Canon Law 2 The Theology: Holy Eucharist


We at Eric Michel Ministries International celebrate and practice the Open Communion, meaning that you do not need to be a member of this church or any church to celebrate with us the Holy Eucharist, the only requirement is to be Christian.


EMMI Eucharist

The wafer and the Cup are used. (It could be only wafered in case of out of Chaplaincy example the sick's or any other activities by our outreach. 


Eucharist (Wikipedia)

The Greek noun eucharistia, meaning "thanksgiving", is not used in the New Testament as a name for the rite; however, the related verb is found in New Testament accounts of the Last Supper, including the earliest such account:


For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "Do this in remembrance of me". (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)


The term "Eucharist" (thanksgiving) is that by which the rite is referred to by the Didache, late 1st or early 2nd century, Ignatius of Antioch (who died between 98 and 117) and Justin Martyr (writing between 147 and 167).


Today, "the Eucharist" is the name still used by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans. Other Protestant denominations rarely use this term, preferring either "Communion", "the Lord's Supper", or "the Breaking of Bread".


The Lord's Supper in Greek Kyriakon deipnon, was in use in the early 50s of the 1st century, as witnessed by the First Epistle to the Corinthians (11:20-21). The term "Eucharist" rarely uses the expression "the Lord's Supper", but it is the predominant term among Baptist groups, who generally avoid using the term "Communion", and is preferred also by some evangelical Anglicans and Methodists. 


Code of Practice. 

Principal ‘official’ services of the Chaplaincy, such as blessing, graces etc shall be based around the EMMI Independent Catholic Chaplaincy Rites.  All who are present may receive
Holy Communion without the prior requirement of specific beliefs.  

NB: Quote Pope Francis 1: "I never refused communion to someone who asks for it" in reference to Catholic President's entourage "communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over abortion rights support"


The only authorized celebrants of the Holy Eucharist are Ministers and bishops.

The EMMI-FAICL Chaplaincy is mindful of the kaleidoscope of expressions of Christian faith that has taken place after the Great Schism of 1054 C.E., but it is saddened by the restriction on Universal participation that has arisen in many denominations since then. Recognizing that our heavenly father would desire that all his people receive the nourishment that the service provides, it is our intent that communion is opened to all God's People. 


from wikipedia.org

The earliest reference to a meal of the type referred to as "agape" is in Paul the Apostle's First Epistle to the Corinthians from its prominence in 1 Cor 13. Many New Testament scholars hold that the Christians of Corinth met in the evening and had a common meal including sacramental action over bread and wine.


1 Corinthians 11:20–34 indicates that the rite was associated with participation in a meal of a more general character. It apparently involved a full meal, with the participants bringing their own food but eating in a common room. Perhaps predictably enough, it could at times deteriorate into merely an occasion for eating and drinking, or for ostentatious displays by the wealthier members of the community, as happened in Corinth, drawing the criticisms of Paul: "I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent, I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't

you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?"


The term "Agape" is also used in reference to meals in Jude 12 and according to a few manuscripts of 2 Peter 2:13


Ignatius of Antioch refers to the agape or love-feast. In Letter # 97 to Trajan, Pliny the Younger perhaps indicates, in about 112, that such a meal was normally taken separately from the Eucharistic celebration, he speaks of the Christians separating after having offered prayer, on the morning of a fixed day, to Christ as God, and reassembling later for a common meal. The rescheduling of the agape meal was triggered by Corinthian selfishness and gluttony. Tertullian too seems to write of these meals, though what he describes is not quite clear.


Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–211/216) distinguished so-called "Agape" meals of luxurious character from the agape (love) "which the food that comes from Christ shows that we ought to partake of". Accusations of gross indecency were sometimes made against the form that these meals sometimes took. Referring to Clement of Alexandria, Stromata III,2, Philip Schaff commented: "The early disappearance of the Christian agapæ may probably be attributed to the terrible abuse of the word here referred to, by the licentious Carpocratians. The genuine agapæ were of apostolic origin (2 Pet. ii. 13; Jude 12), but were often abused by hypocrites, even under the apostolic eye (1 Corinthians 11:21). In the Gallican Church, a survival or relic of these feasts of charity is seen in the pain béni; and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church in the ἀντίδωρον (antidoron) or eulogiæ, also known as prosphora distributed to non-communicants at the close of the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist), from the loaf out of which the Lamb (Host) and other portions have been cut during the Liturgy of Preparation."


Augustine of Hippo also objected to the continuance in his native North Africa of the custom of such meals, in which some indulged to the point of drunkenness, and he distinguished them from a proper celebration of the Eucharist: "Let us take the body of Christ in communion with those with whom we are forbidden to eat even the bread which sustains our bodies." He reports that even before the time of his stay in Milan, the custom had already been forbidden there.


RCC Canons 27 and 28 of the Council of Laodicea (364) restricted the abuses of taking home part of the provisions and of holding the meals in churches. The Third Council of Carthage (393) and the Second Council of Orléans (541) reiterated the prohibition of feasting in churches, and the Trullan Council of 692 decreed that honey and milk were not to be offered on the altar (Canon 57) and that those who held love feasts in churches should be excommunicated (Canon 74).


In the medieval Georgian Orthodox Church, the term agapi referred to a commemorative meal or distribution of victuals, offered to clergymen, the poor, or passers-by, accompanying the funeral service on the anniversary of the deceased. The permanent celebration of agapae was assured by legacies and foundations.


After the Protestant Reformation, there was a move amongst some groups of Christians to try to return to the practices of the New Testament Church. One such group was the Schwarzenau Brethren (1708) who counted a Love Feast consisting of Feet-washing, the Agape meal, and the Eucharist among their "outward yet sacred" ordinances. Another was the Moravians led by Count Zinzendorf who adopted a form consisting of the sharing of a simple meal, and then testimonies or a devotional address were given and letters from missionaries read.


John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, travelled to America in the company of the Moravians and greatly admired their faith and practice. After his conversion in 1738, he introduced the Love Feast to what became known as the Methodist movement. Due to the lack of ordained ministers within Methodism, the Love Feast

took on a life of its own, as there were very few opportunities to take Communion. As such, the Primitive Methodists celebrated the Love Feast, before it gradually died out again in the nineteenth century as the revival cooled.


The Schwarzenau Brethren groups (the largest being the Church of the Brethren) regularly practice Agape feasts (called "Love Feast"), which include feet-washing, a supper, and communion, with hymns and brief scriptural meditations interspersed throughout the worship service. The Creation Seventh Day Adventists partake of an Agape feast as a part of their New Moon observances, taking the form of a formal, all-natural meal held after the communion supper. The Agape is a common feature used by the Catholic

Neocatechumenal Way is in which members of the Way participate in a light feast after the celebration of the Eucharist on certain occasions.


EMMI-FAICL  has an agape meal on feast days during the Divine Liturgy at the conclusion of the Paschal Vigil and other special celebrations chosen by the Local Bishop. Communion is served between the main course and the desert.