COE Parish in London, UK

[Paul Younan]

With the CoE Churches, if a non-Assyrian wants to attend or visit, but has been baptised in another Church, are they entitled to participate in communion. I just ask this because these days there is so much crossover and in recent years a lot of westerners, some of whom are Christian, have developed an increasing interest in Aramaic.

Shlama David,

In the CoE tradition, there is no condition on anyone attending as long as they have been baptized. It doesn't matter what branch of the Church they were baptized in. For instance, my wife is German and baptized in the Roman rite of the Catholic Church. They are all considered equal, and conversion is strictly forbidden as that would deny the concept of the One Church. So there is nothing to "convert" to.

There is a beginning portion of the service that non-baptized people are allowed to attend, which are the preparatory prayers and psalms....but right before we begin the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, the deacons get up and announce that those who are unbaptized should leave the sanctuary. The hearers then go and lock the doors and no one is allowed to enter after that point, in which the most holy part of the worship service begins.