Being in Communion, part #1


In the past couple of weeks, I have been privileged to assist at the services for my faith community.  This act is not new to me. What is new is that these services are exclusively online.  There are a few ministers present to an empty worship space.  We try to make it a meaningful experience and we try to reach out to the video audience in a personal way.  It is good that we do it and it is important.

However, I sit in the church to prepare myself for the recording and it just feels so empty and impersonal.  I have the same feeling when we are done.  I miss seeing the faces of those who would ordinarily be in the pews.  I miss the noise generated by families and neighbors and friends.  I miss the loving touch or warm embrace.  For me, and I think for so many, this is the greatest penance of this Lenten Season.  I have heard from many of you that it is hard to be away from the community.  I think my experience is just as hard, though in a different and unexpected way.

I get concerned because though we have rallied and gotten up to speed (more or less) for a more digital based ministry at my church (and with each passing week, we do it better), I fear this might become a new normal for some.  I get concerned that if “church” becomes as easy as turning on my computer or smart TV, will we settle for that once our towns, counties and country are “open” again?  Will some decide that this is a good way to do church and become even more distant from the flesh and blood experience of being Church? 

For now, when we gather through ZOOM or Facebook Live or some other medium, this is how we are in communion with one another.  It is the best we can do to keep everyone safe and healthy.  I am grateful for the technology that allows us to keep the threads of communion stretched taut from one person to another.  I really feel I am in communion with others in the community when I see and hear them on a ZOOM coffee hour or prayer experience.  I know people are tuning in when I read the comments and prayer requests scrolling by.  And I sense a real connection when I reach out to our seniors on the phone and hear a bit about how they are experiencing all of this pandemic “stuff.”

And yet I also long for the day when we can be together again, sharing at the table of Word and Sacrament.  I think I will weep with joy when that day comes.  That will be my second Easter this year, whenever it arrives.  Please join me in waiting and longing.  Please be ready to return to the flesh and blood community that is yours – because that day will come.  And in the meantime, let us pray for one another, for all those first responders, medical personnel, grocery store workers, postal carriers, for those separated from loved ones in times of illness and grief and those suffering economically because of this virus.  Let us be physically distant from one another, but present in whatever creative ways we can.  Let us be in communion.

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