The Military Benefit of Episcopal Full Communion with United Methodists

Apart from saying nice things about each other, does the proposed full communion agreement between the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church have any practical benefit? Already, any baptized person can take communion in the Episcopal Church. United Methodists don’t even require baptism. That doesn’t mean the agreement would have no effect. In one context, at least, it would be quite valuable. 

Some of the principal beneficiaries of the agreement would be Episcopal members of the United States military forces and their families. There are not enough Episcopal chaplains to provide sacraments at every military installation or in every deployed area of operations.

There is no Health in Us

I love the prayer of confession in the rite for Morning Prayer. Here is the version found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (BCP), and in John Wesley’s 1784 Sunday Service of Methodists in North America. 

Almighty and most merciful Father; 
We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. 
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. 
We have offended against thy holy laws. 
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; 
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; 
And there is no health in us. 
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. 
Spare thou them, O God, who confess their faults. 
Restore thou them that are penitent; 
According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; 
That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, 
To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The prayer is part of the Daily Office for Anglicans. Wesley retained most of the liturgy for Morning Prayer, but only commended its use on the Lord’s Day. 

In its 1979 edition of the BCP, the Episcopal Church (TEC) eliminated the line “There is no health in us” from Rite 1, and removed the phrase “miserable offenders” from the petition for mercy. 

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) rite for Morning Prayer (2019 BCP) also eliminates “miserable offenders” but retains “there is no health in us,” prefaced by the phrase, “Apart from your grace.”