# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1855_S220
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

220 Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry.

Should a pastor receive Communion with Calvinist hearers using the same ceremonies?

Answer: The Calvinist hearers are either teachable and allow themselves to be better instructed in the chief points of Christian doctrine, in which case—if they have indeed allowed themselves to be convinced of the Reformed error and of the Lutheran truth—a Lutheran pastor may certainly receive Communion with them without violating his conscience; or they are obstinate and stubbornly persist in their preconceived Calvinist opinions, in which case no one, much less the pastor himself, should receive Communion together with the Calvinists and using the same ceremonies. For if, according to Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 5:11, one should not even eat ordinary bread with a brother who conducts himself unworthily, it is far less fitting to eat and receive the holy, blessed bread—the bread through which we are all to become one body—with someone who believes falsely and errs gravely in doctrine. Furthermore, one must also observe the previously stated distinction among church usages. The breaking of bread is a ceremony that the Calvinists regard as a necessary part of the Holy Supper; therefore one should not conform to them in this, lest one share in their error or strengthen them in it. In the other rites, however, which are of little consequence and which they themselves regard as free matters of indifference, one may more readily accommodate oneself.

The third question is whether a Lutheran preacher may distribute the Holy Supper together with the other Calvinist preachers, using the same ceremonies.

To this we answer no, since this would be an open mingling by which the hearers would be strengthened in the false notion that Calvinists and Lutherans are united in the fundamental articles and that their controversy concerns not the Real Presence itself, but only the manner of the Presence. Moreover, one might thereby approve the false doctrine and the supposed necessity of breaking the bread and make oneself a participant in the errors of others, which can by no means be justified. Therefore, in our judgment, it is best that in a place where there are teachers of differing confessions, one Lutheran and one Calvinist, separate Communions should also be held, and that the Lutherans should not be compelled to attend the Calvinist Communion and ceremonies. The Lutheran pastor should also instruct the Calvinist hearers with all diligence, so that they may abandon their errors and thus, in time, one shepherd and one flock may be established. We did not wish to withhold this friendly answer from the gentleman, and hereby most faithfully commend all of us to the grace of God.

Dated at Wittenberg, September 18, 1626.”

(See: Consil. theol. Witeberg. II, pp. 127–128.)