The Cup of Salvation. Beth Wickenberg Ely

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       THE CUP OF

       SALVATION

      A Manual for Eucharistic Ministers

      BETH WICKENBERG ELY

       A FORMATION TRINITY

      In loving memory of Daddy: A TDB of my own!

      To CREDO: Behold my BHAG!

      In grateful thanksgiving for Jim Fenhagen+:

      Rector, dean, mentor, friend

      “Well done, good and faithful servant”

      Copyright © 2012 by Beth Wickenberg Ely

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

      Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Morehouse Publishing, 4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112

      Morehouse Publishing, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016

      Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated. www.churchpublishing.org

      Cover design by Laurie Klein Westhafer

      Typeset by Rose Design

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Ely, Elizabeth Wickenberg.

      The cup of salvation : a manual for Eucharistic ministers / Beth Wickenberg Ely.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

      ISBN 978-0-8192-2814-7 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-0-8192-2815-4 (ebook) 1.

      Lord’s Supper--Lay administration--Episcopal Church. I. Title.

      BX5949.C5E48 2012

      264’.03036--dc23

      2012023781

       CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY MICHAEL B. CURRY, BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: EUCHARIST

Chapter 2: CHALICES

       Chapter 3: CANONS AND THEIR HISTORY

       Chapter 4: SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY

       Chapter 5: DECENTLY AND IN ORDER

       Chapter 6: SPIRITUAL FORMATION

       Chapter 7: SOME QUESTIONS AND A FEW ANSWERS

       BIBLIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD

      There is a real sense in which the community of Jesus gathers to worship God and then scatters to witness to the God we worship, in the world. Genuine worship is not a way of escape but way of deeper engagement in the world. That is one of the messages of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament and why Cup of Salvation is such an incredible gift to the Church in our time and age.

      One might argue that Hebrews is an extended meditation on the power of the worship of God to impact our lives for the good, and through us, to impact the world for the good. The entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews, in the poetic meter of a preacher, calls the roll of biblical people whose lives of lived faithfulness to God and God’s way of love changed the world for the better, pushing it closer to God’s dream for us and all creation. But before telling of these people, the writer declares that the faithful and authentic worship of God is the way that leads to faithful lives that witness and make a difference in the world. The writer says it this way:

      And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24–25)

      Commenting on this passage pastor and theologian Brian McLaren writes:

We meet together to encourage one another and “to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). In other words, when the community of faith gathers, its purpose is to equip its members for a life of love and good deeds when the community scatters.¹

      Canon Beth Ely tells the story of our faith, the story of our way of worship, the story of baptized disciples in our Episcopal tradition serving one another in order that we might serve the world in Jesus’ Name. She tells the story in the spirit of that old Gospel song of Fannie Crosby. “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” The book, frankly, sings more as it reads. It teaches. It preaches. It prays to the One we worship and in whose Name we dare to witness and strive to serve. This is, in the spirit of Hebrews 10:24, a provocative book. It is a book that I pray will provoke us to a way of worship that leads us to witness in the world in the Name of Jesus.

      “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.…”

      — Michael B. Curry

      Bishop of North Carolina

1. Brian McLaren, Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 113.

INTRODUCTION

      You are God’s viceroy, God’s representative.

      You are God’s stand-in, a God Carrier.

      You are precious; God depends on you.

      God believes in you and has no one but you

      To do the things that only you can do for God.

      Become what you are.

       — Archbishop Desmond Tutu1

      The lay office of Eucharistic Minister is fairly new to the church, having been inscribed into canon in 1985 by General Convention. It is stunning, really, that this ministry has evolved so much even since that time. We who serve the One to whom a “day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8) have grown used to the excruciatingly slow pace of change in our much beloved Episcopal Church. Yet the rapidly developing identity of Eucharistic Ministers—the who, what, when, and how they are to serve—reflects a mighty shift in the theology of the laity. Things are still in flux, the last a 2003 change in the title of the ministry, from Lay Eucharistic Minister to Eucharistic Minister.

      I remember as a child that