as often as you meet?

[Paul Dean]

Someone claimed that scripture says we should "do communion" or break
bread whenever the church meets. I was sure it didn't, but now
they're saying it's in the Anglican liturgy and they thought it must
have come from scripture and in turn I can't find it in the liturgy
either. Can anybody here help?

--
Paul

[Gareth McCaughan]

Post by Paul Dean
Someone claimed that scripture says we should "do communion" or break
bread whenever the church meets. I was sure it didn't, but now
they're saying it's in the Anglican liturgy and they thought it must
have come from scripture and in turn I can't find it in the liturgy
either. Can anybody here help?

They're probably thinking of "Do this, as often as you drink it,
in memory of me"; found in 1 Corinthians but not in the gospels'
accounts. It seems pretty clear that Paul takes it to mean
"every time you celebrate the eucharist"; the obvious other
meanings would be "every Passover" and "every time you have
bread and wine for any reason". I don't see any possible way
to take it to mean "every time you meet together as a church".
I suppose one could make a (very weak IMO) argument that bits
of 1 Corinthians 11 presuppose that church meetings are
generally eucharists. Likewise, but even weaker, Acts 20:7
casually says "On the first day of the week, when we were
gathered together to break bread" in a way that *might*
suggest that bread-breaking was a regular thing on the
first day of the week. And then there's Acts 2:46, which
seems to suggest that the early Christians were meeting
every day, or something like it, to break bread together
in their homes.

That's all I can easily find.

[Paul Dean]

Post by Gareth McCaughan

Post by Paul Dean
Someone claimed that scripture says we should "do communion" or break
bread whenever the church meets. I was sure it didn't, but now
they're saying it's in the Anglican liturgy and they thought it must
have come from scripture and in turn I can't find it in the liturgy
either. Can anybody here help?

They're probably thinking of "Do this, as often as you drink it,
in memory of me";

Indeed. I'd dismiss it out of hand, but I found this web-site
http://www.accdoc.org/accweb.welcomepage.html (search it for "often")
which suggests that at least one church uses the words in exactly the
same form as my mis-informed friend. It does also sound familiar, but
I can't find it in the liturgy. Also forum.gon.com/archive/index.php/
t-61699.html misquotes Jesus with the same words. Is there a history
to this? Everyone else who was at the meeting I attended thought that
the words were in scripture. Strange!

Post by Gareth McCaughan
And then there's Acts 2:46, which
seems to suggest that the early Christians were meeting
every day, or something like it, to break bread together
in their homes.
That's all I can easily find.

thanks,
Paul

[Mike Williams]

Post by Paul Dean
Indeed. I'd dismiss it out of hand, but I found this web-site
http://www.accdoc.org/accweb.welcomepage.html (search it for "often")
which suggests that at least one church uses the words in exactly the
same form as my mis-informed friend. It does also sound familiar, but
I can't find it in the liturgy. Also forum.gon.com/archive/index.php/
t-61699.html misquotes Jesus with the same words. Is there a history
to this? Everyone else who was at the meeting I attended thought that
the words were in scripture. Strange!

There's also this page

http://www.familyaffairministries.com/famchurch.swf

[Warning: It's a 1.1 Megabyte Flash file on a slow server. It takes
quite a while to load.]

At the bottom of their "We Believe" section, they say

The Bible declares, do this as often as you come together...
1 Corinthians 11:17-32, Luke 22:17-20

My Bible doesn't declare any such thing.


It would be very odd to find the idea in an Anglican liturgy, alongside
Orders of Service for meetings that don't necessarily include Communion.

[Mike Williams]

Post by Paul Dean
Indeed. I'd dismiss it out of hand, but I found this web-site
http://www.accdoc.org/accweb.welcomepage.html (search it for "often")
which suggests that at least one church uses the words in exactly the
same form as my mis-informed friend. It does also sound familiar, but
I can't find it in the liturgy. Also forum.gon.com/archive/index.php/
t-61699.html misquotes Jesus with the same words. Is there a history
to this? Everyone else who was at the meeting I attended thought that
the words were in scripture. Strange!

I've just found another one:

http://www.lutheran-pw.org/nl_0508.pdf

...that we are called to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ "as
often as you come together" lest, as we read in the words of Our Lord
Himself in the Gospel of Saint John, we have no life in us...

Weird.

[Paul Dean]

Post by Mike Williams

Post by Paul Dean
Indeed. I'd dismiss it out of hand, but I found this web-site
http://www.accdoc.org/accweb.welcomepage.html(search it for "often")
which suggests that at least one church uses the words in exactly the
same form as my mis-informed friend. It does also sound familiar, but
I can't find it in the liturgy. Also forum.gon.com/archive/index.php/
t-61699.html misquotes Jesus with the same words. Is there a history
to this? Everyone else who was at the meeting I attended thought that
the words were in scripture. Strange!

http://www.lutheran-pw.org/nl_0508.pdf
...that we are called to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ "as
often as you come together" lest, as we read in the words of Our Lord
Himself in the Gospel of Saint John, we have no life in us...
Weird.

Maybe there was a translation once which had it that way?

--
Paul

[Mike Williams]

Post by Paul Dean

Post by Mike Williams

Post by Paul Dean
Indeed. I'd dismiss it out of hand, but I found this web-site
http://www.accdoc.org/accweb.welcomepage.html(search it for "often")
which suggests that at least one church uses the words in exactly the
same form as my mis-informed friend. It does also sound familiar, but
I can't find it in the liturgy. Also forum.gon.com/archive/index.php/
t-61699.html misquotes Jesus with the same words. Is there a history
to this? Everyone else who was at the meeting I attended thought that
the words were in scripture. Strange!

http://www.lutheran-pw.org/nl_0508.pdf
...that we are called to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ "as
often as you come together" lest, as we read in the words of Our Lord
Himself in the Gospel of Saint John, we have no life in us...
Weird.

Maybe there was a translation once which had it that way?

I can't find one, and I've looked in quite a few.

I guess the most likely verse to be mistranslated that way would be 1Cor
11:25, but you'd have to try really hard to mistranslate it that badly.

Another wild possibility is to mistake the tense of "to eat" in 1Cor
11:33, so that instead of "coming together to eat", you get "[whenever]
coming together, eat".

None of the version at biblegateway or online parallel Bible come
anywhere near that.

[Richard Emblem]

On 29 May 2007 04:34:21 -0700, Paul Dean

Post by Paul Dean
Someone claimed that scripture says we should "do communion" or break
bread whenever the church meets. I was sure it didn't, but now
they're saying it's in the Anglican liturgy and they thought it must
have come from scripture and in turn I can't find it in the liturgy
either. Can anybody here help?

I seems to be the norm to have Eucharistic services in the RC High
Anglican and Orthodox churches and presumably has been since early
days of the church.

[Kendall K. Down]

Post by Paul Dean
Someone claimed that scripture says we should "do communion" or break
bread whenever the church meets. I was sure it didn't, but now
they're saying it's in the Anglican liturgy and they thought it must
have come from scripture and in turn I can't find it in the liturgy
either. Can anybody here help?

St Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11, says "When you come together ..." which some
have interpreted as "whenever you come together". I would prefer to see it
as "when you come together to celebrate communion ..."

God bless,
Kendall K. Down