Sunday, June 13, 2010

Communion Technology

Danville hosted its big event of the year, the Great American Brass Band Festival. This morning saw the traditional community church service on the college lawn. The Canadian Salvation Army band supplied the music, and most of the downtown churches participated in the service. This is practical ecumenism at its best.

We had a new piece of communion technology this year. We each received a little plastic cup of grape juice. It was sealed at the top. Above the seal was another layer with the text "This is my body, which is broken for you. Take, eat: do this in remembrance of me."

The most amazing part was that in between the top layer printed with the text, and the second layer which sealed the cup, was a little tiny communion wafer.

6 comments:

randy said...

something about that communion package thing that rubs me the wrong way...it's 'off', somehow.

like this is the last little, denatured, sanitized, coldly modern iteration of what was once a very personal, visceral, primal, diret encounter with Godhead.

Gruntled said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gruntled said...

Agreed.

We have switched to the early service in part because it uses real bread, rather than small paste wafers that I think of as dollhouse shingles.

I particular like the Moravian love feast, which uses full buns and coffee.

Anonymous said...

I too bristle at the handy, self-contained, single serving communion packs.

My first experience with them was at a mega church when we lived in Louisville, and as I recall the liturgy went something like this:
“Jesus is awesome, here’s some crackers and juice, let’s sing some praise songs.”

No table, no invitation, no words of institution, and no common loaf or cup.

I am a big tent guy, but I honestly reflected on whether I could partake—was this indeed the communion of the body and blood of Christ? (I finally decided yes, I would trust in the presence of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to enter into even this peculiar feast. I am a sucker for ecumenism.)
--Sam

Anonymous said...

What are those things even made of? I always thought of them as some sort of edible styrofoam.

philo said...

Why do non-Catholics take almost the whole Bible literally, but when it comes to John chapter 6, they insist it is figurative.