By Robin G. Jordan
For Anglicans the Lord’s Supper is more than a bare memorial of our Lord’s suffering and death. According to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion the Lord’s Supper is a trustworthy witness to divine truth and an effectual sign of grace and God’s good will toward us. Through the Lord’s Supper God works invisibly in us. God not only invigorates our faith but he also strengthens and confirms it. As a sign of grace and God’s good will toward us, the Lord’s Supper is effectual in the sense that it accomplishes all that Christ purposed in instituting it.
The only requirement that the Articles set for the administration of the Lord’s Supper is that it should administered in accordance with Christ’s institution of the sacrament. This boils down to a gathering of some kind for the purpose of celebrating the supper, bread of some kind, wine of some kind (in some traditions, unfermented grape juice), the offering of thanks to God, and the recitation of the Words of Institution. It does not preclude the celebration of the Lord's Supper online.
A celebration of the Lord’s Supper does not require a priest albeit a priest is customary in the Anglican Church. Depending upon what theological school of thought to which you subscribe, the presidency of a presbyter or bishop at a celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a matter of church discipline or an essential for a valid sacrament. Scripture, however, is silent on the subject.
While it may go against the longstanding traditions with which a particular theological school of thought has hedged the Scriptures, there is no Scriptural reason for not celebrating the Lord’s Supper online. The argument that we need to be physically present in the same room in order to celebrate the Lord’s Supper takes a mechanistic view of the sacrament. It fails to take into consideration that even when we are physically present in the same room, we may not be near to God and to each other in spirit. Scripture recognizes this problem. It also recognizes that one may be spiritually present while physically absent.
There is more to gathering than occupying the same room. When we gather as a local expression of the Body of Christ, the most important requisite is that we draw near to God and to each other, not that we share the same space. This we can do online as well as in person.
We can expect to engage in social distancing for the foreseeable future. This will require that we reevaluate and rethink how we celebrate the Lord’s Supper when we are able to have in-person gatherings again.
It is wishful thinking to believe that the coronavirus will disappear as mysteriously as it appeared. Even if scientists develop an effective vaccine, we can expect outbreaks of the virus. The anti-vaccination movement has already voiced objections to the mass vaccination of the American public should a vaccine be developed. While an effective Ebola vaccine has been developed, many Africans in countries that experience Ebola outbreaks refuse to be vaccinated, fearing that they will contract the deadly virus.
Basic public health measures like staying at home and staying away from people in the case of the more vulnerable and keeping six or more feet between ourselves and others, washing our hands, wearing face masks, and wiping down surfaces with disinfectant in the case of everyone else will still be needed to mitigate the effects of the virus. There will be no returning to the “old normal,” to the old way of doing church.
The passing of the “old normal” is not necessarily a bad thing. Many of the teachings and practices with which our particular ecclesiastical tradition may have added to Biblical Christianity have proven to be significant obstacles to the spread of the gospel. Rather than clinging to the past, we should be exploring new ways that we can reach our virus-ravished world. We will need the Lord's Supper more than ever to invigorate, strengthen, and confirm our faith.
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