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. 

Comments

  1. Besides having no precedent in historical Anglican practice, spiritual communion marginalizes the non-negotiable character of God's gifts and creatures, which are transformed into life giving signs by their union with the incarnate Word and Son of the Father, body, soul, blood and divinity, in heaven.

    If the fare set before us on the holy table is an uncanny banquet of earthly element and heavenly grace, there is no getting around the necessity of tasting of the sweetness of Christ in the bread and wine with our physical mouths as co-essential with the substantial feeding on his body and blood unto everlasting life by faith.

    Spiritual communiom utterly dismantles this. It tacitly severs the union of sign and the thing signified as a prerequisite for eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ in the name of expediency. It is highly un-Anglican; implicitly anti-creation; a soft kind of unwitting gnosticism.

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    1. Many thanks for your comment. I would be rather cautious concerning your comment that 'spiritual communion' has "no precedent in historical Anglican practice" as the rubric in the Communion of the Sick (1662) at least implies something akin to 'spiritual communion': "he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth". Importantly the rubric refers not only to sickness but also to "lack of company to receive with him, or by any other just impediment".

      Where I do agree with you is that such 'spiritual communion' should not be the norm. As you state, the Sacrament is a union of "earthly element and heavenly grace", to be tasted physically. Nevertheless, where this is "just impediment" - and a pandemic qualifies as such - assurance is to be given that the faithful do partake of the Lord's Body and Blood even when the Sacrament cannot be received. The rubric, however, does not require a specific act of 'spiritual communion' as it is the communion we have with the Lord when we "steadfastly believe".

      If 'spiritual communion' was to be the norm, it would disrupt the union of sign and thing signified, in the same way as seen in communion in one kind, private masses, and 'virtual communion'. This is precisely why the Ante-Communion has significance: it protects the union of sign and thing signified, ensuring that dubious practices which rupture this do not become normative.

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  2. I published a response to your thoughtful comments last night, but I fear it may have disappeared into the ether. So allow me to restate it now.

    There is indeed a rough parallel to spiritual communion in the rubric for the Communion of the Sick. But does the broad criterion of "just impediment" give us leave to celebrate non-communicating cyber Eucharists? I would think twice before reaching such a conclusion. An examination of what spiritual communion entails in non-communicating celebrations vs the conditions which are prescribed in the rubric may elucidate my hesitation.

    The context for what the rubric allows is giving the sacrament to a person whom we now call a "shut-in"; a baptized Christian who, for illness or some other liability, cannot participate in a eucharistic celebration at his own parish. More than that, so grievously stricken is he, that eating and drinking the consecrated signs in his sick bed is an impossibility. That indeed is a just impediment, the solution for which is spiritual communion with Christ in his body and blood by steadfastly believing.

    The logic in spiritual communion according to our cyber Eucharists is markedly different. It necessitates a concurrent live-streaming of the celebration as an effective premise for the absent worshipper to enjoy communion in the body and blood of our Lord by desire. Not so the rubric; which presumes either the administration of a portion of the sacrament from that morning's celebration, or the fresh consecration of bread and wine at the bedside of the parishioner, who, in any case, is too ill to eat and drink them. Hence, the proxy of spiritual communion in steadfast belief. It meets the criterion of just impediment according to the rubric's own prescriptions.

    There is all the difference in the world between the embodied presence required in the Communion of the Sick and the coldly disembodied experience of cyber worship. The minister, who, according to Hooker, is God's personal instrument, inhabits the same space as the sick Christian as he exercises his priestly office, body to body, presence to presence. And because the administration of the Supper is but one part of Visitations to the Sick, the presbyter will prayer for him, read certain Psalms, instruct him in seeking spiritual profit in his illness, rehearse his belief in the Articles of Creed, exhort him to repent of his sins and make amends to those he has offended and, if desired, hear his confession and absolve him of his sins. All this properly belongs to the ministry of the Word.

    But this is why the Anglican understanding of the power of the Word to redeem is so wonderful. It may be stretching things a bit to establish a parallel in the Word of God written with that hypostatic union of sign and thing signified in the Holy Communion. Nevertheless, the Incarnate Word of the Father, crucified, resurrected and glorified, is the font of power and grace unto salvation in the both the Word and those visible words, which are the dominical sacraments. You cannot separate the Word from its element in such an Augustinian understanding of the sacraments as our own. But that means we can, if necessary, fast for a time from the Eucharist, and still partake of Christ substantially, if not sacramentally, in services of the Word, such as Ante Communion and the Daily Office. The time has come for these neglected offices to step up to the plate and shine.

    You are doing the Anglican world a real service here at Laudable Practice. Keep up the good work, sir.

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    1. Thanks for coming back to me and for the encouraging words.

      On this issue I think we might be talking at cross-purposes. As I have made clear in a few posts, I believe Ante-Communion is appropriate at this time. By contrast, I have very grave reservations about the Sacrament being celebrated online for a dispersed congregation to view. Viewing the Sacrament is not what the Holy Supper is about: it is about eating and drinking.

      A form of spiritual communion (e.g. the PBS in the UK has one on its website) can be a means of comfort and assurance that, while at this time we do not partake of the Sacrament, we do partake of Christ. Such forms of spiritual communion, however, are not necessary and are not - as far as I can see - intended to be used while viewing a Eucharist online.

      In terms of your conclusion - it is a time for Daily Office and Ante-Communion to be take central place - I entirely agree (and quite a few recent posts indicate this). Once again, thank you for the encouraging words.

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  3. I believe we are in substantial agreement on this matter.

    But if I maintain that communion with Christ by desire in a service of the Holy Communion is chimerical, it is not because I am callous to our thirst for intimate union and communion with him; only that it is a wrong use of the sacrament, parallel to ensconsing a host in a monstrance for Benediction, which issues from a perfectly legitimate desire. And, in times like these, the tradition amply compensates for our want of that tremendous mystery in substantially feeding upon the body and blood of Christ in bread and wine with feasting on him in the Written Word, which is latent with the power of God to save and consolidate.

    And in this too, I am confident, we agree.

    Blessings

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  4. Thank you for this essay. I saw a service on line this past Sunday which confused me. Once I read your explanation of the ante-communion, I had a better understanding of what might have been goin going on.

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