Me, being a Catholic as well, I find ceremonies necessary to involve and keep the interest of the audience. Although the main intention is worship, we live in a physical world of material, and often relate to physical and material entities. That is why the crusifix is used everywhere within the church, it is a symbol that worshipers can relate to. Actually, I have a friend who is Presbyterian. Presbyterian churches often do not have any choir and very few ceremonies. Comparitively, Catholic churches are more centered on ceremonies than any other Christian sect (Except Evangelists of course), in my opinion.

Anyway, now that I think about it, I somewhat agree with the fact that everyone should be able to worship together, rather than segregating and catering to certain groups. However, I think this is a chance for people to get together that share a common interest, and have a service that specializes to their interest. There's nothing holding others back from organizing other groups to do the same. Again, this is just a 45 minute ceremony, not an entire mass in itself. I just look at it as another church-sponsored group activity.

I may have misunderstood the term "Eucharist" in the article, but at the Episcopal* church I attend "Eucharist" can refer to the whole service (including the prayers, lessons, sermon, etc.) if communion is given as well as the part of the service where people come to the alter to take communion. It's how we differentiate those services from others, like Morning Prayer and Compline, where no bread and wine are present. A whole Eucharistic service rarely takes more than an hour, and it's usually closer to thirty or forty-five minutes.

*The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion in case anyone is wondering.

*shrug*

I think it's generally accepted that most goths either feel alienated from the rest of society, or have felt that way in a fairly major sense at some point in the past.

As I see it, Jesus paid special attention to those the rest of the world considered outcasts. I don't then see the problem with occasionally making particular outreaches to any kind of minority group. I realise the church in this instance is Anglican, but the Catholic parishes around here regularly run Masses in foreign languages in an effort to include everyone. I don't see that having a supplementary service (and it is a supplementary service, being on a Tuesday evening and not a Sunday) specifically to reach out and accept goths is different in any way.

Well, actually, the entire Christian religion does the same thing when it comes to the eat of my body and drink of my blood thing. That's what passover stands for.

Um... what? Could somebody please enlighten me on this? I know what the Christian passover is and its connection to the eucharist, but what passover stands for?

Even in the Christian reinvention of the passover it is commemorative of Jesus' last supper - a passover seder - and his subsequent sacrifice. The eucharist was a part of that ceremony, but, unless I've missed something in my readings, not what defines anybody's version of passover.

Captain Nevarre

It's been a long time for me, but I seem to recall Passover was commemorating the freedom and exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

Some Christians (Quartodecimans) do keep Passover as well, Quartodecimanism (literally "fourteenism") was the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the 14th day of Nisan in the Bible's Hebrew Calendar which, according to the Gospels, was the date Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem.

Passover represents for some Christians a spiritual deliverance from the slavery of sin (John 8:34) and is memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for mankind. Also, in the same way the Israelites partook of the sacrifice by eating it that night, Christians partake of the sacrifice of Jesus by eating the symbols of his body and blood, the bread and wine.

HOWEVER, there are some Christians who question the practice of keeping the Passover seder when it is in fact from the Old Covenant and Christians are supposed to keep to the new one. Ergo, the suggestion that "all Christians celebrate Passover" is specious.

And finally, the Eucharist is not limited to Passover. Starscream, I don't know why you felt the need to point out the "all Christians" do anything, because at no point was a specific sect identified in the post you've quoted.

I realise that this post is a little old, but I thought that I might plug my thoughts into the topic just the same...

I recall quite clearly when I used to go to the Ottawa goth meetup being interviewed by an African journalist who had never seen anything 'goth' before and wonderred if it was 'evil' or 'satanic'...

Well, this church puts a sociological shotgun in the face of those who blindly claim that goth is all about the devil. It just goes to show that it's without borders, without religion.