EARLY COMMUNION

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 25, Issue 40, 26 May 1914, Page 4

EARLY COMMUNION

At a parish, meeting at Temuka recently, which was of a rather stormy nature, the subject of early Communion was raised by several dissatisfied parishioners. The Rev. A. H. Norris was recently appointed vicar of Temuka, and his introduction of early service seems to have set the parish on edge, especially his remark in a sermon that some people were afraid of .a bit of frost.” Bishop Julius too is alleged (though we are inclined very much to doubt) to have called anti-early service folk “ lazy swine ” —a very unprelatical phrase and not likely to heal the breach. In connection with the subject of early Communion —once a very much debated question, but now one that crops up but rarely it is interesting to note a reply to a correspondent which appeared in last Saturday's Christchurch “Sun.” We quote question and answer in extenso, and our friends in Marlborough, who have themselves differed on this matter, will note the moderateness of both the query and reply. The correspondent writing said The matter of early Com- : munion and of fasting Communion 'is again to the fore. Now, is it not universally recognised that the Lord’s Supper was instituted at night? Does not the service in the Prayer Book itself, “on the, same night that he was betrayed?” Was it not instituted also immediately after a meal? Does not the service itself say, “ likewise, after supper,” and does not St. Paul say (1 Cor. xi. 34), “If any man hunger, let him eat at home ” —i.e., before coming to the Lord’s table?—Protestant. The editorial reply was as follows The Churches that contend for fasting communion and morning communion do not pretend to defend these on the bare words of Scripture. That would obviously be impossible. They say, “It was not the Bible that made the Church, but the Church that made the Bible. The Bible is the history of the early life of the Church, and was never intended to prevent growth. Even in the short time covered by the New Testament there is considerable development recorded. Later developments were as true and as important as the earlier ones, so long as they express the life of the spiritual organism. It would be a foolish proceeding for any man to insist that the newly burst acorn is the ideal oak, and that all later developments are departures from the Creator’s idea, and that the noble trees of five centuries’ growth are not oaks at all, but monstrous abortions. Yet, say they, this is precisely what those people do who determine to try every growth of reverence and devotion during 19 centuries, by a book that records the story of two or three decades of the first century. The Church is the Church’s chief authority, and the Church ordained fast communion for the better expression of reverence,. as the meaning of the rite became clearer.”