Quote:
Originally posted by MysticCat81
Isn't it a little more complicated than that? There are others whose beliefs about what happens in Commnunion are much like Catholicism's -- Anglicans, particularly Anglo-Catholics particularly come to mind, as well as the Orthodox. Lutheran and Presbyterian/Reformed beliefs are, in some ways, closer to the Catholic view than to other Protestant views.
The way it was always explained to me is that the Eucharist is a sacrament of, among other things, unity. To a Catholic, that specifically means unity in the Church -- being in union not only in belief but in union with a bishop who is in turn in union with the bishop of Rome. To take Communion in a Catholic church when one is not a Catholic implies a unity that does not exist.
The classical difference between the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches in this regard is that the Catholic Church would insist on unity (as described above) before communion, which would then be a sign of the unity that has been achieved. Meanwhile, most Protestant (mainline, at least) churches would insist only on the unity brought about by baptism, maintaining that taking communing together would lead to unity in other areas.
'Course there's always the renegade. Ms. MysticCat and I were taken quite by surprise once when we were invited to a neighbor's son's First Communion at a local Catholic church. The parents told us to be sure to go up for communion with them, which seemed odd, since they knew we weren't Catholics. But right after that, during announcements before the Mass began, Protestants were specifically invited to take Communion. We've been to that church other times for special services (such as funerals) as well as regular Masses, and always that invitation has been made. Friends who are parishioners there told us once that the bishop had told them quite a few times to stop it, but since the priests were Fransicans not directly under the bishops authority, they just kept saying "we'll think about it."
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It's that, plus it's the transubstantion issue to an extent - not all of the faiths view it as communing with Jesus. I'm really really terrible at explaining this, and I've tried on GC before.
I think my biggest issue is that Protestants simply don't have the same belief structure we do - while we may agree on many many things, ultimately, we think there are two different ways to get to Heaven, and that's a pretty big difference.
Then again, according to several US Bishops, I shouldn't be taking Communion either.
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