Together Alone – the Lord’s Supper Between Ritual And Ritualisation

Abstract

Drawing on empirical data from a study of Sunday Services in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (elcd) and using a theoretical framework from ritual theory, this article analyses and interprets regular churchgoers’ participation in the Lord´s Supper. The empirical material consists of participant observations combined with focus group workshops. The article puts forward the argument that participants experience the Lord´s Supper as a ritual in the Sunday Services that enables and embodies an intensified space in which they come to terms with the other churchgoers, themselves and God. The article thoroughly explores how the Lord´s Supper as a ritual seems to consist of different parts or movements marked by collective and individual practices that significantly affect the churchgoers’ ways of participating in and experiencing the Eucharist. It thus reveals that insights from ritual theory can provide an opportunity to rethink the theological and ritual dynamic of worship and in particular the Lord’s Supper.