Challenging Communion

In this book, Jennifer Garrison examines literary representations of the central symbol of later medieval religious culture: the Eucharist. In contrast to scholarship that depicts mainstream believers as enthusiastically and simplistically embracing the Eucharist, Challenging Communion: The Eucharist and Middle English Literature identifies a pervasive Middle English literary tradition that rejects simplistic notions of eucharistic promise. Through new readings of texts such as Piers Plowman, A Revelation of Love, The Book of Margery Kempe, and John Lydgate's religious poetry, Garrison shows how writers of Middle English often take advantage of the ways in which eucharistic theology itself contests the boundaries between the material and the spiritual, and how these writers challenge the eucharistic idea of union between Christ and the community of believers.

How should a Catholic pastor respond to non-Catholics who wish to have Communion without conveying harshness, scrupulosity, legalism, or rudeness? Intended to help Christians recognize the present provisional norms and to seek new possibilities in eucharistic sharing, Communion with Non-Catholic Christians examines the risks, challenges, and opportunities involved in the admission of Communion to non-Catholic Christians.

Can the church celebrate the eucharist in "contagious times," like the coronavirus pandemic, and if so, how? In this book, Richard Burridge investigates a wide range of proposed options, both in the everyday physical world (fasting the eucharist, spiritual communion, solo and concelebrated communions, lay presidency, drive-in and drive-thru eucharists, and extended communion) and in cyberspace (computer services for avatars, broadcast eucharists online, and narrowcast communions using webinar software like Zoom). Along the way, he tackles the whole range of concepts of the church, ordination, and the eucharist. This book is essential reading for anyone desiring an informed and provocative guide to the theology and practice of holy communion in our challenging times.

Three churches have recently produced liturgies for 'extended communion'. This is the distribution of previously consecrated elements at a public service by lay people or a deacon in the absence of a priest. This development began in the Roman Catholic Church with the Vatican 'Directory on Sunday Worship in the absence of a priest' in 1988. The Methodist Church produced a service of Extended Communion in 1999, and the Church of England authorized 'Public Worship with Communion by Extension' in 2001. In this book Phillip Tovey examines these churches to discover the reasons for the production of these services and their theological rationale. An in-depth examination of case studies draws conclusions highly relevant to the wider church.

Is your church facing a period of change? Are you overwhelmed with too much to do? Or are you searching for a new vision? If you are looking to take your church in a new direction, then How to Develop Your Local Church can help you decide which path to follow. Written by an experienced practitioner, it will help you to understand your congregation better: how it operates, what its members take for granted, what their priorities are and what the 'character' of the congregation is. The book then explains some of the reasons for frustration and conflict in church life, and points to positive ways forward, giving guidance on planning and decision-making. Just as no two churches are the same, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' answer to how your church might develop. Rather, it is only by drawing upon the collective wisdom of the local congregation that worthwhile change will begin to happen.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.