Virtual Communion
The Epiphany Congregation Council is continuing to monitor the health situation to determine whether and when it will be safe for our congregation to begin worshiping together again in person. For the moment, our consensus view is that in-person worship with all the necessary precautions (masks, distancing, no singing, limited speaking, probably outdoors, etc.) would feel like less worship than what we have been doing each week on Zoom. In other congregations that might not be the case, but for us at least we believe that a Zoom assembly is the most "real" assembly that we can safely have right now.
At the beginning of the COVID emergency, when everybody assumed that suspending our public gatherings would last perhaps for a few weeks at the most, we deferred the celebration of communion until we could safely meet together again. But as the weeks have turned into months with no clear end in sight, we have begun to reconsider.
Central to our Lutheran confessions is the definition of the church as “the assembly of the saints where the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly” (Augsburg Confession, no. 7). One wonders how long a congregation can go without the sacrament and still be an expression of the church. Even in the days when Lutherans often did not celebrate communion each week, our Sunday service of the Word always pointed towards communion as the embodied promise of Christ to be really and truly present with God’s people, to be celebrated regularly as the expression of what it means for us to be the Body of Christ, the embodied presence of Jesus in our time and place.
So is there some way for us as a congregation to practice communion during this prolonged period of being physically separated? In reflecting on the question to discern God’s path for us, we considered a number of objections to the idea of “virtual” communion, but ultimately considered that none of them were sufficiently weighty to prevent us from celebrating communion virtually during these unique circumstances.
Thus, for example, it is true that the Reformers emphasized that, while weekly communion is desirable and even normative, it is not strictly necessary that all Christians receive communion weekly. Thus, for example, the ill and homebound, travelers, and others who don’t have access to regular communion are not thereby cut off from grace or Christ’s promise to be with us. But what is true for us as individuals at particular times in our lives may not be true for a whole congregation called to be the church of God where “the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly” in a particular place, especially over a period of many months.
In addition, we recognize the common teaching among ELCA Lutherans that it is the gathered assembly that celebrates the sacrament (The Use of the Means of Grace, no. 39). Jesus does not magically become present when the pastor pronounces the words of institution – neither when physically present in the church nor virtually over the Internet. Rather, Jesus has promised to make himself present whenever we come together to “do this in remembrance of” him. The leadership of an ordained pastor or otherwise authorized minister is part of ensuring the good order of the church and reflecting the communion among all Christians transcending time and space in the sacrament – but it is Jesus who has promised to be present for us in the sacrament and Jesus who we trust to make himself present to us in our gathering. If for us, the online Zoom gathering is the most “real” assembly we can have right now, then it seems that’s exactly where we should be calling on Jesus to be faithful to his promise.
In recognition of the extraordinary nature of the current situation, we have decided to limit the celebration of communion to once a month (on the first Sunday of the month, beginning July 5) and to celebrate it only in the “live” Zoom space. We invite everyone to prepare your own elements at home – any type of bread or cracker, together with some wine or grape juice (or water as a last resort) is fine. We will pray together and receive the bread and cup simultaneously, each in our own homes. And we will trust that God will be where God has promised to meet us, transcending physical boundaries during this unique time of the pandemic.
We will continue to share a Service of the Word on Facebook and YouTube. But all are welcome to join us live on Zoom for the communion service. If you need help with using this technology, please let us know and we will help you with it – we do not want technology to be a barrier to your participation.