To be honest, it took a little time for this recovering Calvinist to grasp the concept of what an altar rail is and the purpose it's supposed to serve. I was still viewing the world through Southern Baptist-colored glasses and the idea of some sort of "barrier" in the place of worship... it just bothered me.
What eventually soaked through my thick evangelical skull, though, is the sanctuary itself is a symbol of heaven. Contrary to everything Luther argued, the assurance we have of salvation comes from obedience to the Church. Heavenly citizenship is a hard-fought prize. It is guaranteed to nobody.
The altar rail beautifully symbolizes the divinely-guided and inspired Church feeding the flock. There IS a barrier between us and heaven. At least for right now. And the Church is the intermediary showing us the way.
Of course, the obvious flaw with all that is how seldom you see altar rails in a lot of Catholic parishes. Many of the New Mass parishes simply never had them. And a lot of old parishes actually had theirs removed.
However, the Anglo-Catholic moderately-High Church ACNA parish I attended that year had an altar rail and the realization of all this is why I can halfway see the argument that the Anglicans are (selectively and inconsistently) "more Catholic than the Catholic Church" on certain minor issues.
No, I don't buy that theory. At all. But I don't want to belittle it or the people who subscribe to it.
But at the same time, I do see merit to the idea that certain practices and symbols (however minor) are better preserved through (admittedly heretical) traditions than in today's Catholic Church. And there's nothing wrong with cultivating an appreciation for those things.
For me, the best example I can think of is the altar rail. Yes, it's a small detail. But sometimes little things can speak volumes, and rather eloquently at that.
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