No reservation: Thursday after Trinity Sunday thoughts on ministering the Sacrament to the sick

This means that we must not abandon or exclude the method of celebrating in the sick man's house, but must use it where we can and the sick man wills.

The comment on the Communion of the Sick is by Charles Gore, from his 1915 pamphlet Crisis in Church and Nation, amidst a discussion of the doctrinal and legal implications of reservation of the Sacrament.  His words preceding this comment only add to its force:

when we priests solemnly undertake, as a condition of receiving any kind of cure of souls, that "in . . . administration of the Sacraments we will use the form in the said book prescribed and none other, except so far as shall be [Shall be in the future: not has been in the past ...] ordered by lawful authority", we bind ourselves strictly, except so far as other direction shall be given by lawful authority, to the use of the Prayer Book form in communicating the sick.

Why might this come to mind today? Some Anglicans will be observing Corpus Christi on this Thursday after Trinity Sunday, often involving a Eucharistic procession.  In previous years I have questioned the theological and liturgical coherence of Anglicans celebrating this feast.  This post, however, will reflect on a practice that is both assumed and reinforced by Corpus Christi: reservation of the Sacrament. 

In many Anglican provinces, of course, 'lawful authority' has made provision for reservation to enable administration of Communion to the sick. This, however, assumes that Communion for the sick from the Reserved Sacrament is preferable to the classical Anglican provision, 'The Communion of the Sick' by which the priest consecrates bread and wine in the home of the sick person. We might note that while administration of the Reserved Sacrament is permitted in many contemporary Anglican rites, provision for the classical understanding of 'The Communion of the Sick' is also provided for in TEC BCP 1979, Common Worship, Ireland 2004, and Canada's Book of Alternative Services.  Gore's words, then, should be heeded: "we must not abandon or exclude" this form of administering the holy Sacrament to the sick.  

An exemplar of this classical Anglican tradition can be found in John Keble.  The great Tractarian's ministry to the sick in his parish did not involve reservation of the Sacrament, or even Extended Communion.  Instead, he faithfully ministered according to the 1662 rite for 'The Communion of the Sick'.  This was carefully noted in J.T. Coleridge's A Memoir of the Reverend John Keble:

Mr. Keble was never tired of waiting on the sick in Holy Communion; he generally went to them on foot, carrying his own little black bag; and if they were poor he used to take some dainty morsel in a basket besides. He never proposed to give the H. C. privately, he said the request ought to come from the sick person; but he was always ready to take the slightest hint, and if he thought that shyness prevented the desire for it being expressed, he used to get someone else to speak to the sick person, and find out his wishes. One poor woman asked him to come to her every week, he thought she meant for Holy Communion, and during her illness celebrated every Monday morning by her bedside. At such times he never talked at all to the sick person by way of instruction or preparation; there was nothing but the service. He did not say anything aloud on coming into the house, but first greeted the sick person, asking about his health, and then immediately began to prepare the simple altar, which he was careful to place so that the sick person could easily see everything. He said the service very slowly and quietly, making pauses that he might the more easily be followed. After giving the Bread, he used to become so absorbed in prayer for the sick person, that more than once, when no one was present who would remind him, he entirely forgot to give the Chalice, and after long prayer went on with the rest of the service. When it was over, he used to fold up his little black stole carefully, and to lay it, with a few words of private prayer, on the foot of the sick person's bed; then, when he had put all by, he shook hands with those who had assisted, thanking them for doing so. 

Parson Keble, then, continued to administer the Sacrament to the sick in Hursley from 1836 to 1866, as had Parson Woodforde in his parish during the previous century:

I went & read Prayers again this morning to Mrs Leggatt and administered also the H. Sacrament to her. She was very weak indeed - from the entry in Woodforde's diary for 9th June 1787. 

Keble had previously celebrated this form of administering the Sacrament to the sick in The Christian Year, with 'Visitation and Communion of the Sick' evocatively capturing the depth of meaning associated with the rite:

I came again: the place was bright

“With something of celestial light”-

A simple Altar by the bed

For high Communion meetly spread,

Chalice, and plate, and snowy vest.-

We ate and drank: then calmly blest,

All mourners, one with dying breath,

We sate and talked of Jesus' death.

Both the account of Keble's ministry and his poetic celebration of 'The Communion of the Sick' emphasise how the consecration of the Sacrament before the sick person provides a particular focus of prayer, thanksgiving, and assurance.  Rather than a truncated rite distributing previously consecrated elements, 'The Communion of the Sick' ministers to the sick person the Church's most solemn prayer, with the Words of Institution and consecration heard for assurance and comfort, setting forth, in the words of Jeremy Taylor, the "commemorative sacrifice ... the sacrifice of the cross, by prayers, and a commemorating rite and representment, according to his holy institution".

It is not only, therefore, the case that reservation is not required in order to provide Holy Communion for the sick.  'The Communion of the Sick' offers a deep, rich Eucharistic piety and sacramental experience for the sick: a deep, rich alternative to the practice of reservation assumed by Corpus Christi, a practice which tends to cut off the sick from the fullness of the sacramental experience.

The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.

By first referencing reservation, Article 28 reminds us that this practice - no less than the others mentioned - distorts the Church's sacramental life and participation in the holy Eucharist.  Contemporary Anglicans can do something richer and more meaningful than Corpus Christi and reservation: we can administer and receive 'The Communion of the Sick' as did Parson Keble and his parishioners.

(The painting is Robert Weir's 'The Last Communion of Henry Clay', 1852. The African American in the painting is James Marshall, a freedman employed by Clay as a body servant.)