Reflections on a Year of Eucharistic Fasting

On Maundy Thursday 2021, I tasted the bread and cup of holy communion along with my congregants, for the first time since the First Sunday in Lent 2020. That was the day my local congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC) last celebrated the sacrament of holy communion as the coronavirus was spreading across the globe and gaining a foothold in the United States. Beginning on the Third Sunday in Lent 2020, we responded to our governor’s mandate to shelter in place and closed our sanctuary doors. As we did so, we also decided that we would not celebrate holy communion in a virtual context. Even though we had the technological means to do so, our theological decision was not to celebrate holy communion in virtual space. This article is a pastoral and theological reflection on how one Protestant congregation in the Reformed tradition made the decision to enter a pandemic time of eucharistic fasting instead of celebrating communion online, and what the congregation and I as their pastor experienced spiritually during that time. It is not meant to suggest that all congregations should have made this choice, but it does offer insight into how it was discerned and why. This reflection offers a timeline of the decision-making and ensuing theological conversations and is undertaken with reference to several different denominational statements about the celebration of online communion. It refers as well to theological discussion during the time of pandemic in social media forums, on blogs, and in articles published in this journal. Finally, it raises further questions for reflection for those Protestants who did celebrate holy communion online during pandemic and for those who did not. In this journal we appreciate the connections between the parish and the academy, and the conversations between and among pastoral practitioners (practical theologians)—those writing from the academy, and those writing in the blogosphere. What pastors may be realizing after a year of pastoring in the pandemic in real time needs to be shared with those whose work it is to guide our theological reflection from the denominational offices and the academy. This is part of the work of reflective practice, and an inclusion of voices not always heard in theological conversation that is supposed to be about the local church.