It is a practice that can be found across jurisdictions. But I do think she makes a good point---one should follow one's spiritual father, and one should also hope that a priest would respect that relationship and responsibility that we hold highly.

Kolya,
Your priest is certainly a "real" spiritual father. You don't need to go to a monastic in a monastery to find one.

Hi all my friends, and new members of TAW. I know I don't come here often anymore for personal reasons, but I'm still Othodox, and growing Spiritually slowly but surely by God's Mercy.

I don't wish to start an unneccessary controversy here, but I just want to share something I witnessed at Communion during Divine Liturgy today.

A bit of background first. Those who know me are aware that I belong to the Russian Orthodox Church MP. I had the priveledge of meeting our present Patriarch one week before he became the Patrarch while he was still our Metropolitan.

Back to today. Those who know the Russian Church are aware that they are very strict about how and when you may take the Eucharist. The MP is very strict that the Communicant does a confession no longer than 24 hours before taking Communion, and that the Communicant adheres to a strict fast from midnight before till they take part in Communion.

Before every Communion, our Priest states quite clearly in Russian, English and often in Greek too the conditions under which we may take the Eucharist. Today was no exception. But to our absolute amazement, one young lady chose to challenge our Priest on this. In front of a full church, with people still waiting in line, she proceeded to argue with our Priest for nearly five minutes why she should be allowed to take Communion.

The alter-boy holding the Red "wipe cloth" lives with us, so I know a lttle of the conversation between our Priest and the young woman. A few words were in English, though the major part of the altercation was in Greek. Father is fluent in Greek too. She stated that she needed the Eucharist, and was willing to confess after Divine Liturgy. Father stated the obvious that there was a Confession before DL and he did a second Confession for late comers just before the Communion too. She had no excuse really. But after this incident she ripped off her scarf (Yes she had put on a scarf, though most Greek woman visitors do not) stormed out of chruch in obvious embaresment, and left.

I know the Greek church are not as strict as we MP are over Confession before Communion, and I'm not throwing stones over our differences of belief. But the "Ground Rules" were addressed to the Parish before Communion. Was it necessary to go and "Test" the Priest over this matter in front of the assembly?

Forgive me

Kolya

Kolya, my attitude toward communion and confession and priests totally changed last year after an experience I had. I do not wish to state here what happened as I know I will be judged quite harshly. However, it was made very clear to me by the priest that is now my spiritual father that unless he tells me to not be at the chalice that he expects to see my face there every week. He then went on to express anger toward 2 priests who had denied me communion. Thus I think priests need to be very careful about how they behave and what kind of signals they send the faithful. The damage this priest might have caused to this woman's spiritual life and her trust in the Church may have been catastrophic. Priests are there for the salvation of their parishoners, not to act as judge and jury.

Wow. What's going on with the board? Both my posts didn't show up. ???