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At their November 15 meeting, the bishops of the United Methodist Church declared a moratorium on performing any sacraments online, including Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper), until the matter has been studied to determine which, if any, sacraments would be acceptable when conducted over the Internet. The Council of Bishops made the ruling at the request of an unofficial but influential group of United Methodist theologians, bishops, church agency executives and pastors.
The trigger for that request was the plan from Central UMC in Concord, North Carolina, to launch a "virtual campus" that would offer webcam Bible study, counseling via live chat and worship services online. Concord has even employed a second pastor specifically to minister to the online community. While there is apparently no objection within the denomination to those plans, Concord's announcement that its online services would enable virtual users to receive Communion at home whenever it is offered in the services was not as well received by all. The church had been planning to offer online Communion for the first time on Christmas Eve.
Virtual participants in the Lord's Supper would use grape juice and bread or crackers they supplied themselves, but which would be blessed over the Internet by the officiant leading the service. Such an online arrangement is already practiced by some independent and evangelical churches, such as Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, California.
Central UMC's senior pastor, Rev. Andy Langford, thinks the bishops' ruling is a mistake. "The way we operate now, if you want to receive [Communion], you have to come to my church sometime between the hours of 9 and 12 on Sunday morning," he said. "I don't think there's any other institution in our country that can survive on that kind of business model."
Langford now plans to survey online participants in Central's virtual campus to see if they want Communion online.
Christians both within Methodism and from other denominations are split on the appropriateness of online Communion. Some see it as simply being pragmatic and making use of advances in technology, much as the early Protestants took advantage of the invention of the printing press to make the Bible widely available. Others see a virtual Lord's Supper as missing the point of being a sacred "meal" shared within a physically gathered community. Some consider virtual Communion a sacrilege.
The fact that different traditions of Christianity view Communion differently also affects what various Christians think of online Communion.
A few Christian groups, such as the Quakers and the Salvation Army, don't practice Communion at all. Some evangelical groups consider the elements (the bread and juice or wine) a representation of the body and blood of Christ. Some, such as the Methodists, consider the elements a representation, but also view Communion as a sacrament (something that conveys God's grace to us and makes present or effective the sacred and holy to participants). Lutheran groups typically consider that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in, with, and under the consecrated bread and wine, and Catholic theology says that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ. Some denominations, such as Baptists and Mennonites, call Communion an ordinance (an outward expression of faith that Jesus told us to observe with other Christians). Some Christians also differ on whether there has to be a member of the clergy present for Holy Communion to actually take place.
More on this story can be found at these links:
Church's Online Communion: Sacrament or Sacrilege? Wall Street Journal
Can Online Communion Be a Substitute for the Real Thing? RNS
Take Online Communion With Us. Saddleback Church
Why I'm Open to Online Communion. Ministry Matters
The Big Questions
1. What is your church's understanding of what happens when the Lord's Supper is shared? How would this understanding be affected, if at all, if the Communion were shared with people over the Internet?
2. To what degree is physical, human presence a critical component of Christianity? To what degree is it a critical component of the church? Why?
3. Apart from online Communion, what is your feeling about virtual churches in general? Might they be an important way to bring the gospel to people who are already used to having online friendships (such as on Facebook), dialog (such as on Twitter) and face-to-face interactions (such as on Skype)? Why or why not? To what degree is offering virtual church a concession to the reality today that many people do not want to actually attend church? Should we make such concessions?
4. How does the practice of taking Communion to shut-ins fit into your church's beliefs about the meaning of this sacred meal? How might that practice influence your opinion about online Communion?
5. To what degree might participating in online Communion help Christians feel more connected to the global church beyond the local expressions of the Body of Christ? Is that possibility more important than whatever objections church leaders might raise to online Communion? Explain your answer.
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Matthew 18:20
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. (For context, read 18:15-20.)
We've seen this verse cited as biblical support for the idea of online Communion, with supporters of the idea maintaining that the "gathering" doesn't have to be physical. Likewise, if two people are together in their family room gathered at their computer as online Communion is conducted from a church elsewhere, could not Jesus be among the two people in the family room?
However, it's important not to read this verse out of context. As one online commenter pointed out, "Matthew 18:15-20 is about church discipline and accountability, not simply being in a room next to one other person and saying 'See, we're doing church together.'"
Even so, the entirety of Matthew 18 is focused on "the kingdom of heaven" and on the "lost" becoming found.
Questions: How might matters of church discipline and accountability be conducted in a virtual church? Should virtual church be considered a stepping stone to get people to come to "real" church? Why or why not?
1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. (For context, read 9:19-23.)
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul uses the Greek word kerdiano five times, translated as "win" or "gain" -- as in winning or gaining people for Christ. The principle Paul puts forward here is the importance of accommodating himself to people as and where he finds them, so as to bring them to Christ.
Questions: Paul is not talking about Communion in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, but about evangelism, and it's unlikely that he'd have thought of the Lord's Supper as a means of winning others to Christ. But based on his attitude as expressed in these verses, what do you think Paul's view about online Communion would be if the Internet had been available in his day?
To what degree are you willing to accommodate yourself to others to win them to Christ? Would you be willing to participate in online church with them to extend them Christian fellowship? Why or why not?
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (For context, read 11:23-26.)
This is from the apostle Paul, on the institution of the Lord's Supper.
Questions: What do you feel you are proclaiming when you "eat this bread and drink the cup"? How would that proclamation be affected if the Communion you were participating in were over the Internet?
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (No context necessary.)
The writer of Hebrews told Christians to meet together "to provoke one another to love and good deeds" and to encourage one another in the faith.
Questions: Obviously, the Internet was not an option in the days of the early church, but if it were, do you think the Hebrews author would have seen it as an acceptable way "to provoke one another to love and good deeds" and to encourage one another in the faith? Why or why not? Can online Communion actually encourage people to "neglect meeting together" or is cyberspace simply another forum for such meeting?
Can online worship really be "meeting together" when it is so one-directional? That is, the viewer at the computer alone in a house can see the pastor or other worship leader and feel connected to him/her perhaps almost as much as when seated in a church, but the officiant cannot see and interact with each worshiper.
For Further Discussion
1. Comment on this, from a TWW team member: "I'm all in favor of sending out newsletters as PDF's, maintaining church websites and Facebook pages, sending out prayer concerns by computer, but we know Jesus by the breaking of the bread (see the Emmaus story in Luke 24), and even though we can't always be together, we ought to try. The Amish, for instance, don't forbid cars because they are anti-technology. It is because cars drive families farther apart and prevent them from getting together and being together."
2. Respond to this, from another TWW team member who is a young adult: "I like the online Communion discussion. I think this brings to life conversation about incarnation ministry and the power of presence. So much is virtual today, and as much of my generation is all virtual, it also brings with it a lack of real community. It seems to me like we have some very lonely generations today who connect easily over Facebook and text message but miss the in-person community. I am reminded why God came to earth and didn't just stay separated from humankind. God chose to be here with us and in remembering the story of Communion and partaking in the mystery of Communion, I feel it is very important for a presence to be associated."
3. Comment on this definition of "virtual reality," relating it to online Communion: "an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment; also the technology used to create or access a virtual reality."
4. Consider also this from Wikipedia: "According to Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer, cyberspace is defined more by the social interactions involved rather than its technical implementation. In their view, the computational medium in cyberspace is an augmentation of the communication channel between real people; the core characteristic of cyberspace is that it offers an environment that consists of many participants with the ability to affect and influence each other. They derive this concept from the observation that people seek richness, complexity, and depth within a virtual world."
5. Respond to this, from another TWW team member: "I once knew someone who described having a 'Communion service' at a kids' summer camp which used potato chips and coke instead of bread and wine -- something that seemed to me rather wrong, almost blasphemous."
6. We assume the online respondent named "Robert" was being sarcastic when he made the following comment about online Communion, but see what you think: "Awesome idea! I don't like people anyway. How great that I can be a Christian and get my preaching from the TV, communion from the Internet, worship from an iTunes download and serve the less fortunate by making a financial donation online. Who needs other people to be accountable to, or to learn from, or to serve alongside with. I sure hope heaven is this way, 'cause being in community with people is too troublesome and demanding. Who wants that?"
Responding to the News
This is a good time to review your church's understanding of Communion, and talk together about how it connects with your spiritual life.
Closing Prayer
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