Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, Sarasota, Fl. Celebrates Eucharist, Reclaims Early Church EgalitarianTradition

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Celebrates Eucharist at St. Andrew UCC Church in Sarasota, Florida

Mary Mother of Jesus Catholic Community is a Christ-centered community of equals. Our liturgy reflects an adaptation  of earliest Christianity where the community gathered to celebrate the liturgy in the homes.  Scholars , like Gary Wills, report that there is no evidence in the New Testament that the official presiders at these sacred meals were ordained.  In our community, we have presiders and co-presiders, ordained and non-ordained in liturgical leadership.  Thus, we are reclaiming the earliest tradition of our church. 

Prominent theologian Edward Schillebeeckx said that in the early church the emphasis was on Christ's presence in the community, not in the consecrated bread and wine. In the Middle Ages, the emphasis shifted to the "consecrated elements." 

St. Augustine taught that the community was transformed into Christ in the agape meal.  "When you say "Amen" to what you are, your saying it affirms it. You hear the "Body of Christ" and you answer "Amen" and you must be the Body of Christ to make the "Amen" take effect." ( Sermon 272 cited in Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant, p. 134.) 

In his article in CORPUS Reports "Discussion in the New Cosmology" Richard Scainte notes that Schillebeecks "points out that the Church has disconnected the right to celebrate the  Eucharist from the community of Christians by connecting it to a magical power of a Bishop to ordain" (Schillebeecks, 1981). Schillebeecks reminded us in his writings that the Council of Chalcedon taught that a candidate for ordination should be chosen by the local community. Hence, one could conclude that inclusive Catholic communities, like Mary Mother of Jesus Community, are reclaiming the earliest model of Eucharistic celebrations as "agape meals " that Paul describes in Romans 16 when he praised the women leaders of the house churches where the community gathered for worship and mutual support. 

Scainte concludes "Instead of a patriarchal God "up there" who intevenes when called upon, our creative Evolutionary Spirit influences every occasion of our experience by the lure toward new co-creative possibilities. It is the work of the Spirit co-creating with the gathered community... If participants want to understand the Eucharist as sacrament, they should understand themselves first as the Body of Christ. " (Fox, 2002, Rank, 1975, Winter, 2009)

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community prays Eucharistic prayer around the altar at St. Andrew UCC Church in Sarasota, Florida.

So our inclusive, egalitarian Catholic communities have come full circle, returning to early Christianity's emphasis on the Spirit moving in the gathered assembly, the Body of Christ celebrating the memory and teachings of Jesus at the sacred meal.  (CORPUS REPORTS, pp. 16-17)
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
www.marymotherofjesus.org
www.arcwp.org
Liturgies on Sat. 4:00 PM at St. Andrew UCC, Sarasota, Florida