Use of EMsHC in Divine Liturgy

[Stromboli]

Someone claimed in another thread (which closed while I was replying) that “I think what he is alluding to is the fact that the Divine Liturgy doesn’t, nor ever will have, extraordinary ministers of holy communion.”

That’s not true and I don’t want people in this forum to be led astray.

The Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic church (the largest Byzantine Catholic church in the USA) formally allows EMsHC under very specific conditions. One EMHC may be used for every additional 75 communicants after all the OMsHC have been employed in the distribution of communion. This is clearly documented in the Particular Law for the Byzantine-Ruthenian Recension.

This document can be found on-line at byzcath.org/

While this is not true of all the Eastern Catholic traditions, it’s true for at least one. Sometimes I think the Latin Rite needs to be just as specific. It might quell a lot of the discussion of when EMsHC are “actually” needed.

 

[bkovacs]

In the Orthodox Churches, their is no EMHC. If there are large congregations, then the Deacon may be asked to distribute the Holy Mystries. Not like the present day Roman Catholic Church, with extra ordinary eucharistic ministers giving out communion. Only priest and deacon. If that is the practice (EMHCs) of the Ruthenian Catholics, then they are using a modern day Roman Catholic practice. Here is a discussion on the subject from an Orthodox forum.

monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3464

 

[Stromboli]

In the Orthodox Churches, their is no EMHC. If there are large congregations, then the Deacon may be asked to distribute the Holy Mystries. Not like the present day Roman Catholic Church, with lay ministers giving out communion. Only priest and deacon. If that is the practice of the Ruthenian Catholics, then they are using a Western practice. Here is a discussion on the subject from an Orthodox forum.

monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3464

I am speaking of Eastern Catholicism, not Eastern Orthodoxy. This practice is not a “western Practice” – it’ an approved and licit one for the Ruthenian Recension of the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.

I don’t have the documentation in front of me, but approval of this practice in the East for this church in the USA might actually precede the approved use of EMsHC in the Latin Rite.

The comment “I think what he is alluding to is the fact that the Divine Liturgy doesn’t, nor ever will have, extraordinary ministers of holy communion” is inaccurate and I didn’t want the people on this thread to be led astray.

As in the Latin Rite all available OMsHC must first be employed in the distribution of communion before EMsHC are called upon.

 

[Brendan]

As in the Latin Rite all available OMsHC must first be employed in the distribution of communion before EMsHC are called upon.

But unlike the Latin Rite, an Eastern Catholic can walk into just about any Church on a Sunday and not see a single EMHC.

Like the West, they may be used when Economia calls for it, but, unlike the West, they are very, very rarely used.

 

[Stromboli]

But unlike the Latin Rite, an Eastern Catholic can walk into just about any Church on a Sunday and not see a single EMHC.

Like the West, they may be used when Economia calls for it, but, unlike the West, they are very, very rarely used.

The comment “I think what he is alluding to is the fact that the Divine Liturgy doesn’t, nor ever will have, extraordinary ministers of holy communion” is inaccurate and I didn’t want the people on this thread to be led astray.

This is precisely the sort of misinformation that causes problems when people attend large Divine Liturgies and then get upset because there was an EMHC licitly helping to distribute communion.

The great majority of Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgies celebrated in the USA have 75 or fewer communicants. They are typically tiny congregations. THAT’S why we rarely see EMsHC in the East in the USA. At the Eastern parish I visit, they have a priest and a deacon. That means that more than 150 will have to be at DL and that is extremely rare – but it does happen and that’s only when we have big DLs at a neighboring Latin Rite parish as our church only holds about 115. If we are unable to get a Latin Rite priest or deacon to assist, we licitly rely on an EMHC.

 

[Cluny]

St. Innocent Veniaminov, the first Orthodox Bishop of Alaska, would leave particles (“pearls”) of the Holy Gifts with the village leader to give as viaticum to the dying.

Of course, he could go to his various missions only once every six months or so.

But this is an example of EMHCs in Orthodoxy, and nobody with a grain of sense would object to this.

OTOH, when at the funeral of a Franciscan friar we knew, my father (Orthodox) was scandalized at the sight of so many laymen giving out Communion while over a dozen priests and bishops merely sat in the sanctuary. This was clearly an abuse. (They also clearly didn’t know how to use incense either, but that’s another story.)