I don't really believe in swine flu. I mean, I believe there is a flu variant that is a bit nasty, but I don't believe it's a threat to western civilisation - which is pretty much the start point for a large number of other people. At work I am surrounded by gels and wipes - it reeks of disinfectant. More depressingly, I went to church on Sunday to find that we have panicked too. There is a long tedious list of detail , including some embarrassing prayers and especially here on the administration of holy communion, which essentially says 'no don't bother with the wine; the bread alone will do.' Which is nice, if you're worried about this stuff.
It's crap though. I'll preface what I'm about to say with a caveat that people in particular circumstances - pregnancy, existing conditions that make them likely to be the 30th death victim (in a week that number may change, by, I don't know, about one) - should take whatever action they need to. However, for the rest of us, and I include the bishops, this won't do.
I'm not a serious Eucharist man. I may accept that the Eucharist is the queen of sacraments, but if so, she's a constitutional monarch. I reject all kinds of silly positions that try to make everything rest on the communion. But it remains key for all the obvious reasons to the understanding and enacting of the Christian faith. And it does so in both kinds. The wine is not a nice-to-have extra. Without it the new covenant falls, the blood of Christ is not shed and indeed one could argue, the whole point is missed. It's not like this is hidden either. Even in the mind-alteringly bad prayer E in Common Worship (supper with his friends...), the text runs:
When supper was ended he took the cup of wine. Again he praised you, gave it to them and said: Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Which presumably we don't get now. I could go on about the importance of the wine throughout the scriptures, but there's no real point. But I will say that there is long running debate about the inculturation in African churches, namely does it need to be bread and wine to commemorate the eucharist when these are unfamiliar foods. I am sympathetic to both views, but by resiling from contact at the mildest threat, we essentially destroy any case we might have that they are special, instead they simply look like arbitrary consumption on a Sunday morning.
Anathema.
3 comments:
I was visiting my grandmother over the weekend and went to Evening Prayer yesterday. The Church is at the bottom of her garden, nothing older than 1300 except a few mediaeval monuments, the pews and rood screen, and the font which came from a local abbey after the Dissolution. Service was unadulterated BCP, good hymns, short sermon (nothing special, nothing silly). Perfect. Why can't all churches be like that?
In the USA, our Presbyterian Church there is now serving for more then 20 years the wine out of mini throw-away (but recycled) plastic cups (one per person). The are handed out on a round tray, the size of a standard cake form, which holds approx. 30-40 cups. There are more then ten trays and of course someone has to fill them before communion and someone else has to collect them again.
Well the church is certainly big and probably qualifies as a mega church in the US, but hygiene reasons were behind this decision.
When Jesus shared the communion with his disciples, there were only a few. Small churches adapted this custom with one cup, but they also either have to refill that cup during the communion or have several identical full cups.
You are right Will, communion without wine does not share the blood of Jesus with the congregation and does not follow what Jesus has instituted.
But there are solutions without sacrificing the sacrament!
These trays are not to expensive and are available in the UK here:
http://www.jmchurchsupplies.co.uk/shopping/?id=3
or you could go the Eastern Orthodox route and dip the wafer, instead of passing the cup.
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