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Reply-to:	[log in to unmask] (Eric Griffin)
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Eric Griffin writes:

"Dear Folks:

The practice of concelebration has slowly gained wider approval in our
diocese, and I thought at first that it was a nice thing to do, good and
Catholic,etc.  But then in conversations with Lutherans, who reject the
practice, have come to see their point: there can be only one presider at the
eucharist.  To have all the priests present participate all at 
once in the words of institition (some of us being enlightened also whisper
the epiklesis too) says bad things about the nature of consecration,
priesthood, and heirarchy in the Church."

As described this seems indeed to be saying bad things about consecration. A
concelebration properly performed should involve all concelebrants saying the
whole of the eucharistic canon.

Further to this, even in a concelebration there should be a clearly denoted
president, who on occasion speaks as presider for the whole assembly,
including her or his brother or sister priests. Should rubrics be required to
make all of this a reality (within an Anglican setting) I should be happy, off
list, to supply them. 

A priest among others as president says something good about hierarchy, namely
that all members of the order are in order alike. As Eric Griffin accepts the
exception of concelebration at ordination as a sign of the sharing in
ministry, so there are other occasions when concelebration is appropriate, for
instance at Diocesan conventions or situations like that in this parish, where
we are a team of four priests looking after five churches. When we gather, as
we do on occasion, for a joint celebration it is good that all the priests
should co-offer the eucharist. By the same token as many other ministries as
possible should be celebrated in the same setting so that all exercise their
ministry within 
the assembly.

May I take this topic slightly further off the original drift, to deprecate
the practice I have seen occasionally of "joint presidency" where the
eucharistic prayer is divided up between individual priests. This fractures
the unity of the eucharistic prayer, and is moreover confusing to people. The
Roman Catholic Eucharistic prayers are suitable at points for division in this
way and the points of division are clearly indicated in the rubrics. But the
same does not apply to any Anglican rite I have seen.

Alistair Stewart-Sykes
A Parish Priest in the Diocese of Lichfield, UK

Soon to be Assistant Professor of Liturgics at the General Theological
Seminary in New York






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