[Magdalen] Saint Michael and All Angels.

[Jim Guthrie]

> We all left angry. And I remember thinking: what was the diocese
> thinking? The most devout and committed laypeople showed up
> at that meeting. And the agenda appeared to be to control and
> infuriate them all.

It sounds like no one involved studied p226-p230 of the BOS for guidance on what 
the "approved" rules are. The rest is making stuff up as we go along, unbecoming 
of people who think of themselves as ""People of the Book." I see some of the 
practices mentioned in this thread as being way out of even reasonable 
conformity.

I realize the "Suggested" sequence is at the end of the communion, and before 
the end of the administration, the LEMs are to be sent on their way with the 
prayer "In the name of this congregation . . . ." as found in the Book of 
Occasional Services p229., and the vessels used to bring the elements are to be 
"immediately returned to the church" which indicates the timing.  The other set 
in stone rule is that the LEM must ONLY use "Distribution of Communion by Lay 
Eucharistic Misters" (BOS p 227).
--
At St Mark's Glendale, this worked fine -- to the point where the shut-ins would
also get a cassette tape of the service up to the offertory, and nearly all the
LEMs were back for coffee hour. That would include local hospitals, too. The fly
in the ointment were a few who were firmly of the belief that it didn’t "count"
if not administered by a priest.

IIRC, the L&W Committee looked at how to do this for people further away than
the immediate area -- maybe by "sharing" shut in lists with other parishes,  but
that looked way too complicated.

But we do have a set of guidelines and rules on this -- and it's far easier, I 
think to follow them rather than ad lib. For the purists who say, "Well the BOS 
isn't . . ." Let me remind you that none of this LEM  Communion business appears 
in the BCP at all.

I would include this in the next BCP, along with lots of other stuff in the BOS. 
I would make room by having a "Traditional Rite" BCP and a "Contemporary Rite" 
as perfectly parallel but different books.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie