HallamPhil wrote:Re Southern Comfort's proposal ... I believe this might have been mentioned in a Liturgy Office publication about Celebrating the feast. I wonder if it was also there that it was suggested that this might be a better day for concentraton on all ministry within the Body of Christ ... all of us becomng what we receive rather than a concentration on the elements and who delivers them.
But I could be wrong ... it's late!
If it was, it's not on the LO website.
festivaltrumpet wrote:This thread has so far discussed the renewal of commitment by ordinary ministers. Extraordinary ministers of communion should not be singled out for recommitment lest it reinforce the misconception that they are clergy and that they have an entitlement to distribute the Blessed Sacrament.
I understand this fear, but do not agree with it. A public acknowledgement of service rendered to a community is not the same as creeping clericalism, and may not come across as such.
festivaltrumpet wrote:It would be better to remove that notion and stress the extraordinary nature of the role.
Here we enter into more difficult territory and risk going off-topic. In theory, the role is extra-ordinary. In practice, it isn't. In fact we can rejoice in seeing just how much lay ministers are able to make a valuable contribution to the life of the community (and I don't mean just at Mass). The problem is that Rome continues to insist on how extra-ordinary lay ministers are. One reason is that they fear a diminution of the status of the priest, though I think that fear is unfounded. The other more obvious reason is that they don't actually know what lay ministers look like because they have never seen them. They don't exist in Rome. The place is black with priests, so lay ministers are not needed. (The same ignorance drives their restrictions around Communion under both kinds - they don't know what it looks like or what the logistics [e.g. purification] are because it never normally happens for the laity in Rome. Don't get me started.)
festivaltrumpet wrote:If the suggestion which Southern Comfort makes were utilised, one would also need to recommit all laity who excercise a role within the liturgy.
That's precisely what quite a number of parishes do. They have a "Ministry Sunday". There was a time when the fashion was to do this on Maundy Thursday evening. They based this on the act of service in foot-washing and on the institution of the Eucharist, but it overloaded the rite - which is where this whole thread started.
I have no more problem about acknowledging the service of different kinds of ministry (as mentioned above) than I have about, for example, inducting a new Parish Pastoral Council during Mass, which certainly happens. Just as long as you don't do it too often, don't overdo it so that it does look clerical, and make sure that you acknowledge the ministry of the assembly too - all those folk who don't have a specific ministerial role but who bind the Church together by their very presence (as well as by their financial contributions
).
