Should Catholics receive communion in an Anglican church?

[Golda]

I am going to a baptism tomorrow in a CofE church. Are Catholics supposed to receive in other churches?

really? Why would Anglican priests not be validly ordained? What's that about?

(I can see the woman priest issue thing but beyond that?)

because they have not been ordained by RC bishops, who (the RC church believes) are all in the apostolic succession, i.e. descended from Peter, the first head of the Church.

but neither are Orthodox priests though

I too take communion in whatever church I happen to be in , so I will be joining you there teamcullen if that's the case

I don't know enough about the Orthodox churches but I suspect that there is less crossover between RCs and Orthodox purely because of the geogrpahy of the thing. But yes, same point about ordination and apostolic succession applies.

They are validly ordained, zzz.

But the hierarchy of the catholic church has a problem.... even though their current pope has dubious apostolic credentials.

Basically, all bishops have to have hands laid on by another bishops. When the Anglican communion split from the RCC, the Anglican bishops were already in place so were valid. They were able to pass on the apostolic succession within Anglicanism, quite validly.

Yes... they can if they want to.

I think catholics ask Anglicans to respect the fact that they don't want anglicans to take communion in their church though. [shcok]

I think it links into the RC keeping things exclusive.

I posted a thread the other day about whether my RC friends could be godparents to my CofE children. The answer was yes.

I asked because I knew from my own background that in RC church, godarents must be RC as well.

CofE seems much more laid back - althugh my church is like lankyalto's - v smiliar to RC. When we started going I felt right at home, DH who actually is anglican thought it all a bit much!

It is not a case of being more laid back, SQ. It is a case of being more biblical.

I thought there was an agreement between Orthodoxie and Catholicism that basically if you are a member of an Orthodox church, you can take communion in a Catholic Church and v.v.

That's why I'm wondering how that's different since their priests are also not ordained by RC bishops, IYSWIM

But I may have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere

I think they are more laid back - re homosexuality, women vicars, contraception etc.

That's what I meant by laid back and why I'm not RC any more.

SQ, in the RC church only one of the Godparents has to be RC.

That's what our parish priest told me when we got DD baptised. As it was, her Godmother was brought up RC but is now a total atheist and her Godfather although being a practising RC is gay and therefore probably not approved of anyway.... oh God, I AM going to Hell, aren't I??

yes, I also thought one godparent had to be RC

Oh I see. Yes I meant letting other christians be godparents, take communion.

To me it just seems a bit more open.

zzz, the apostolic succession means that the bishop can trace an unbroken line of bishops who have laid hands on one another.

It doesn't matter waht denomination they belong to.

I don't think Christ recognises denominations.

I don't really want to get into a debate about what is biblical or not, for a start we are talking about infant baptism which certainly isn't what Jesus administered.

I am the practising Anglican godmother of 2 children both of whom are being brought up by a non-practising RC mother and atheist father. One of my fellow godparents is practising RC gay man, other is agnostic. All this known to parish priest.

I think that the Official Line of most churches is largely ignored on parish level by the priests who actually deal with people in extremis. There are far more important Christian issues than who sleeps with whom and what orifice they use. But that is a whole other debate

Fruitbeard - I thought they all had to be? And practicing too - my practicing RC friends are hotly in demand for GP duties - and so have stacks of godchildren!

I could have it wrong though - I'm going on what I'm told I haven;t been connected with the church for years.

no I get what you're saying, I am jst having difficulty trying to understand hwy the Anglican apostolic succession is not considered valid by the RCC and the Orthodox one is, despite the schism. So why the difference there?

Never mind me. I can be a bit slow at times

maybe SQ these days, it is just a question of taking wht you can get. Maybe in the past, you could be stringent about things like godparents all having one confession and being active members of the parish etc etc

I've not been confirmed and have never taken communion. But how can it be BAD to take communion whichever church you are in. I'm fully aware about the blood and body of christ thing, but how could any Christian consider it to be BAD?

well it is supposed to be quite a reverant, serious thing . I was in a Baptist church and the minister was about to pass around the wine and bread and he kept saying, if there is anything between you and God at the moment, please don't partake of it. And if you have not actively asked Jesus to be your saviour, please pray with us but we ask you not to partake of the bread and wine.

So I think it's not just a RC thing.

Infant baptism is perfectly fine in both the RCC and AC. Children of believing parents can be baptised - no probs. Biblically, in the early church, whole households were baptised, so we can conclude that this included children who were too young to make the promises for themselves.

Maybe zzzen maybe

Was it swine flu cat? That's why they weren't having wine for a while.