Live Streamed Communion?

[charsan]

It just bugs me the thought that someone could just literally grab their beer and pretzels and use that for communion... I don't know. Something is lost in the holiness aspect

I agree, yet thousands upon thousands of evangelicals and others do this not really understanding the Holy Eucharist and think it's just a memorial.

 

[Messerve]

What has happened to the church if a Government decree results in Christ being separated from us during our most sacred fellowship?

Hence one of my misgivings about the church's reaction to this. We (meaning my church) always said church online wasn't true fellowship. That there is importance in meeting with your local body of Believers. Many people had decided not to go to church any longer and simply listen to sermons online or join forums such as this. And the leaders stressed that it wasn't a replacement, that the Bible supported meeting physically still. But now it suddenly is okay? Were we wrong before? Why has no one spoken about this to the Body and explained why this is suddenly okay? And how about the elderly with no internet who now don't even have a voice in our church meetings? Or families with special needs children who are unable to sit down for a Zoom meeting? This just isn't a sufficient replacement.

I agree, yet thousands upon thousands of evangelicals and others do this not really understanding the Holy Eucharist and think it's just a memorial.

And I'm kind of middle ground. I was taught that Jesus' presence is specially manifested during communion amidst the congregation, not necessarily the bread and wine itself. At the moment I'm not sure what the Scriptural basis for that was. It was somewhere deep in my theology classes. But for that reason, I do put emphasis on being physically present and I do think it's something more than only a memorial. Even when we sing songs in church I try to imagine that I'm standing before God's throne singing directly to Him. It's not just a confirmation of what I believe, but God is actually there.

 

[Paidiske]

What has happened to the church if a Government decree results in Christ being separated from us during our most sacred fellowship?

It's a big stretch to go from "we are temporarily not able to receive communion" to "Christ being separated from us."

 

[Messerve]

It's a big stretch to go from "we are temporarily not able to receive communion" to "Christ being separated from us."

Good point. I still don't see why it can't be postponed. If they fail to create a vaccine I think we'll be forced to resume a somewhat normal routine again. People can't live this way forever...

 

[charsan]

We (meaning my church) always said church online wasn't true fellowship.

This I would agree with your church, meeting online is not true fellowship. I am going to my second Mass at my Church tomorrow and I tell you that is real fellowship meeting online is just meeting online. We meet on Wednesday night online but that is nothing like meeting in person. Of course we don't touch and all that but being together is something special and I will say I almost lost my mind for the month and so we didn't meet and Easter was the hardest day for me. Sorry I rambled on.

 

[Paidiske]

One thing I did find interesting is that my diocese has required us to record all online services in the service register. So they do see them as "real" enough to want them recorded!

 

[Messerve]

This I would agree with your church, meeting online is not true fellowship. I am going to my second Mass at my Church tomorrow and I tell you that is real fellowship meeting online is just meeting online. We meet on Wednesday night online but that is nothing like meeting in person. Of course we don't touch and all that but being together is something special and I will say I almost lost my mind for the month and so we didn't meet and Easter was the hardest day for me. Sorry I rambled on.

I wish we could at least sit six feet apart. I will help clean the sanctuary afterwards if that's all they're concerned about.

 

[Paidiske]

I wish we could at least sit six feet apart. I will help clean the sanctuary afterwards if that's all they're concerned about.

It isn't the only concern.

For example, singing has been shown to produce droplets into the air (potentially virus-bearing droplets) which spread up to six metres from the singer and last at least ten minutes. Imagine every person in church singing "lustily and with good courage" (to quote Wesley), producing such droplets, the air circulating and mingling...

We simply can't gather without the risk of sharing the virus right now.

 

[charsan]

I wish we could at least sit six feet apart. I will help clean the sanctuary afterwards if that's all they're concerned about.

I wish you all could too. My church has six people and before all this began we were doing social distancing already because we all sat in different places So it's not hard for us and we got the Bishop permissions to hold Mass now

 

[Carl Emerson]

It's a big stretch to go from "we are temporarily not able to receive communion" to "Christ being separated from us."

Not really, some sections of the church believe that partaking the body and blood is essential for salvation.

 

[hedrick]

Hence one of my misgivings about the church's reaction to this. We (meaning my church) always said church online wasn't true fellowship. That there is importance in meeting with your local body of Believers. Many people had decided not to go to church any longer and simply listen to sermons online or join forums such as this.

For us at least this isn’t listening to recorded services. This is our congregation together. We use Facebook live, so there’s a chat providing interaction, and a way to make small balloons appear - virtual “amens”.

 

[Paidiske]

Not really, some sections of the church believe that partaking the body and blood is essential for salvation.

In general, I'd agree that it should be a normal part of the Christian life. But foregoing it temporarily is a different thing from rejecting it in general.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Even if it is essential for salvation?

 

[Paidiske]

Even if it is essential for salvation?

Okay, essential for salvation how often?

Every day? Every week? Every month? Four times a year? At different times in the history of the church, all of these have been "normal" for different communities.

I'd argue that it's not essential that we take it often enough that we can't pause for some weeks during a pandemic, in order to save lives.

 

[charsan]

I would argue the opposite. The Eucharist is healing. In the past the Church didn't hide, there are tales of whole parishes parading icons, carrying the Blessed Eucharist and praying and the disease left. Where is real faith now? Even our main diocese gives parking lot/drive by Eucharist because it is that important

 

[Albion]

His presence in communion is special. My point is that there's no distance limit that I know of for a congregation that is celebrating communion.

In one sense, that's true, but we had been talking about people COMMUNING, were we not? It wasn't a controversy about being present or being somehow "with" other believers in spirit when Holy Communion was being celebrated.

Frankly I have qualms about Buzz Aldrin's communion on the moon, not because of the distance, but because as far as I know he wasn't part of the communion service.

Were the elements he took with him already consecrated? I too have qualms about that event, but I don't know all the details.

 

[Paidiske]

I would argue the opposite. The Eucharist is healing. In the past the Church didn't hide, there are tales of whole parishes parading icons, carrying the Blessed Eucharist and praying and the disease left. Where is real faith now? Even our main diocese gives parking lot/drive by Eucharist because it is that important

Not entirely true. Churches have suspended services during times of pandemic in the past. I have seen newspaper reports of that kind of decision during the Spanish flu epidemic a century ago.

We need to make decisions based on the facts of our situation. The facts in our case are that gathering together is likely to result in sharing of the disease. We have seen infection clusters come out of church services. We need to be honest about that, and responsible in taking risks, especially given many of our churches have demographics which skew elderly and vulnerable.

That doesn't negate our faith; we can still pray, we can still exercise our faith. It doesn't have to be in this specific way in order for God to be at work in and through and with our faith and our prayers.

 

[Albion]

Who has made it special? Jesus or us?

What I had in mind there was Jesus taking the Passover meal on Maundy Thursday and giving his observance a new meaning, as we see in the words as recorded in the Gospel account.

 

[Tigger45]

Although my congregation does promote ‘live streaming communion’ and for those participating to gather their personal elements (bread and wine or juice) at the beginning of the streamed service to engage in the practice together virtually of which part I don’t participate in because I don’t feel right about doing it.

 

[chevyontheriver]

One thing I did find interesting is that my diocese has required us to record all online services in the service register. So they do see them as "real" enough to want them recorded!

Well, you probably didn't just sit down in front of a computer and have an online thingie. Presumably you had a normal service but without almost all of the people. We have regularly had masses televised on a local cable access channel for years, but there were hundreds of people physically there too. Same as now but ten or less people present (priest, deacon, the sisters, organist, choir director, cantor, and camera operator) instead of hundreds. It's just as real even if I don't quite feel it.