Note 29 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Our Church, by the title adopted, by the form of service used, by the spirit of her rubrics where they touch upon the subject, plainly declares it to be her intention that the Holy Communion should always be celebrated so as to be a social act. The priest is not a mere representative of the congregation, doing things for them, but a leader acting with them. For the priest to act without the congregation is only less anomalous than for the congregation to act without the priest. Not that the whole congregation present should necessarily receive at any given celebration of the Holy Communion, though in the judgment of the present writer the ideal would be reached only thus.