In this time of pestilence we need the Ante-Communion

But this pestilence too shall pass, and we need to make sure in the meantime we do no harm to our more normative theology and practice.

The words are those of George Sumner, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.  His warning has not, unfortunately, been heeded.  Normative Anglican theology and practice regarding the Eucharist has been and is being harmed in the time of Covid-19.  It began with the requirement of communion in one kind.  To be clear, heeding the advice of public health authorities concerning the common chalice at the Holy Communion was certainly the right thing to do: introducing communion in one kind as normative for the laity for this time was the wrong thing to do.

Then there are private masses.  The whole idea of Common Prayer has, from the outset, rejected the innovation of private mass, emphasising that the Holy Communion is necessarily corporate and communal, bound up with "the nature of a Sacrament". 

Related, rather ironically, to private masses is 'virtual communion'.  While the theologies and traditions of those supporting private masses and those espousing virtual communion are likely to be radically different, what both practices share in common is a privatising of the Sacrament, rending asunder the ecclesial Body and the sacramental Body. 

Both practices also diminish significant physical, material aspects of the Sacrament.  In private masses, there is no corporate eating and drinking of the Bread and Cup of the Lord.  In 'virtual communion', there is no giving or distributing of the Sacrament.  In the former, we cannot 'draw near'.  In the latter, there is no need to be exhorted to 'draw near'.

What would have prevented such "harm to our more normative theology and practice"?  Part of the answer to this question is the traditional Anglican practice of Ante-Communion.  The loss of this practice has contributed to the harmful Eucharistic practices that have arisen amongst Anglicans during the time of Covid-19.  In its absence as a unifying, common practice, grounded upon basic, shared theological affirmations regarding the Sacrament of the Eucharist (communion in both kinds, the Sacrament is inherently corporate and communal, it requires an assembled congregation), practices emerge which disorder the administration of this Sacrament within Common Prayer. 

There is a tendency to dismiss Ante-Communion as an Anglican oddity or, worse, a sign of lukewarmness, a failure to take the Sacrament seriously.  The practice of Ante-Communion, however, was often bound up with a rather more serious approach to the Sacrament than is common in a liturgical landscape shaped by the Parish Communion movement, what Michael Ramsey famously described as "the ease with which our congregations come tripping to the altar week by week". 

As for Ante-Communion being an Anglican oddity, Procter and Frere note:

The direction for the 'ante-communion service' is an attempt to revive the old custom, current in primitive times, of saying the introductory part of the Liturgy on solemn days when there was no celebration of the whole.

The Prayer Book practice was also a continuation of the quite common 'Missa sicca' - no offertory, Canon or Communion - in the Latin medieval West, often used at weddings or funerals.  With patristic and medieval antecedents, what is a rupture with tradition is the failure to offer such a provision when necessitated by pastoral circumstances.  Rather than being an Anglican oddity, Ante-Communion reflects a long-established practice and wisdom.

In a range of matters, Covid-19 has exposed the weaknesses of late 20th century liturgical revision.  The disappearance of Sunday Mattins has deprived many Anglicans of regular experience of the daily office, which could have sustained the Church's life of prayer during this time.  The disappearance of the Litany has resulted in the absence of a form of sustained intercession.  The disappearance of prayers for use in time of common sickness (and in time of war or for fair weather) has proven to be woefully naive and short-sighted.  The disappearance of the Ante-Communion can also now be seen as misjudged and detrimental, hindering a meaningful and theologically coherent response to pastoral circumstances which have necessitated a time of fasting from the Sacrament. 

Ante-Communion avoids the harmful, disordered practices of routine communion in one kind, private masses, and 'virtual communion', while also orienting Common Prayer towards the Eucharist, in expectation and desire (hence the Old High Church insistence that the Ante-Communion is said at the altar).  What was dismissed during the mid-20th century as an antiquated, somewhat embarrassing custom, can now be seen in this time of pestilence as a wise, unifying, and relevant pastoral practice.