Today we are partaking in the Lord’s Supper at church for the first time since the lockdown started. Extra care is being taken with social distancing, and the elements will be prepared and distributed by a select few, with freshly sanitised hands.
We appreciate the patience of those parishioners who prefer to take Communion more regularly. Yet as Anglicans, we believe it is not necessary to take the Lord’s Supper every week, attested to by the Prayer Book, which has ‘Morning Prayer’ services as well as ‘Holy Communion’ services.
We are also trailing an on-line Communion service today, which the Archbishop has given permission for. We simply ask that those at home provide their own bread and wine (or a suitable substitute, such as a rice cracker and grape juice), and partake of the elements at the appropriate time.
For those wondering how this can be ‘Communion’, the Bible says Christians are always gathered with the heavenly assembly (Heb 12:22-24; Eph 2:6), even if we are not gathered physically. While The Book of Common Prayer requires at least 3 persons to communicate with the minister, it does allow for exceptions for ‘Communion of the sick’, or ‘in time of the plague’. Furthermore, the archbishop has advised against ‘the erroneous mindset of thinking that consecration of the elements is only valid for us if we are physically present to consume them’. The prayer of consecration does not magically change the elements; it simply asks that the bread and the wine become the body and blood of our Lord for us. As we hear this prayer said by the minister, it is the Holy Spirit who communicates to us the spiritual benefits of eating and drinking.
So while our on-line Communion service may not be an official Anglican service, it is nonetheless a Christian service, in accordance with Jesus’ invitation to ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19).
