What do I do at my father’s church?

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StephenBales said:
Even if they don’t press it the first time, they’d likely ask/tell (it’d be a command, phrased like a request 🤷‍♂️) me to partake
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At which point, you’ll have to because you are a minor under their care. And, it will be ok.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
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rcwitness:
Communion is NOT just about me and God. And its actually an essense of Communion which makes Catholic Communion special. Its Communion with those who celebrate Jesus in this manner since He instituted the Sacrament. Compounded with the fact that the Pastor is the OP’s father!
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This is not what @Dlee was suggesting. What is “between me and God” is the reason for not taking communion or not feeling worthy to take communion. We are not required to tell anyone why we aren’t receiving communion.
1ke said:
B) if the OP is a minor no one should be telling him to defy his parents
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The OP has not said anything about his parents requiring him to take communion. He has only talked about his own personal feelings about communion. Of course, if his parents press him on the issue he will have to obey.
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Is a minor not “required to tell their pastor why they are refusing”?

I don’t think it’s such a matter of being “bound” or required.

Honor your parents is a great and holy command from the beginning. To honor is to fellowship with your father in love!

Talk about Jesus, and His amazing life death and resurrection! And put peace in the heart of your father than Communion is always going to be a special part of walking in Spirit with Jesus! And His Eucharist does offer the grace of conviction and knowledge of what His pure Teaching truly Is! He is the Word made flesh, and flesh made food, and food insubstantial with God the Father and Holy Spirit!
 
rcwitness said:
Is a minor not “required to tell their pastor why they are refusing”?
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Actually, no at least not in the Baptist Church. We are not supposed to quiz people on such matters. In the Baptist Church, communion is important, but optional. Many Baptist Churches have communion infrequently.

Now, that won’t stop them from asking. And, being a minor, if his parents require him to take communion he will have to.
 
A Baptist would not want any one receiving against their will. It seems that the OP does not will to take Baptist Communion.
 
And people need to understand what sort of burdens are placed on a pastor’s wife/kids.

1 Timothy 3:5 is very much important. The pastor is to keep his house in order.

Baptist can cover everything from Freewill Baptists to strict OSAS or the Southern Baptist “antinomianism”. Either way, your child publicly refusing to partake in the Lord’s Supper will reflect poorly on the pastor’s own integrity. When a pastor can be fired at the whim of the congregants, he and his family must be above reproach.

The Coming Home Network would be an excellent resource for our OP. It is made up of clergy and their families at all points in the conversion process.
 
StephenBales said:
where my father is the pastor.
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Hi Stephen,
This is the first time in a long time that I have met another PK on CAF. My father was an Episcopal Priest. He was very agreeable with my conversion I am happy to say. Later on though we started some debates.

Congratulations and welcome to the Catholic Church!
 
Many of the posters in this thread seem to lack a basic understanding of the principles of moral theology. Simulating a sacrament is always wrong. Being a minor, or a non-Catholic, does not provide an objective justification for doing things that one knows to be wrong.

OP, if your parents command-request that you participate in Baptist communion, you should politely decline on the grounds that it would be against your conscience to do so (how much detail you want to go into and how you want to phrase that would depend on their probable reaction). The morality of this situation is no different than if they told you to tell a lie, commit fornication, or do any other thing that is wrong in and of itself.

If the prohibition on simulation were of positive law, or could be dispensed with by the command of a superior, then urgent grave fear would also justify its being disregarded. But that proposition was condemned by Innocent XI (#29 in his list of condemned propositions):

“Urgent grave fear is a just reason for simulation of the sacraments.”
 
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Arkansan said:
The morality of this situation is no different than if they told you to tell a lie, commit fornication, or do any other thing that is wrong in and of itself.
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I have to disagree. For Catholics it is different. The OP is not Catholic. We don’t dictate to Protestants what they can and cannot do in church. The OP however, is a Christian. He is bound by obedience. It is true, if he were told by his parents to commit a crime, robbery or murder etc, he should refuse. This is a spiritual matter between the OP and his parents. In fact it is WE who risk spiritual injury by telling the OP to refuse parents, who are acting in good faith in rearing their children.

That the OP is a minor makes a huge difference here. I recommend caution here.
 
Morality is not applicable only to Catholics, nor is it dependent on civil law. Hopefully no one here would claim that telling a lie (for example) can be objectively justified by a parental command, even though it is not a crime.

Simulating the sacraments is objectively gravely offensive to God, this is not a matter of positive law. It would be different if the OP belonged to a Church with valid sacraments.

I agree that caution is necessary, but caution doesn’t mean that one isn’t obliged to do the right thing.
 
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Do you think, maybe, that God would be calling the Pastor to the Catholic Eucharist too?
 
God is calling all men to the Fullness of the Faith.

That does not mean that a minor son/daughter should disobey their parent.
 
This parent’s tradition does NOT coerce members to participate.
 
However, there is much pressure on the pastor’s family. Raising scandal by a family member of his refusing communion would reflect on the pastor.
 
rcwitness said:
That’s receiving under coersion
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I am not knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree with that statement. I am however concerned about the amount of coercion the OP will feel if his father finds out that he is getting what he may feel “the wrong advice” from a Catholic forum, openly telling his son to violate his parents instructions.
 
You misunderstand.

The Baptist faith doesn’t instruct someone to receive who’s will is not to receive.
 
rcwitness said:
Communion is NOT just about me and God
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Please re-read the entire thread from the beginning. Communion IS BETWEEN me and God. He is the only one we will answer to. No adult should ever question or ask anyone why they did not partake in communion/Eucharist. I did not say it was JUST about me and God.
 
rcwitness said:
You misunderstand.

The Baptist faith doesn’t instruct someone to receive who’s will is not to receive.
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I understand what you are saying, and I am not arguing the point. I take your word for it. But we are not only addressing a Baptist congregant, some are giving a minor advice and opinions about religious practices at his church, and his father is the pastor. It is an unusual situation all the way around. But it is just MO that we dare not interfere between a Christian Father and his Christian minor son. It is the Father’s responsibility to act as a religious guide to his son, pastor not withstanding. I don’t think we should interfere. Again, this is just my own opinion.

Maybe we need an apologetic answer to the general question of advice to Protestant minors on such things.
Pax Christie
 
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