Individual cups at Communion: history, theology and pastoral practice
Grove Books accept just published a new study, "Drink This, All of Yous": Individual Cups at Holy Communion, past Andrew Atherstone and Andrew Goddard. I caught up with Andrew Atherstone to inquire him near it.
IP: Why do y'all think this booklet is needed, and why is it needed just at present?
AA: Many Church of England parishes are currently puzzling over how all-time to distribute wine at Holy Communion. Ever since the first of the Covid-19 pandemic, our usual tradition of passing around a communal loving cup has been accounted a potential health gamble. Some parishes have therefore returned to the medieval exercise of communion in "one kind" (bread only) for the laity. Others have become dippers, intincting the staff of life in the wine. But for many Anglicans, neither of these methods are satisfactory, on theological grounds.
Jesus tells u.s.a. to drink, not dip. And information technology's a dominical command to all Christians – "Drinkable this, all of you" (Matthew 26:27) – not but the clergy. And then our booklet lays out the obvious solution to the electric current puzzler: individual cups at Holy Communion. This method of drinking is widespread in other parts of the Anglican Communion, and in the Free Churches, of course. With Lent about to begin, and Easter on the horizon (the main eucharistic celebration in the Church'due south calendar), this is a pressing question many parishes are facing in early 2022.
IP: Who is information technology written for; who should read information technology?
AA: Hopefully many readers will observe our booklet profitable and stimulating, including the Business firm of Bishops. But it is designed for regular parish clergy, and PCCs, who want to think this question through, on the ground, in their ain contexts. Information technology aims to exist winsome in style, non polemical, appealing to a wide audience beyond the whole Church of England. It helps vicars and PCCs consider the question from theological, liturgical, and applied angles.
We address some of the standard objections to private cups, and the alternative solutions which have been proposed, like "spiritual communion". We as well offer "practiced practice" guidelines, with recommended dos and don'ts. And all in merely 28 pages, perfect as a handy primer for those who want a quick orientation in the subject area. There's zero else like it on the marketplace!
IP: So what do the bishops think of the effect?
Nosotros are posting a courtesy copy of our booklet to all the House of Bishops, and would dear to meet them recommend information technology to their dioceses in their adjacent Ad Clerums. As many of the bishops will admit, the House of Bishops have, unfortunately, tied themselves up in knots over this question since July 2022 with some sick-considered missives, and have been trying to untangle themselves ever since! Our booklet is designed to help them get untangled. Ane understandable episcopal fear is that by encouraging "private cups", they will open the floodgates to all manner of dubious innovations.
But our booklet is reassuring, promoting sound theological and liturgical wisdom, and showing that individual cups are entirely consonant with the celebrated Anglican tradition and do not threaten the classic Anglican view of the sacraments. Indeed, we particularly recommend the symbolic benefits of the flagon (as mentioned in the rubrics of the Book of Mutual Prayer, and widely used in the 17th century) for consecrating the vino before it is poured into individual cups. This helps emphasize our corporate oneness, not our individuality. So if your parish has an old flagon buried away at the back of the rubber, take it out, smoothen it up, and bring it dorsum into regular utilize. How much more Anglican can yous get!
IP: Where take the Business firm of Bishops' own discussions ended up?
AA: The House of Bishops fix up a "Holy Communion Working Political party", to examine a whole range of questions about the sacrament in a mail-Covid world. Their major focus for 2022 will be the theology of "Zoom" communions. In 2022 they explored the topic of private cups and held some individual teaching seminars on the discipline. At their October 2022 gathering, the bishops agreed overwhelmingly that there is no profit debating these questions on the floor of General Synod, but also (every bit the Bishop of Lichfield assured General Synod during Question Time, on behalf of the House of Bishops) that they accept no intention of policing the issue.
Some bishops are resistant to private cups, others are warmly supportive—information technology depends which diocese you are in. Therefore, individual cups won't be receiving an official imprimatur from the House of Bishops, and there won't be official Church of England guidance on the discipline. Only at that place is now general agreement that parishes (clergy and PCCs together) may make a local decision most the all-time manner frontwards in their own context, and our booklet is designed to speak into that process. We aim to do the House of Bishops a favour by writing practical guidelines for them.
IP: For many people this debate seems rather novel. But is this a new question in the Church of England?
AA: Not at all! There was a very lively Anglican debate almost "chalice hygiene" over 100 years ago, especially between the 1890s and the 1920s when medical science began to appreciate the existence of germs and the dangers of contamination from shared cups. The question was addressed past Gratis Churches like the Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists – many of whom introduced private cups at the start of the 20th century – but at that place was as well enough of attention given to the question by Anglicans.
This important Anglican history has sadly been forgotten, which has skewed our recent debates and some of the misinformed conclusions of the Church of England's Legal Advisory Commission. I've been collecting material for a research commodity on the subject, but you'll have to await a while until that's published.
IP: Can you give united states of america a sneak preview?
AA: It'south a fascinating history! You'll have to wait for the full story, simply in summary the Church of England was much more permissive about the question in the early 1900s than we've been led to believe. For example, here's a footling snippet, from the correspondence files of Archbishop Frederick Temple, in the archives at Lambeth Palace. He was approached in April 1902 by an Anglican in Sussex, where there was an outbreak of potentially-fatal tuberculosis, who asked as follows:
Considerable apprehension, increased but not initiated by medical testimony, is being felt in your Province on business relationship of possible tuberculosis contamination during the administration of the chalice at the Lord's Supper. Bold that non-communicating attendance is discouraged as an irregular attempt to imitate the custom of the Roman Catholic Church, and that the withdrawal of the cup from the laity would be an abandonment of Christ's command that all should drinkable of it, may I venture to inquire your Grace to be courteous enough to inform me whether, as a precautionary measure out within the sphere of your jurisdiction, you are willing to let each communicant to provide, or be provided with, a small drinking glass into which a portion of the consecrated wine could exist poured for individual consumption at the altar rails. If y'all would grant the necessary dispensation, which does not announced to involve any rubrical infringement, all uneasiness in respect of this affair would be at in one case dispelled.
Archbishop Temple replied through his chaplain that "at that place is nix illegal in the proposal" and that provision should exist made "either by the churchwardens or by the communicant who himself desires it." Archbishop Temple's approach was sensible, applied, pastoral and permissive, and entirely in keeping with classic Anglican theology. This was not some radical Free Churchman, but the Archbishop of Canterbury himself!
IP: And didn't the Lambeth Conference also discuss the question?
AA: Exactly right, back in 1908, when Randall Davidson was Archbishop of Canterbury. There was a Lambeth Conference working party which debated the topic, with bishops from all over the world. They came to the view that there was no need for Anglicans to move from a communal cup to individual cups, only, importantly, the Lambeth bishops reached this decision non on grounds of theology or law, merely because they didn't think in that location was sufficient medical urgency.
Lambeth Resolution 31 from 1908 deserves to be meliorate remembered – the bishops resolved that it was "not desirable to brand, on the ground of alarm as to the possible chance of infection, any alter in the mode of administering the Holy Communion." Simply they also added: "Special cases involving exceptional risk should exist referred to the bishop and dealt with co-ordinate to his direction." In the debate virtually the resolution – recorded in wonderful long hand, in the Lambeth Palace archives – the Bishop of Southern Brazil explicitly clarified: "Under that last clause, may I inquire your Grace, is information technology competent to whatever Bishop to permit the individual loving cup?" To which Archbishop Davidson replied: "I think we must go out the Bishops to deal with exceptional cases in exceptional means."
In other words, here was diocesan discretion to allow private cups, no blanket rule and no proffer that essential Anglican doctrines might somehow be undermined. Again this was sensible, practical, pastoral and permissive – a model for all bishops to follow!
IP: That was then—but what about now?
AA: Don't worry, there's not very much history in our booklet, only a little flavouring! Simply if you enquire a historian about his research, what do you expect! The point is only that nosotros're not the kickoff generation of Anglicans to take idea near this question. And yet in other means, our situation in the 2020s, post-Covid, in unique. Our booklet is deliberately aimed at the real-life earth of the present, with all its practical and pastoral complexities. Whether nosotros like it or not, the pandemic has jolted the Church of England's parish life, perhaps permanently in some ways.
It might be a long time until nearly communicants (including the clergy) are confident enough to drink from a communal cup which has touched many lips. We have a pastoral duty to find applied ways to include every Christian fully and every bit in the commemoration of Holy Communion, non least those whose health is non robust, such as the elderly and the immunocompromised.
It'due south been almost two years since the pandemic began, and nosotros tin can't continue forever with bread solitary for the laity, or with dipping staff of life in the wine. Jesus commands us to eat and beverage at Holy Communion, so we need to notice a practical fashion to do and so. Individual cups are the best reply, and many PCCs upwardly and downwards the land are now adopting them.
IP: Thank you very much, Andrew, for this fascinating reflection—and for the work you lot and Andrew Goddard have washed in writing the booklet.
You tin order the booklet mail service-gratuitous in the Uk or as PDF ebook from the Grove Books website.
Come and join me for a Zoom teaching afternoononThursday 3rd February to explore all the issues effectually the 'end times' and stop of the world.
We will look at: t he background to this language in Jewish thinking; Jesus' educational activity in Matthew 24 and Marking xiii; t he Rapture—what is it, and does the Bible actually teach it; w chapeau the New Attestation says about 'tribulation'; t he beast, the antichrist, and the Millennium in Rev twenty; the significance of the state of Israel.
The cost is £10 per person, and you can volume your tickets at the Eventbrite link here.
If you enjoyed this, practise share it on social media (Facebook or Twitter) using the buttons on the left. Follow me on Twitter @psephizo. Like my page on Facebook.
Much of my work is done on a freelance basis. If you lot have valued this post, you tin can make a single or repeat donation through PayPal:
Comments policy: Good comments that engage with the content of the postal service, and share in respectful debate, can add together real value. Seek first to understand, then to exist understood. Brand the about charitable construal of the views of others and seek to acquire from their perspectives. Don't view debate as a disharmonize to win; address the argument rather than tackling the person.
Source: https://www.psephizo.com/life-ministry/individual-cups-at-communion-history-theology-and-pastoral-practice/
0 Response to "Individual cups at Communion: history, theology and pastoral practice"
Post a Comment