Is Online Communion Even a Thing?
In this age of COVID-19, the church has been forced to reinvent itself and adapt to our changing environment. It is easy enough to provide worship music and preaching online but what about communion?
Our church is planning on having online communion tomorrow. We have let people know that they need bread and juice (or wine!) and that at a certain point in the service, we will celebrate communion together.
But should we even be doing this?
It partially depends on your tradition. If your tradition requires the blessing of the elements, online communion is probably not going to work. In my Baptist tradition, this is not an issue. We give thanks for the bread and the cup, but that’s it.
But doesn’t communion require people being physically together?
In many cases, it will be families and they will be able to celebrate it together. But there will be some single people and I believe it will still be meaningful.
Isn’t this different from the practice of the early Christians?
Yes but we have already changed it significantly before the pandemic. In my Baptist church, we use cut up pieces of sandwich bread and drink from little cups of grape juice at a certain point in the service.
The early Christians probably celebrated communion in the context of a larger meal. Their bread would have looked differently and they would have used real wine, probably in a common cup. So an early Christian brought forward in time would likely struggle with recognizing our Baptist communion service.
I’m not saying that those changes are bad (or good). It is just the way that it has worked out and we trust in the spirit of the ritual rather than the details.
Isn’t communion better within a gathered community?
Absolutely but that is just not possible. Something is better than nothing. And who is to decide what the definition of “gathered” is? Is it people 6 cm apart? Or 6 m apart? Or 6 km apart?
Paul would have preferred to speak in person to his churches, but when he couldn’t he would use the technology of the time, which was writing letters. I expand this idea in this article.
So we will celebrate communion online tomorrow, understanding that it is not ideal. And we will look forward to the time that we can gather physically together to celebrate communion.
