While we are experiencing stay-at-home directives and the church cannot physically gather, here is a voice that greatly adds to the conversation about virtual communion.  It is informed by biblical hope, the Lutheran confessions, and contextual relevance.  Doug Hill is the lead pastor at Abiding Hope Church in Littleton, Colorado.  He earned his MDiv at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Columbus, Ohio) and his DMin at San Francisco Theological Seminary (San Anselmo, California). He leads The Anchor Church movement for the purpose of revitalizing congregations. He will soon have a book released by Fortress Press on intentional cultural architecture.

A Historic Time

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a truly historic time for our world, our nation, and our church. The global pandemic of COVID-19 calls for all of us to stay home not only for self-protection, but in the name of love toward neighbor. Because we as a church support doing what is best for the common good, our denomination along with many others have called for congregations not to hold gatherings in person, including worship. This has necessarily led to the creation of online resources for worship, small group gatherings, at-home confirmation curricula, and more.

Whether to Engage in Virtual Communion

The streaming of worship has generated a conversation regarding whether to engage in virtual communion or to abstain from communion until the time when the church can gather again in person. I have read several documents from bishops’ offices and seminaries making cases on both sides of the question. As someone who is choosing to conduct virtual communion as part of our online worship experience, I have been troubled by much of what I’ve read. I believe that we need to be respectful and loving to one another as we engage in this discussion and so forgive me if anything I write crosses the line as I am very passionate about this topic.

Contra-Arguments are Troublesome

Many of the documents I’ve read do not even come close to representing the meaning, significance, purpose, or practice of virtual communion. I feel personally misunderstood and misrepresented by the innuendos presented by some that conducting virtual communion will degrade the meaning of the Eucharist. Such an argument utilizes a fallacious slippery-slope logic based in fear. Do we really believe that when this pandemic is over, everyone participating in online worship will stop attending churches and instead choose to have communion alone at home? The very reason that people are participating in online worship and virtual communion is to feel a sense of connection to their faith community through this time of forced isolation. 

What is the Church?

Article VII of the Augsburg Confessions, a core foundational document for Lutherans, states that the Christian church is where the Gospel is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. What makes us church is the proclamation of the word AND the administration of the sacraments. Both are necessary! This means that WITHOUT the proclamation of the Word AND/OR the administration of the sacraments, we are not Church! 

The ELCA came to recognize that it was theologically flawed for American congregations only to conduct communion a few times a year (which is how I grew up in a large congregation in Pennsylvania) and so over the past thirty or so years, the ELCA has called for weekly Eucharist. If the reasoning about the sufficiency of grace through the proclaimed Word alone is valid, as some are attesting, then there would have been no need for such an emphatic emphasis within the ELCA.

Jesus and the Efficacy of the Meal

 If grace is sufficient without the meal, then why did Jesus institute it? Why not just preach and sing for worship? Because there’s something the meal does that nothing else can do as well. The meal joins us as One and points us toward a day when all will be included, tears will be wiped from all faces, death will be swallowed up, and we will be drawn into the new creation (see Isaiah 25:6-10a and Revelation 21:4). It’s the meal that draws us into lives of prolepsis in which the promised future is lived fully today. We are to live the eschatological feast (Oneness with God, humanity, and Creation) in all that we are and do.

Virtual Communion Live

When our congregation engages in virtual worship, the attendees are free to comment in real time. They greet one another, offer comments on the scripture, liturgy, music, sermon, offer prayers for one another, share peace with one another, and finally commune together. All of this occurs through the blessing of technology. It IS community. It’s not fake. It’s not a show or performance. It IS the assembly of God’s people.

Don’t we believe that the meal transcends time and space so that when we participate in the Eucharist, we are participating in the eschatological feast with all of God’s people across the globe past, present, and future? That’s what Dr. Walter Bouman taught us in systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. If that’s true, then it transcends the space between computer screens, kitchens, and family rooms. And I believe, even transcends the time between the recording of the service and when someone receives it. 

The Confusion with Home Communion

Furthermore, some of the documents I’ve read advocate for us taking “home communion” to the sick or dying. Here in Colorado, even though churches have been deemed to be “essential,” we are not permitted to enter nursing homes, hospitals, or hospice centers during this crisis. We are forced to pray with people via Zoom or phone. We cannot deliver “home communion.” It’s forbidden.

A Great Time to be the Church

This is a great time to be the church, to stand as witness to a suffering God not in some palace light years away, but right here, right now. This is the witness of the Eucharist assuring us that regardless of what we might be facing, we are one with God, one another, and all of Creation. That IS the Gospel. May all be filled with hope and trust in this very good news!

With abiding hope,

Pastor Doug Hill