Communion In A Time of Pandemic: A Pastoral Message from Lead Pastor Craig Mueller

June 18, 2020

Dear Holy Trinity community,

It seems like another world when 214 of us gathered in person on the weekend of March 7-8 for three eucharistic services. Since then most of us have not shared holy communion, after all aspects of our congregational life moved to online: worship, meetings, classes, even some pastoral check-ins.

ELCA Responses

In the early weeks of the pandemic, many ELCA bishops and theologians rapidly penned diverse responses to whether it is most appropriate to “fast” from the eucharist or whether it is possible to commune online in these extraordinary times. Since then, congregations have moved forward with a variety practices, such as pre-recorded services, live-streamed services on Facebook and live Zoom liturgies. Some congregations are still fasting from communion and celebrating a Service of the Word only on Sundays while others moved quickly to offering communion during online services.

Whereas Roman Catholic and Episcopal bishops are inclined to make proscriptive guidelines regarding eucharistic practices, Lutherans traditionally respond pastorally within the freedom of the gospel, which often means there are not uniform practices, for better or worse. Thus, the ELCA is not likely to make a definitive statement regarding communion this far into the pandemic. 

Holy Trinity Discernment 

As the Holy Trinity pastoral staff discussed options for communion during the past three months, our thinking evolved. When we realized how long it will be until vaccines and effective treatments are available for COVID-19, and how difficult it will be to gather in large groups—when singing is discouraged and communion distribution will need to be overly cautious—we wondered whether online worship will be normative for many folks in our community for quite some time. Even when groups of 10 – 50 may share communion at church, others in high risk health categories may not feel comfortable returning to church for much longer than we first imagined.

The above considerations have led us to propose a path forward for Holy Trinity that is as pastoral, adaptive, and inclusive as possible. A few of our members remember when communion was offered four times a year. Personally, I have experienced weekly eucharist since the late 1970s which is coincidentally about when Holy Trinity began offering communion each Sunday. We are now in an extraordinary time. Though weekly eucharist is Holy Trinity’s normative pattern, the proposals below reflect pastoral compromises needed at this time. 

As the Holy Trinity staff—and 24 others in our congregation with theological training—discussed possible individual paths forward, none of them seemed ideal for either practical, pastoral or theological reasons. (Please contact Beau in the church office if you would like to receive a number of documents and links to online theological articles regarding communion in a time of quarantine.)

Realizing our diverse community’s contexts, needs and preferences, we recommend a threefold (we like three’s!) approach to communion in the coming months. We intend for these to be provisional rather than normative.

THREE MEANS OF COMMUNION

1.     In-person small gatherings with communion. Beginning this month, we will offer small (ten persons) midweek services in the HTLakeview garden. Eventually, such small services will also be offered at HTLoop. Eventually, we anticipate a time when we will gather inside at 25% capacity of the worship space (approximately 50 at HTLakeview and 30 at HTLoop). Body temperatures will be taken on arrival, social distancing will be practiced, and masks will be worn. There will be no assembly singing, and only bread or wafers will be offered at communion. These liturgies will be brief and simple. 

2.     Communion as part of the Sunday online service. Later this summer we will include the eucharist on select Sundays as part of our Zoom liturgy. We will encourage those who desire to participate to prepare carefully and reverently: setting out a special cloth, obtaining wine or grape juice and some form of bread before the liturgy begins. Since baking bread has been so central to many during the pandemic, we will invite folks to bake their own bread, perhaps using a recipe used at Holy Trinity.

Eucharist is an embodied liturgy in real time and space, yet we have experienced a strong sense of community during our Sunday Zoom services. We hold and display our bowls of waters, crosses, palms and candles. We see each other’s faces. We cross ourselves and pray with outstretched arms. We sense the Spirit in scripture, preaching, prayer and singing. To many of us, it seems reasonable that the Holy Spirit can bless bread and wine, and us—the community—through digital means. How important it is to remember that eucharist is communal: we eat and drink together, and through this act God transforms us to be the body of Christ for the world.

However, there are cautions to name. Though most Holy Trinity members have access to computers or mobile phones, some do not have these devices. The eucharist is strongly connected to social justice and the hunger of the world. An online eucharist may preclude an open table and may create a digital divide marked by privilege. We must to continue to raise up the social justice dimensions of the eucharist, reminding ourselves that we are nourished to live out our baptismal calling to be the body of Christ for our broken world.

At the same time, this is a time of unrest, anxiety, and isolation. The eucharist is a gift of grace to strengthen our faith for these most difficult times wherever we find ourselves. While some insist that worship in front of a screen is disembodied, could it be that dipping our hands in a bowl of water, and sharing bread and wine are the very acts that remind us that we are bodies and connect us to the multi-sensory liturgy so central to Holy Trinity? 

Rather than predetermine a schedule for online communion, we will experiment and adapt our pattern based on the spiritual, health and safety concerns that emerge in the coming months.

3.     Distribution of communion to those at home. The ELCA currently has a practice of taking bread and wine from the Sunday assembly to those hospitalized or homebound. We anticipate there will be situations in which a pastor, deacon, family member, or church member will be able to bring communion to someone who is homebound or should avoid gatherings for health reasons. Whether individuals would be able to gather and commune inside or outside with masks, or whether the elements are delivered at a door with the words, “peace be with you; the body and blood of Christ for you,” (with a printed text or recording to use), will vary based on personal circumstances as well as health and safety issues.

Provisional rather than normative

You may be more or less comfortable with one or more of the options above. I hope that we will continue to embody Holy Trinity’s value of openness with added measures of humility, patience, and compassion for one another as we discern wisdom for these challenging times.

Since our situations vary and it is hard to know what the next months or years will hold, please consider these proposals as provisional rather than normative. These extraordinary times call for pastoral approaches that are grace-filled and expansive.

We are one body in Christ. May God continue to strengthen and nourish us with the gifts of community, word, meal, baptismal remembrance, silence, music, and a passion for justice and peace in all the earth.  

Pastor Craig Mueller