This is a guest post from the Rev. Ralph McMichael. He is the founding Director of the Center for the Eucharist and author of Eucharist: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark, 2010).
"The Center for the Eucharist was founded recently to encourage and to enable the Eucharistic renewal of the church and of Christian life and faith. Taking the dictum “The Eucharist makes the Church” as its starting-point, the Center provides various opportunities for the exploration of church, life, and faith from within the dynamic structure of the Celebration of the Eucharist. Its principal and accountable question is how do we as disciples of Jesus abide and develop as faithful followers of his command: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
The Center for the Eucharist partners with, and is open to, anyone and any congregation who wishes to nurture the centrality of the Eucharist for their common faith and life. Instead of pursuing an ecumenical understanding of the Eucharist, the Center wishes to foster a Eucharistic approach to ecumenism. How might the sacrament of communion be the place and the way that all Christians and Churches meet each other within the reception Christ’s Eucharistic gift of his life of communion, the gift for the life of the world?
In addition to conferences, seminars, and retreats, the Center for the Eucharist has three basic ways for dioceses, congregations, and leaders to embark on the intential path of “Re-Centering from the Center,” of the renewal and transformation of truly being the Eucharistic Church, living the Eucharistic Life, and confessing the Eucharistic Faith. First, there is a workshop of variable length, “The Eucharistic Church,” that presents the themes: the Eucharist makes the church; being the Body of Christ, and having a common life. Second, the Center provides a curriculum, “The Eucharistic Life,” which delves into the basic actions of the Eucharist from gathering to sending as fundamental to Christian living. Third, a guided study is available, “The Eucharistic Faith,” that addresses the basics of the Christian faith from within the Eucharistic economy. Finally, the Center’s website (EucharistCenter.org) has a blog containing a series of short essays on how the centrality of the Eucharist directs and shapes the way we think and act as church and as living and confessing Christians."
Visit the center's website here.
A preview of Eucharist: A Guide for the Perplexed is available here.
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