Jordan Paul
It is the law of friendship that friends should live together. . . . Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood. —St Thomas Aquinas
Dear Friends,
Today’s reading from Acts tells the story of the birth of the Church and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is, to put it mildly, a big event. Priests invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine at Mass. Bishops invoke the Holy Spirit at ordinations. In short, it’s the reason the Church exists.
In the middle of last month, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops put on the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, the first in the US since 1941. The impetus for the Congress was a 2019 survey finding that roughly two-thirds of Catholics believed that the Eucharist was only a symbol rather than actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ. As part of its response to that survey, the USCCB prepared teaching documents on the Eucharist in 2021. In 2022, they launched a “Eucharistic Revival,” culminating in four Eucharistic pilgrimages that wound their ways through the US, ending in Indianapolis for the Congress.
The Congress was not without controversy. A renewed focus on the Eucharist led to controversies on whether the church as a whole should deny communion to Joe Biden as a result of his stance on abortion. The Congress itself was expensive. Some argued that it was just another extravagance in a church full of them. But, what does this have to do with Anglicanism?
Catholics not being certain on their own doctrine is not something exclusive to Catholicism. While the mystery of real presence in Anglican eucharistic theology differs from transubstantiation in Catholic eucharistic theology, I would like to see a survey of the percentage of members of our church who misunderstand that doctrine. Even something as relatively straightforward as baptism can be confused—the discourse around communion without baptism being a prime example.
This isn’t an argument for putting on a $14 million Anglican eucharistic revival, but it should be a warning. We are, in many ways, a culture that is post-Christian. We cannot always expect that knowledge of doctrine is as strong as it once was. And it should be a clear call to form our members—both young and old —better, lest we wait until it’s too late.
In Christ,
—Jordan