I have never understood Communion.
How is a cracker made in a factory in Ohio, and grape juice bought in a jug at Safeway, the blood and body of Christ?
How is a magical wafer any less funny that magic underwear (Mormonism), or space aliens from another planet (Scientology), or a Monkey God?
And why are Christian churches playing pantomine cannibalism anyway?
I ask this because the latest news is that someone in Toronto is outraged that a priest gave a communion cracker to a dog.
According to those in attendance at the historical church at 188 Carlton St. in downtown Toronto, it was a spontaneous gesture, one intended to make both the dog and its owner – a first timer at the church — feel welcomed. But at least one parishioner saw the act as an affront to the rules and regulations of the Anglican Church. He filed a complaint with the reverend and with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto about the incident – and has since left the church.
“I wrote back to the parishioner that it is not the policy of the Anglican Church to give communion to animals,” said Bishop Patrick Yu, the area bishop of York-Scarborough responsible for St. Peter’s, who received the complaint in early July. “I can see why people would be offended. It is a strange and shocking thing, and I have never heard of it happening before.
Really? They are outraged?
Bishop Yu is running around like a scared gerbil because some nameless, faceless person has complained that "the magic cookie" should not be given to a dog?
I am broad-minded. If you want to go to a church that hates dogs and coddles haters, knock yourself out.
If you want to dance around in your magic underwear while eating magic cookies and talking about space aliens, monkey Gods, and cannibalism I am all for that too.
Each to his own.
But as for myself, I worship at a different church: the First Church of Field and Stream. It in an ancient church, it is the First Church, and it is not under new management:
In the First Church of Field and Stream, the resurrection story is told by fritillary butterflies and red-eared sliding turtles. The story of life everlasting is told by a young couple on a river outting, and a pair of deer bouncing across a bright green field of emerging barley.
You do not have to read these stories in a book; At the First Church of Field and Stream you can see them for yourself.
And, for the record, the First Church of Field and Stream does not hate dogs. In fact, they are part of our communion ritual.
Let us prey.
January 26, 1962 episode called "The Hunt"
From The Twilight Zone TV Series
"A dog's got a right to have a man around, just the same as that man's got a right to have a dog around.... I wonder what kind of a tea party they keep in there anyways? Must be city folks mostly. They'd be the ones most likely to outlaw coon hunting."
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