does your church have an open or closed communion, and what are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Hippie,

We are open. It's the only way and everything else is sinful and leads to bad behavior.

Answer 2

If by "closed communion", you mean that only those who are already in communion with God and the church are allowed to participate, then yes, the Catholic Church has a 'closed communion".

"Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

1 Cor 11: 27-29

Answer 3

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has closed communion... we believe it is the body and the blood together with the bread and the wine. It is not merely a symbol. Therefore we only commune with those who are in agreement with us. Those who believe differently are welcome to come up and be blessed by the pastor.
Now, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America does have open communion with a handful of other denominations. Top of my head, I couldn't tell you which ones.

Answer 4

First off, this a free country (USA) with freedom of religion. Thus, churches and denominations have a perfect right to carry out their own internal liturgical functions any way they choose.

If a congregant doesn't happen to agree in his church's case, then, hey! There are a myriad of other places he can go. Or he can work within the church for change, as he chooses.

Answer 5

I am Catholic and in almost all circumstances we do not allow others to partake in our communion. This is not because we want to be jerks. We believe that Jesus' flesh and blood are truly present in the Eucharist. It is not symbolic or anything like that. So in other words we actually believe we are eating Jesus' flesh, as if He were alive today. As Non-Catholics do not hold this belief we prevent them from partaking for their own protection. The issue is that if you partake in this extremely holy sacrament, and you do not believe, you are doing something that is spiritually dangerous. If Jesus really is offering His flesh for us to eat, and people just eat it without even believing it's really His flesh, do you think he would appreciate that? Futhermore, we beleive that the Eucharist is the greatest miracle that occurs. In fact far greater than any apparition, so we take it very seriously.

Our Christian brothers who celebrate their own communion, do not believe in this true presence like we do, so it's really not the same thing.

Answer 6

My church has the Silent Lord's Supper where you are aloud to come in on your own time and take it by yourself.

However once every quarter, the entire church has one as a part of a regular service.

I know this seems weird, but I always get more out of the Silent Lord's Supper than the church service one. It allows for me to have one-on-one time with God.

Answer 7

Open communion for all who are saved

Answer 8

you could not be conscious of the reality until you pay attention it. via going to church with an open suggestions to Christianity, you will discover the reality and the different ideals will not make experience to you. that's real that lukewarm Christians do make others stumble yet you could exchange right into a newborn Christian until you could now grow to be a stable one.

Answer 9

The guidelines for receiving Communion, which are issued by the U.S. bishops and published in many missalettes, explain, "We welcome our fellow Christians to this celebration of the Eucharist as our brothers and sisters. We pray that our common baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist will draw us closer to one another and begin to dispel the sad divisions which separate us. We pray that these will lessen and finally disappear, in keeping with Christ’s prayer for us ‘that they may all be one’ (John 17:21).

"Because Catholics believe that the celebration of the Eucharist is a sign of the reality of the oneness of faith, life, and worship, members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Communion. Eucharistic sharing in exceptional circumstances by other Christians requires permission according to the directives of the diocesan bishop and the provisions of canon law. . . . "

Scripture is clear that partaking of the Eucharist is among the highest signs of Christian unity: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Cor. 10:17). For this reason, it is normally impossible for non-Catholic Christians to receive Holy Communion, for to do so would be to proclaim a unity to exist that, regrettably, does not.

Another reason that many non-Catholics may not ordinarily receive Communion is for their own protection, since many reject the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Scripture warns that it is very dangerous for one not believing in the Real Presence to receive Communion: "For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died" (1 Cor. 11:29–30).

Answer 10

The Catholics don't. That's why I would never step foot in a catholic church.