<p>Would you mind telling me what open communion and closed communion mean for your Churches? I’ve never heard the terms before.</p>
<p>corranged, I’m definitely not a religious scholar by any stretch of the imagination, so this is totally <em>my opinion</em>. Please don’t take this as religious doctrine. </p>
<p>From my standpoint, I would consider the Catholic church (which I was a member of for several years, however I became Lutheran a few years ago - and I left with no animosity towards the Catholic religion), as a church that practices “closed” communion. Only members of the Catholic church in good standing, (as well as some others, as outlined in the link in my last post) may receive Holy Communion. </p>
<p>In the Lutheran church that I belong to, which is in the ECLA synod, any person, regardless of their church membership, may receive communion as long as they are a baptised believer in Christ. That would be my definition of “open” communion.</p>
<p>I assumed it was something like that. Thanks, Coronax.</p>
<p>I judge religions by the food ( I picked co-op preschools this way too)</p>
<p>Lutherans have good xmas cookies- but lutefisk bad ( also nice strong coffee)</p>
<p>Not so fond of jello & no coffee gives LDS a black mark ( and the ones I have dined with- are the worst cooks, when you have to feed a family of 7, on one income, corners are cut- however if you like dessert- they go all out)</p>
<p>Love potato pancakes and Kugel, so far Judaism is ahead</p>
<p>However- I also have leanings toward vegetarianism, and the Tassajara Monks ( Zen) put out a great cookbook
:)</p>
<p>Religions (All):</p>
<p>Positive: Gives credence to the voices in my head.</p>
<p>Negative: Gives credence to the voices in everybody else’s head.</p>
<p>Never mind, it was said already a lot shorter. But my denomination identifies strongly with the practice of open communion. It’s what got our founders kicked out of the church they belonged to, sometime back in the 1800s.</p>
<p>Cumudgeon “I like that faith brings my daughter great peace and sometimes even joy. I like that faith provides her bedrock in which to anchor herself when the storms come. I like that when I’m gone (wherever the heck it is people like me go) she’ll have something both strong and comforting to hold onto.”</p>
<p>Thank you this hit home with me! My D has had several storms this past year and her faith has been there for her as have I, but it gave me peace to recognize in what you said, she will always have her faith…</p>
<p>It is faith not religion that makes us better people…religious choice is just a preferred path.</p>
<p>Islam
What I like: EVERYTHING
What I Don’t like: Nothing</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is when people call themselves a certain religion, but don’t follow the tenets of it. I have family members who call them selves Catholic, but don’t listen to one word the Pope says. To me, that’s behaving like an Episcopalian! (which is what I am.)</p>
<p>Mathmom wrote on my explanation of Jews as a chosen people: “It does sound better that way, but it still bothers me as a concept.”</p>
<p>I agree! Lots of Jews struggle with it and there are many rabbinical writings discussing the idea. To me, that sort of intellectual and ethical disagreement and struggle is very Jewish.</p>
<p>And then there’s the old joke that, given what Jews have had to endure in their history, couldn’t God have chosen someone else? ;)</p>
<p>first of all…LOL at emeraldkity’s take. Lutherans DO make great cookies! I recommend picking up a Lutheran cookbook for tasty recipes (some passed down through many generations).</p>
<p>coronax - yes…raised and married in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. My husband left the Presbyterian Church to become Lutheran as well. (His family has a very interesting religious history. We are told… Sephardic Jews who came to the “New World” in the late 1500s, moved to an isolated area of New Mexico and later adopted a Protestant faith as a ‘cover’ to avoid Spanish persecution…which is, we believe, why there has never been any Catholics in his entire Spanish family. I’m trying to do some research, fact-gathering on this for my children’s sake. But I digress…)</p>
<p>Regarding communion. I do disagree with closed communion, and we briefly left the Missouri Synod for the ELCA a few years ago. But I have so many family members who worship at the same church, it’s hard to leave that behind. So we are back in the Missouri Synod fold.</p>
<p>ldmom, your husband’s history sounds very interesting. I can see why you’d want to research it. </p>
<p>I think it would be hard to change churches when you have roots in a particular congregation. I guess after making a few moves, we don’t have that sort of foundation. I know there’s not a church that I would be in total agreement, but I feel like we’ve found a church and congregation that we are very comfortable with, and we agree on most, if not all, major religious issues. And the cookies are delicious…lol.</p>
<p>I was brought up in a United Methodist church, and when I was about 15 I read about different Christian denominations to decide if I was really a Methodist or something else. I came to the conclusion that Methodism worked pretty well for me – lots of hymn-singing, lots of social justice, and lots of experiencing God the way you felt was right.</p>
<p>I think that even now, although I’m theologically wandering somewhere around the agnostic/atheist line, I’m still a Methodist in some fundamental sense.</p>
<p>We, Moravians, make excellent cookies, too. Also sugar buns. There’s nothing quite like a Love Feast.</p>
<p>gah…you all are going to drive me to carbs. lol!!</p>
<p>
And that’s what I find most fascinating about Judaism. I don’t know any other religion that ponders the meaning of the written word as much as they do.</p>