Letter to the editor: Take money off the table

Notes: "'Should we leave the money on the table ?' by the Ven. Dr. Michael Pollesel (Sept. 2011, p. 7) introduces a very significant issue regarding the offertory. In the one case, we give money for the good work of the church. I call it an offering. By contrast, in the offertory, we both give and receive. We offer our gift of bread and wine, the sum of human labour and production with all its strengths and sins. This offertory is then purified, consecrated and taken up into the divine. In the eucharist, it is returned as the consecrated body and blood of Christ, strengthening us for the journey. This view emphasizes the unity of the spiritual and material world and underlines our Christian responsibility to rid the world of oppressive social regimes. This was the view of Fr. Hastings Smythe [sic i.e. Smyth], founder of the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth. The Rt. Rev. Terry Brown elaborates this view in his thesis on Fr. Smythe [sic i.e. Smyth]. I do not think money should be on the Holy Table with the consecrated body and blood of Christ".

Subjects: Offertories - Anglican Church of Canada; Money - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Lord's Supper (Liturgy) - Anglican Church of Canada; Worship - Anglican Church of Canada; Smyth, Frederic Hastings, 1888-1960