In what is believed to be a first for the Diocese of El Camino Real, a United Methodist Minister has taken a role in the celebration of the Eucharist. The 8 a.m. service at Trinity Cathedral, San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 11 included the installation of Canon-vicar Lance Beizer.

The Rev. Jerry Fox, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of San Jose, concelebrated and preached. His sermon was based on Luke 22, in which the disciples argue over which of them was the greatest and are told by Jesus that “the greatest among you must become like the youngest.”

Christians, said Pastor Fox, “must have solidarity with the most vulnerable and with the outcast...What is most important is to be present for the least among us.”

The dean of the cathedral, the Very Rev. David Bird, serves on the dialogue committee whose work with the Methodists led to approval of interim eucharistic sharing with Methodists by the 2006 General Convention.

In a document titled “Make Us One,” the dialogue participants concluded that they could “endorse without hesitation that both churches have maintained the apostolic faith and are members of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

Timothy Roberts

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