Online Communion is “For Real”

A group of individuals is recommending that the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church put a moratorium on online communion saying it warrants further study. Here was my immediate response to their recommendation:

Young Adults spend over 3 hours a day on social media. It’s high time we start treating the internet as a “place,” a “mission field,” instead of an abstract. God is present where one person interacts with another, to say less would limit our conception of God and the reach of Grace. In the very near future online interactions will be better in many ways than face-to-face ones (see google glass).

I take communion online every week with my worship community, Darkwood Brew (darkwoodbrew.org) and find it to be every bit as spirit filled as in person communion. In some ways it’s better. For instance, we share what elements we are able to bring to the table over chat, thus allowing others to know something about us, and thus a deepening of the community.

I am United Methodist and know that Darkwood Brew communion does not meet our disciplinary standards. But it’s time we wake up to a new reality, one is which God is definitely present and working.

Clint Schneckloth make’s an impassioned argument for “real faith” and “real sacrament” happening online here: http://www.clintschnekloth.com/five-reasons-huffington-post-is-destroying-the-internet/

The main crux of the group’s argument is:

“Participation in the Lord’s Supper entails the actual tactile sharing of bread and wine in a service that involves people corporeally together in the same place.”

I think their reasoning betrays their recommendation. It suggests that United Methodists believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and body become the actual Christ, which we do not believe. Instead, we believe that the Spirit enters into the bread and wine. In the process, the Spirit, the virtual – not the bread, the tactile – is the transformative force. By saying that we can’t experience communion, as community, over distance is to devalue the role of Spirit, to limit the power of Grace.

Let’s get real. The reason people are afraid of online Communion is because it will (AND IT WILL) signify the end of institutional church as we know it. Which is an inconvenient truth that we are all going to have to face sooner or later.

 

 

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