Drive-thru Communion? Remote consecration? The Miracle Meal Pre Packaged Communion

 

As the COVID-19 lockdown drags on, many Episcopalians are experiencing the longest absence of the Eucharist they’ve had in years – perhaps even in their entire adult lives. While this has been viewed by some as an opportunity for an unintentional Lenten devotion – “Eucharistic fasting” – others have proposed new ways of celebrating the sacrament to provide spiritual comfort at a time when it has never seemed more necessary.

Some of these alternative practices – like “drive-thru Holy Communion,” delivery of consecrated hosts to parishioners’ doorsteps and even “virtual consecration” – have ignited debate within The Episcopal Church about health risks, the appropriate amount of adaptation of sacramental practices to the current crisis and the nature of the Eucharist itself. Is it still the Eucharist if it is celebrated by one priest alone in a church while the congregation watches on Facebook Live? If the priest never touches the bread and wine? If it is consecrated and sent through the mail?

“Theologically, it’s saying that, really, the benefit comes not just from receiving the sacrament but from the work of Christ with his incarnation and life and death and resurrection,” Meyers told ENS. “Spiritual communion is a way of connecting with the tangible element of bread and wine that we don’t have tangibly.” Read full story…