Honoring Our Parents
by Linda Carlson
On the occasion of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, the four of us “kids” and our families gathered in the old home town for a weekend of festivities. One of the plans was to attend church services with the honored couple where they would be recognized; the fellowship hour to follow was hosted by us “kids.” We faced a concern: all of us are active members in ELCA churches; our parents worshipped in the Missouri Synod.
Communion was scheduled to be served that day and the Missouri Synod did not regularly serve communion to anyone outside the synod. We reasoned it out: we were baptized, confirmed, and two of us were married in that home town church. When my parents rose for communion, we all fell in line behind them. We were all served. The minister mentioned later that he was aware of bending the rules a little, but he was delighted in how we honored our parents. We are all very grateful for this wonderful memory. Yes, we feel we honored our parents; we also feel we honored our faith.
During Lent 2011, we are encouraging the St. Philip the Deacon community to reflect on the Sacrament of Holy Communion — recalling early memories, describing memorable celebrations of Communion, or reflecting on how Communion informs daily life. This post is part of that series. We invite your reflections about Communion, as well. If you would like to submit something for this series, please send it to Pastor Cheryl Mathison at cmathison@spdlc.org.
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