A growing number of mainline Protestant churches -especially liberal dioceses in the Episcopal Church- are offering Communion to anyone who wants it, reports the Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson.

Excerpt: “Communion, the central ritual of most Christian worship services and long a members-only sacrament, is increasingly being opened to any willing participant, including the nonbaptized, the nonbeliever, and the non-Christian.

The change is most dramatic in the Episcopal Church, particularly in liberal dioceses like Massachusetts. The denomination’s rules are clear: “No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church.” Yet, a recent survey by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts found that nearly three-quarters of local parishes are practicing “open Communion,” inviting anyone to partake.

“Who am I to say who should be at God’s table?” said the Rev. Gale Davis Morris, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Acton. “Most of Scripture is pretty clear about who the ultimate judge is, and it’s not anybody that’s human. And I would much rather err on the side of inclusion than exclusion.”

As you might expect, traditionalists are not so happy. “It’s not that it’s some sort of horrible blasphemy, but it’s highly incoherent that the Eucharist would be given to people who are not Christians,” the Rev. Ephraim Radner, a professor of historical theology at Wycliffe College in Toronto, tells Paulson. “And it’s against the consistent practice of Christians for centuries.”