Receiving a blessing at an Episcopalian Church?

[jmcrae]

This is for those Catholics who have Episcopalian family members.

If attending an Episcopalian service, do you go up to receive a blessing from the pastor? Obviously, you don’t participate in their communion, but do you also avoid the blessing (if offered), or go up for it?

I would most likely not attempt to receive a blessing from a Protestant minister - it wouldn’t occur to me to want it.

Which is interesting, because I always used to get the priest’s blessing at Mass before I ever became Catholic. I didn’t understand anything at all about the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and I’m pretty sure I would have argued against the idea of an ordered priesthood apart from the priesthood of all believers - and yet, I did sense that there was something special about Catholic priests. It was also by pure instinct that I never went to any EMHCs to try to receive a blessing, either - other than one time, just to see what would happen - and the person said, “No, I don’t give blessings. You go to the priest for that.” So I never attempted it with the EMHC again; I always went to the priest for a blessing.