Anglicans Slaughtering Goats

In South Africa, so the Church Times article by Michael Bleby explains, some Christians like to involve their ancestors in worship, and, the argument goes, since blood is symbolic of life, Christian worshippers can come into communion with their ancestors through the fresh blood of a goat. . .

"I'm not mindful that this issue has ever come before our commissions to say this is prohibited, because it's not animal sacrifice as such," says the Most Rev Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. "It's a liturgical function which connects the living and the dead."

Which is worse, though: animal sacrifice or connecting with the dead? It depends on the dead, of course. The Apostles are dead, and they are commemorated at the Eucharist. And St Thérèse of Lisieux had private devotion to her dead baby brothers and sisters in heaven, on the logical grounds that, since they had been baptised and then died before the age when they could even have been capable of sin, they must be in heaven. But she didn't feel the need to collect blood from a slaughtered goat before asking their prayers.

There are some ancestors, though, that one would hesitate to hurry into commune with. The Queen counts Macbeth among her ancestors, and though his fate is in God's hands, it is no great comfort to think of his departed spirit assisting in worship at the Chapel Royal.

Telegraph Link.