Online communion to be thoroughly discussed

It may strike some people as serious a matter as “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”, but the United Methodist Church in the U.S. has just finished a consultation about celebrating the Christian church’s core ritual, called the Sacrament of Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper, online.

Celebrating communion online is being done. The United Methodist discussion was prompted by one congregation already doing it and a proposal for a new online school of theology which would include online communion as part of its life.

The model, as it is currently being practised, would involve the use of bread and wine, the elements of communion, being supplied by the individual, while watching and participating in a worship service online, either through a one-way connection or through a two-way connection involving a camera.

That the United Methodist Church could engage such a conversation is fascinating.

Nearly two decades ago, I served on the board of the very first ecumenical Christian computer community network, called ECUNET.

Started in the mid-1980s, it held the first online memorial service after the loss of the space shuttle Challenger. Using an online instant messaging system, the service included prayers, scriptures and a message of reflection.

There were no videos, just a text crawling across the screen so that you could read it in real time.

At meeting of the ECUNET board we did kick around the idea of an online communion service, usually after hours and fuelled by liquid refreshment. You do that when you hang out with Lutherans, who were one of the originating churches of ECUNET.

We came to the conclusion that in Protestant theology there would not be a problem with an online communion, just as there is no issue with televised services. What changed was the delivery media, not the content.

The recent discussion of the United Methodist Church came to a different conclusion.

In their final resolutions, they asked for a moratorium on such experiments, in order that further discussions could be held with other interested groups and other denominations. The group said in their final communique, “Participation in the Lord’s Supper entails the actual tactile sharing of bread and wine in a service that involves people corporeally together in the same place.”

In other words, people have to be able to actually touch the elements to celebrate the sacrament. The group differed, however, if they all have to be in the same place at the same time to do so.

Some suggested that the practice was a simple extension of taking communion to people in their own home. Other denominations raised a caution that authorizing such activity would end their relationship with the United Methodist church.

One church leader suggested that such activity would not only be a stumbling block to church unity but would make the United Methodist Church a laughingstock among its sister churches.

With a moratorium declared on the practice of online communion, the door is now open to serious, prayerful consideration of the matter. That’s a good thing. That’s how the church comes to conclusions on such matters. With the weight of reason, scripture, experience and tradition (sometimes called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral), the matter can be discussed and a direction determined. That’s a good process which will lead to a responsible outcome.

By the way, the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin has been calculated. It’s either 8.6766×10 to the 49th power angels or between one and 30 vigintillion angels.

You choose.

Comments

rodney smith

Posted on: 10/21/2013 20:45

I can see this concept as in keeping with the times. But it misses for me the true point of Communion. That we have acoming together or communing of the body of Christ. Somehow it is just to remote a concept to have that type of communion exist without a direct contact between the participants.