‘Maundy Thursday’
Good morning,
Today is Maundy Thursday, the day in Holy Week which has traditionally been set aside for remembering the Last Supper when Jesus shared a meal with his disciples. Most of the gospels see this as a Passover meal – and indeed Passover began last night. This meal is recalled in Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, when Christians eat bread and drink wine – which in some way becomes Jesus’ body and blood for those who receive.
When Maundy Thursday falls in term-time, the Chaplaincy offers a service of communion in St Leonard’s Chapel. We cannot do so today. But we are still offering holy communion via a zoom service of Compline with Holy Communion tonight at 9 pm.
There has been a great deal of conversation across the churches about whether communion can be celebrated in this way. This has been a live issue in the church for about 20 years, and has been of particular relevance to people who are largely or wholly housebound, often owing to disability. The rest of the church has caught up over the past month or so. Strangely, I remember a workshop when training for the ministry over 20 years ago in a conference in Hamilton Hall, St Andrews – now the super-swanky Hamilton Grand apartments – at which we had to envisage communion in the future via screens. We did not know then when it would come to pass, but we suspected it would.
Some churches and people in the church think that it is essential to communion that all who participate be in the same physical space, sharing the bread and wine consecrated in that same space. This reflects the presence of God in the one physical space of the body of Jesus Christ. And I have read arguments that an online communion is too individualistic, entrenching an understanding that we do not need to be a church community to follow our faith.
While I can see merit in these arguments, for me they are outweighed by an overwhelming sense that the zoomunity we have become over recent weeks, in Complines and Sunday services, is a single space. We all participate at the same time, largely hearing and seeing each other. When I conduct tonight’s service, I will not be consecrating bread and wine for people to receive communion at a personal time of their choosing, but there and then, in that moment. Furthermore, it seems to me that sharing communion together online, far from fostering individualism, emphasises our oneness. We may be apart in physical space, but even in a church we are separated by pews, galleries, and by our individuality. But in receiving communion together online, our isolation from each other is overcome by our communion with each other, and with the risen Christ from whom our unity comes. He is present to us all, living within us by his Spirit, as we feed on bread and wine.
And so I invite you, if you wish, to take part this evening. What you will need is some bread and wine or grape juice, which failing another form of drink. You are of course welcome to participate in the service while preferring not to receive communion. I have attached the order of service if you want to look at it in advance or print it. I will also share the order of service with you on your screen during the service. Music will be offered by members of St Leonard’s Chapel Choir, who sing for every Thursday Compline, and the address, on the theme of touch, will be from our honorary Church of Scotland Chaplain, Revd Prof Ian Bradley.
Here is the invitation:
Donald MacEwan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Compline with Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday
Time: Apr 9, 2020 09:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/845404874?pwd=MWJ3NjZ4Slo5TFBwYW82ZFpneUJmUT09
Meeting ID: 845 404 874
Password: 1Jvt7e
Here is an image which was shared with me yesterday, and which Fiona Barnard used in her address last night at Compline – a real presence of Jesus, even if his followers are socially distancing:
Tomorrow is Good Friday. The ecumenical group have prepared something like the usual pilgrimage through St Andrews – the Way of the Cross. It will take about an hour, from 5-6 pm tomorrow, Friday 10 April. It will happen live and you can listen and watch here from 5 pm tomorrow: https://www.facebook.com/CornerstoneStAndrews/live/ You do not need a facebook account to access the video.
Let me also say that we have launched a Chaplaincy Companionship blog – these daily emails which will continue will now also be blogged daily here – https://chaplaincycompanionship.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Wishing you every blessing this Maundy Thursday.
Yours,
Donald.