Manifests for believers #4 Eucharist

In the previous article Manifests for believers #3 Catholic versus Protestant we pointed already at the idea of the opponents of the Manifest for believers Manifest Gelovigen nemen het woord (Religiuously or Believers take the word)who do find that a lay men can not bring a sermon and also should not be allowed to say the sacred words of the consecration, nor hand out the bread and wine at the  Holy Communion!” The conservative Catholics say.  Also the “gegraai” or the groping in the tabernacle (the goblet), that we see now always more, is a real plague!  “Women must remain with their hands from the tabernacle!”  Asking that women should be able to become priests is something they do not believe the writers of the manifest are really asking. Though in the manifest Gelovigen nemen het woord  is written:  “We plead in favour that within the shortest time as well married men as women shall be permitted the priest office.  We, religious, need them now very badly.

A delegation of the study Group Kerkenwerk (Churchwork) on Thursday 9 February, in Malines (Mechelen)  handed over the Manifesto “Religiously take the word” to the Flemish bishops and has given them the list of the names of the signatories.

The Manifesto, that is a call at the Flemish bishops to break through the impasse, in which the Churches in Flanders is been found, through reformation, is endorsed by 8235 religiously, mainly via the internet, some also written.

Emmanuel Van Lierde has the impression that petitions, it appears to be well a new trend in the Flemish church.  A first observed petition was that ‘for a credible and liberating church’.  Ends 2010 signed 6,800 religiously that signal to encouragement in full peadofilicrisis.  More recent there were petitions ‘against the secular dictatorship’ with about 3,000 signatures, against the abstraction of the service of the Brussels Saint-Kathelijnekerk with more than 6,100 signatories and on the manifesto Religious take the word followed the counter action Religious accept the word with a 200 signatories.

According to the study Group Kerkenwerk the plea to let married men and women come into the priest office, has to be seen in the frame to make it possible to have the Church grow in these difficult times in which we do need more diversification in which creatively should be sought to new roads round the multiplicity of talents and to utilize better the engagement of many religious people.