Blog Posts
Digital Communities Are Embodied Communities
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
I recently had the honor of listening in on some seminary students defending their theses, and it reminded me of two clear truths:
The emerging leaders are alright.
Challenging the status quo/institution/empire has not gotten easier.
After an entertaining and engaging defense on the importance and necessity of digital ministry, a professor pushed back on the idea of digital ministry altogether and said that digital spaces “didn’t speak to embodiment.” This was a sticking point for him, and he didn’t think embodiment in a digital space had any theological grounding.
The student did a really great job of pushing back, but all I could think of as I left that zoom room (by the way, a fully digital space) was how disappointing and even ridiculous it is that even now, almost exactly three years after the pandemic moved us all into digital spaces in a way no one expected or was really prepared for, we are still stuck on this one point. Somehow it all hinges on “embodiment.”
Oof. All I could think was - really? Have we learned nothing during Covid?
First, as someone who feels called to and actively leads digital ministry through my podcast and podcast community (of which there are thousands, across the entire country and globe), I have an obvious bias and no small amount of skin in the game. But also I feel like it needs to be said loudly and clearly: Digital Communities ARE Embodied Communities.
Next, I feel I should be clear that the embodiment I practice and believe in is likely very different from that professor’s idea of embodiment.
I believe embodiment is not just “having a body.”
I also believe embodiment is not just “having a body in a space where there are other bodies.” When I’m on Zoom and you’re on Zoom, we both still have bodies.
When I’m on Marco Polo and you’re on Marco Polo, even if we’re not on there at the same time, we both still have bodies.
When I’m on Facetime and you’re on Facetime, we both still have bodies. Do none of those count because we aren’t sharing physical space? Good gosh I hope not. Believing we aren’t fully embodied when we’re online or in a digital space is dangerous. We have all learned (or experienced) how to fully disconnect from the whole person on the other side of a computer screen. It’s how people can say things online that they would never say face to face.
“I can’t even see them.”
“They aren't real.”
What a small and limited view of embodiment that is.
I have been taught and believe that embodiment is the full integration of mind, body, and spirit. Embodiment is more of a holistic state of being than just having a physical body near other physical bodies.
For me, some of the most holy moments of the past three years have happened in digital spaces. Thank goodness for them and the people who met me there.
They have saved my faith. They have saved me.
The community and connection that saved me happened BECAUSE of the digital space, not in spite of it.
Digital Communities ARE Embodied Communities.
Simply sharing physical space does not equal embodiment.
In fact, for many people, sharing physical space does the exact opposite. We could have a room full of physical bodies in the same physical space. Each and every one of them could be totally disconnected from their body and their spirit and somehow we’re calling that the best we’ve got?
I will continue to argue vehemently that when we interact in the digital space, we are embodied. If we are more than physical bodies - and I think we could all agree that we are - any time we are fully who we are, connecting, engaging, and together, we are embodied. Even when it’s online. Even when it’s through a screen.
Our ecclesiastical tradition actually has a lot to say about this.
Embodiment in digital spaces IS actually grounded in deep and beautiful theology. Or, as the student stated in her thesis defense: “The church has always been virtual.” Peter wrote letters to churches from far away and praised the continued relationship and communion he shared with those communities - even when he wasn’t physically able to be with them.
Every time we gather around the communion table we talk openly and clearly about how we join together in this meal across time and space with the whole communion of saints, past and present.
We are about to celebrate Pentecost, where the spirit shows up as wind and fire - not as a body - and we will celebrate and rejoice in the ability of God to be in all people and places and time.
How can we believe all of this, and yet have no space to believe that ministry in a digital space is also embodied and incarnational and just as valid as physical, in-person gathering?
What if we stopped being so afraid of the digital space, and started meeting people there instead? What if we stopped telling people that the safe space they have created doesn’t quite count as much as the in-person space? What would happen if people connected with each other and with faith communities in whatever way allowed them to remain fully embodied?
What if we believed and supported and encouraged digital communities as fully embodied communities?
This is not a threat to but an expansion of the kingdom of God into more abundant life. It’s one I am so thankful to be a part of. And one I will keep fighting for because of those who have experienced embodied community in digital spaces. They matter. We matter.
Digital Communities ARE Embodied Communities.
Rev. Natalia Terfa
Natalia is a Lutheran pastor and author who lives in Minneapolis with her hubby, kiddo, and kitty babies. She loves to bake, to read, practice yoga, and find nature adventures. She is passionate about the church of the future, one with no boundaries and filled to the brim with love and grace and laughter and snark and a lot of fellow “not that kind of Christians.”
Natalia co-hosts Cafeteria Christian, a podcast for people who love Jesus but aren’t so sure about his followers.
Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.
As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.
The Body of Christ Made Known on Zoom: A Conversation with Diana Butler Bass, Deanna A. Thompson, Joshua Case, and Kelvin Holdsworth
What does it mean to be the virtual body of Christ in a pandemic?
Church Anew has closely followed the conversation around sharing communion through digital media. We are grateful for the generous contributions to this conversation on the Church Anew Blog by Diana Butler Bass and Deanna A. Thompson, and for the ongoing commitment of the St. Olaf Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. The video conversation below also features Joshua Case, an Episcopal priest in North Carolina, and Kelvin Holdsworth, an Episcopal Provost and Rector from Glasgow, Scotland. This is posted with express permission from the authors.
Deanna A. Thompson
Dr. Deanna A. Thompson is Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community and Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Before moving to St. Olaf, Thompson taught religion for over two decades at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Thompson is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from Martin Luther and feminism to the intersections of cancer, trauma, and faith, and what it means to be the church in the digital age. She is author of five books, including Crossing the Divide: Luther, Feminism, and the Cross; The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World; and most recently, Glimpsing Resurrection: Cancer, Trauma, and Ministry.
Nourished by Lutheran tradition, the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community engages people of all backgrounds and beliefs in deep exploration of core commitments and life choices in ways that foster inclusive community, both within and beyond St. Olaf College.
https://www.facebook.com/deanna.thompson.140
https://deannaathompson.com/
Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.
As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.
Real Ministry in a Digital World
Feeling thrown into the deep end of church online? You are not alone.
Church in person and church online. Connecting real life and real ministry.
When I was learning Greek and Hebrew in seminary, I decided to teach myself HTML and CSS, thinking if these dead languages from the past would help me as a pastor, then surely these living languages of our present and future would be helpful for the future of the church. I am in no way fluent in any of them now, knowing just enough to be dangerous with an interlinear Bible or on the backend of a website. Learning to parse verb stems and <div> tags set me on a path to value the church in person and the church online. Now more than ever, the future of former depends on the latter.
Willa is 90 years old and lives in New Jersey—close enough to catch a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline on a clear day but far enough to require a car in order to make it into the city. She’s perfectly happy with her life in New Jersey, except for one thing: her church is in the city and her friend who would drive her in on Sundays passed away seven years ago. Willa has tried to connect with congregations in her neighborhood but none of them feel like the church home she is used to. She misses connecting with the people, seeing their faces and being seen in return. And so when she received a message saying that her church would not be meeting in person and would only gather online during this pandemic, she was curious to find out more.
Willa clicked a link on her church’s website and suddenly she saw her pastors reading scripture and preaching from their own homes. She saw the choir on screen like the Brady Bunch, singing hymns and inviting everyone to sing along from home. After the benediction one of the pastors mentioned a Virtual Coffee Hour. Willa clicked another link, a small green dot lit up on the front of her computer, and her screen was filled with the familiar faces and voices of her church family.
The phrase “IRL” emerged in the early days of the internet, popping up in AOL chat rooms in the 90s and eventually making it into the Oxford English dictionary in 2000. It stands for “in real life” and is often used to distinguish that which happens online from the world around us. Only as we are all thrown into the deep end of church online, we are realizing that this phrase and its distinction between the internet and “real life” is beginning to break down. Because our online connections are real connections. Virtual is not the opposite of real, it’s the opposite of physical. They are both real. Everything is IRL.
This has always been true but is especially important now when these online spaces and virtual connections might be all we have.
When you respond to someone’s post on social media, that’s pastoral care.
When you reflect on scripture on Instagram Live, that’s preaching.
When we smile and laugh together on what can feel like endless video calls, that’s passing the peace.
In whatever ways you are engaging your congregation online during these COVID-19 times, know that this is the real work of ministry that we are called to—real ministry in our digital world. Because even though we can’t connect in person the ways we typically would, we can still connect in real life, embodying a modification to the prayer Jesus taught us:
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, online as it is in heaven.”
Jim Keat
Rev. Jim Keat is the Digital Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City and the Director of Online Learning for Convergence, a diverse collective of faith-based leaders, learners, artists, activists, learners, communities, and congregations. He is the producer of original media projects from The Riverside Church like Be Still and Go and The Word Made Fresh as well as the creator of the Thirty Second Bible project and Thirty Seconds or Less.
Twitter | @IdeasDoneDaily
Facebook | @IdeasDoneDaily
Instagram | @IdeasDoneDaily
Website | JimKeat.com
Website | freeandsimple.life
Website | trcnyc.org
YouTube | youtube.com/TheRiversideChurch
YouTube | youtube.com/FreeAndSimple
Podcast | trcnyc.org/BeStillAndGo
Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.
As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.
On Hoarding Eucharist in a Hungry World
Can Christians celebrate the Eucharist—the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion —through technology? Is the sacrament valid if it happens virtually?
In this time of COVID-19 lockdowns and churches moving to virtual communion, Diana Butler Bass reflects on a conversation she had with Phyllis Tickle.
A decade or so ago, about five years before she passed away, Phyllis Tickle and I were talking about how technology would change the church. She was enthusiastic about the Internet, her imagination opened by the possibilities of virtual reality to form new sorts of community. She had recently joined a church in the online world of Second Life, and told me about her avatar (I had no idea what an avatar was!). I remember how excitedly she spoke about how “virtuality” would expand our sense of “reality,” and how that would, in turn, foster a new reformation in Christianity. This technology would be, she assured me, as radical as the invention of the printing press—and this emerging sense of space and time would be as revolutionary for faith as were the first widely available vernacular Bibles.
“It raises so many theological questions!” she exclaimed. “For instance, if an avatar priest consecrates elements online, is Christ really present? Is the liturgy valid?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“No one knows yet,” she said. “Because we haven’t thought about it. But pretty soon, we’re going to be arguing over these things. Maybe not about avatar church. But the first time a priest or bishop offers the Eucharist online, it will be like Luther nailing the 95 Theses on the door.”
Phyllis threw her head back, with the laugh for which she was justly famous—half joy, half a sort of gleeful anticipation of how the future was at hand.
I’ve rehearsed this conversation a hundred times in my mind over the last two months. Since the coronavirus lockdowns. Since real-life churches have moved online. The argument she anticipated has started in earnest: Can Christians celebrate the Eucharist—the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion —through technology? Is the sacrament valid if it happens virtually?
The answers to these questions are intertwined with the diverse theologies of polity and sacraments of different Christian traditions. Indeed, Baptists, Congregationalists, Disciples, free churches, and many Methodists have no problem with online communion. Their beliefs about the priesthood of all believers and (generally) memorialist ideas of the Lord’s Supper have made possible online communion with few theological questions. But more liturgical churches—many Lutherans, Episcopalians, Catholics, and Orthodox—have restricted or denied the possibility of online Eucharist. They say that “online community isn’t real community,” that “physical presence” of a congregation is necessary for the sacrament to be valid, that laity cannot be trusted with appropriate reverence of the elements, and that a priest (or duly ordained minister) must consecrate the elements in person. Indeed, some leaders in these churches have forbidden all virtual communion, warning against any form of lay presidency or consecration, instituting forced Eucharistic fasts, substituting “spiritual communion” for partaking bread and wine, or insisting that priests can celebrate the mass privately for the whole of the church.
Oddly enough, much of the argument against online communion has taken place online. Self-identified “traditionalists” have ridiculed and attacked those who see this moment as a time when churches might experiment with liturgies, including offering bread and wine virtually. On Twitter, I posted about my conversation with Phyllis Tickle, suggesting that online liturgy was not, in effect, very different than the sorts of liturgical innovations of the Reformation, and that this moment of virtual church was a perfect time to imagine church anew—to open ourselves a future where technology reshapes Christian practice as much as it was reshaped 500 years ago.
I’ve worried that in withholding communion, the church has been, in effect, hoarding the bread and wine, restraining the healing beauty of Eucharist when hungry people most need to feast. A forced fast is no fast—it is an expression of institutional power over and against God’s people in a time of emergency. And I can’t help but think the lack of theological imagination at this moment will give people already wary of church another reason to consign Christianity to historical irrelevance. The pandemic, however, has been a sort of Pandora’s box for churches and technology, letting loose the theological questions Phyllis Tickle once predicted with the fierce urgency of suffering and death. The lid is open and can’t be shut. Sadly, some denominations seem incapable of seeing this as gift and possibility, preferring instead to give into controlling impulses and fear.
Despite overall institutional reluctance to engage these questions, some clergy have been hoping their denominations would provide for online Eucharistic celebration—and have been worried and even cowed by pressure coming from those who insist that God cannot use “virtuality” as a vehicle for the sacraments. While online argument might be expected, a chilling episode moved from social media to an “in real life” space. After Easter, a bishop in the Episcopal Church gave permission for his diocese to celebrate virtual Eucharist in an attempt to meet pastoral needs and address some of these issues. He appears to have been pressed by the denomination—the same denomination of which Phyllis Tickle had been a member—to rescind the option he had given to congregations in his care.
Over the last weeks, I've been agitating for better, more creative theological thinking about the Eucharist, virtual community, and new forms of liturgical celebration—all of this in line with two decades of my own research and writing. The questions that were once speculative have arrived, and religious groups are going to have to face them with courage and creativity. The pandemic has forced the issue: God’s presence is uncontained by time and space. We are in need of the healing beauty of bread and wine, to sit at the table that exists at the hinge of time, the first feast of the Age-That-is-to-Come. All of this already exists in virtual time—the virtual reality that is the cosmic presence of God. The last thing we need right now—in a time of food shortages, lockdown, isolation, and separation—is the church shutting the people out of the banquet, unable to recognize that we live in the virtual reign of Christ. Virtuality isn’t just technology; it is theology.
A clerical-friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) shares my concerns for the bread and wine to be freed into the world, however that happens in this time of crisis. On a day after a particularly strained Twitter argument, my friend wrote this poem and sent it to me. The words capture the sense of urgency and power of Eucharist far better than my halting prose. Sometimes when the church can’t hear even the most loving critique, my hope is that it can still hear poetry.
* * * *
An Order for Communing in a Pandemic
by Anonymous
She took a loaf of bread,
broke it and gave it,
half to the hungry, the poor, the millions
whose gap-toothed pantries
are emptying,
dwindling sand racing
through the widening neck of an hourglass
and she felt the weight
of a sacrament pressing
into her soul
as the body and blood of Christ
spilled out of doors,
into streets,
into homes,
flowing as freely,
as slick and messy,
as uncontrolled,
as it did from his own tortured body,
as if God really could be present
everywhere and in everything.
Church Anew has closely followed the conversation around sharing communion through digital media. Following this blog post, Diana Butler Bass was interviewed by Religious News Service for their article, “Online Communion should be celebrated, not shunned, says Diana Butler Bass.”
Church Anew’s first blog post on virtual communion featured an interview with Deanna A. Thompson, Director of the St. Olaf Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. St. Olaf published Deanna’s first and second blog posts engaging conversation with Christians across the globe around about Holy Communion during online worship.
Both Diana Butler Bass and Deanna A. Thompson participated in a May, 19, 2020 video conversation, “Being the Church in This Time of Pandemic,” which also features Joshua Case, an Episcopal priest in North Carolina, and Kelvin Holdsworth, an Episcopal Provost and Rector from Glasgow, Scotland. This is posted on Church Anew with express permission from the authors.
Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is a multiple award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality. She holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of ten books, including Christianity After Religion and Grounded: Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution. For more information on Diana and her work, see http://www.chaffeemanagement.com/dianabutlerbass
https://www.facebook.com/d.butler.bass/
https://twitter.com/dianabutlerbass
Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.
As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.
Virtual Communion and Body of Christ: A Conversation with Dr. Deanna A. Thompson
What does it mean to be the virtual body of Christ in a pandemic?
Dr. Deanna A. Thompson, author of The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World and Director of The Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community at St. Olaf College, wrote her first post on the issue of whether or not to offer Holy Communion in the context of online worship on March 26, 2020. Viewed over 8,500 times in less than a week, Deanna’s second post responded to comments from a variety of perspectives as we continue to discern what it means to be the virtual body of Christ in a pandemic. This week Deanna talked to Pastor David Lillejord, Church Anew Executive Board Member, in her first personal interview about this topic.
Pastor Lillejord: How did the issue of communion during online worship become an important one for you?
Dr. Thompson: I used to be really skeptical about digital technology. I didn't own a cell phone and I was really proud of that fact. And my kids didn't own cell phones. I didn't participate in social media and felt really self-righteous about that too, because I really did not see being virtually connected as offering anything value added. And then eleven years ago, I got diagnosed with stage IV cancer, which kind of came out of the blue. And as my world became really small, I went from being very involved in my work, and my kids’ schools and in our church, and that whole world kind of went away. I had to resign from my full and wonderful life. What I started to realize is one of the few ways I could be connected to other people was through digital technology. That experience really transformed my understanding about how we can use digital technology to help us better live into the call of being the body of Christ for one another.
But the issue of having communion as part of virtual or online worship was an issue that once I started writing and speaking about the virtual body of Christ, everyone wanted me to weigh in on. I didn't quite get around to it. I knew it would be controversial and it didn't seem so pressing. When we had all these in-person options of communion, why share the sacrament virtually? But then with the pandemic, it suddenly became much more pressing. And while church leaders were encouraging people to fast or refrain from the practice, I started noticing how more and more congregations were actually venturing into this area. And I didn’t see anyone weighing in on what it means to do this theologically. I thought it would be important to try and think through some of the issues given this was a situation facing many congregations right now.
Pastor Lillejord: And how is your health now?
Dr. Thompson: I am in my third remission, and I'm doing about as well as humanly possible with incurable cancer. It could change at any point, but so far it’s been in remission for about six years. So it feels good. Thanks for asking.
Pastor Lillejord: So why do you think communion in virtual worship is such a controversial issue?
Dr. Thompson: I think the challenge for people is that many see virtual connectedness or being connected via digital technology as diametrically opposed to being related to each other in person. A lot of people don't want to use the term virtual, you know, it means “almost” or “barely,” so it doesn't really enhance the sense that this is meaningful or real. A lot of people see virtual interaction, virtual worship as disembodied because it's mediated through a screen. I think there's a sense that worshiping online, taking communion in the context of virtual worship doesn’t involve the body. A really important challenge though, and this comes from my kind of conversion experience of being quarantined by cancer, is that there's not an either/or when we're involved in virtual worship. Actually our bodies are involved. I have a friend who told me that she found herself on her knees in her living room in the middle of her church’s worship service. She was moved to get down on her knees and pray, which she doesn't do when she's there in person. One person said he cries through every hymn that we sing virtually. In other words, people are experiencing worship in embodied ways. It's not an either/or.
I think sometimes, too, we romanticize in-person interactions. I think all of us have been with people who are physically sitting next to us but are not really present with us. Right? Their minds are somewhere else. They could just be emotionally distant, preoccupied. And one of the things that happened when I was really sick was that virtual interaction became one of the main ways I communicated with others. And in some ways, virtual communication often allowed a kind of intimacy that wasn't there in in-person interactions.
I think part of what we need to say is not all in-person interactions are inherently good and positive and not all virtual interactions are inherently subpar. All of our communication is mediated in some way. Our ways of being in touch and interacting with each other are complex and don't fit neatly into these virtual versus embodied realities. So what I'm trying to do is help people nuance their understanding of the relationship between virtual and embodied interactions and not see them as diametrically opposed.
Pastor Lillejord: So it's not just a theological thing? In fact, many of the things you listed were kind of cultural about what you learned when you had cancer and had to communicate in quarantine virtually, and now many more of us are getting to learn them for the first time through the pandemic.
Dr. Thompson: I think you're right and I wouldn't have believed it had I not had cancer. I would not have guessed that sometimes virtual interaction could be superior to in-person interaction. So I do feel like having had this experience before, or really having to depend on virtual interaction as my one of my primary ways of being in touch, helped me realize the virtual Body of Christ is alive and well and offers healing and care and compassion and support. It's helped me blow up that sense that one is inherently superior to the other.
Pastor Lillejord: What are some cautions for churches who are offering or considering communion, the online version?
Dr. Thompson: There's been a lot of cautioning against it. I think some of the things they're saying make a lot of sense. It is important to reassure people that if they don't get to partake in communion their faith is not at risk. The practice of weekly communion has become more and more popular in the Lutheran Church, so it's assumed that communion is pretty central to being a worshipping Christian. And so I do think there is likely a sense from a number of people who worry about what they are missing out on. To emphasize that the Word comes to us through the reading of scripture, that it comes to us in absolution, that it comes to us through preaching, that it comes to us through the blessing is all really important. The Word of God comes to us and we're not being denied that Word if we don't have access to communion.
One of the biggest issues that has been lifted up is the issue of access. I think that's a really important issue. And the issue of who has access to the internet is a big one. We've got economic disparities that are really significant. I know some of our partner synods globally are really challenged right now by not being able to physically gather and not having the option of gathering virtually. I think that we want to take that seriously.
I think there are ways for us as congregations to find out who in our congregation does not have access and consider how might we offer them access to the sacraments. I think there are ways to get creative about that.
At the same time, I do think that this issue of access is way bigger than internet access. There are a lot of people who can't get to worship when it's in person. Many churches have provisions for bringing people the sacrament when they can’t get to church. But these visits don’t always happen. I was never brought the sacrament when I was sick, I imagine I'm not alone. I think that many people who are really sick, many people who care for people who are sick, many people who work during the times when worship is offered regularly miss out on worship and the sacrament. I think we actually have quite a significant access issue regarding in-person worship, maybe even bigger than the access issue of the internet.
One of the things I’m concerned about is when churches start having in-person worship again is that the most vulnerable among us are not going to be there, right? They're not going to risk that. And so when you've got, I don't know, 30% of your congregation 20% of your congregation coming to in person worship. What is the church going to do?
Pastor Lillejord: This issue of access is going to be with us for a while. I think it always has been with us, or maybe we are paying more attention to it now. It's going be an issue going forward for quite some time. Turning to another issue, what are we learning about the office of the pastor during the pandemic?
Dr. Thompson: One of the things that I started to notice about the way the body of Christ operates virtually beyond the confines of the local church is how many people share in the role of ministry. That's something that I’ve always known, but when I got sick, I saw a new level of shared ministry. Lutherans talk about the priesthood of all believers, the way in which all of us are called to be ministers. I really saw that happening when I was sick, and I see it happening now. All the people who are part of congregations who are really tech savvy, who’ve jumped in to make online worship happen and run smoothly; those who offer musical offering for worship, taping things in their houses, mixing different voices and instruments together. We’re sharing the ministry of contacting people in the congregation to check in on how they are doing. For a lot of churches, of course, shared ministry is not new. But I feel like I'm seeing a shared sense of ministry in a way that, to me is much more visible than when we're not in a pandemic. And I think it’s increased visibility helps us live into that vision that all of us are part of the body of Christ, and every part of the body has a function, and they're all important. So it's really pushing us to live into that polity that we have in the Lutheran Church and in many Protestant communities.
Pastor Lillejord: How will virtual communion affect our understanding of church and worship going forward?
Dr. Thompson: One of the things that I've heard people talk about is the concern that if you open the floodgates and do communion at home, people aren't going to see the need for the church anymore. People will think that they don't need to come to church because they can do worship and communion at home in their pajamas. When I talk to pastors, I'm hearing that attendance for online worship is two or three times larger compared to in-person attendance from this time last year.
We had our first virtual coffee hour after church and there were over 100 people. We don't usually get 100 people for a coffee hour for our in-person gatherings. So what does this tell us? What are we learning about what people need and what nourishes their faith? As we move someday out of this pandemic I hope we don’t go back to exactly how things were before but we learn from the ways that the church is now meeting people's needs virtually. A lot of churches have had to pivot and it's been hard and they're longing for the day this experiment is over. And I can relate to that. At the same time, I really hope that we're paying attention to what we're learning.
Pastor Lillejord: What has the overall reaction been to you and your thoughts on the issue of virtual communion?
Dr. Thompson: I've received a lot of really positive feedback. I heard from someone in Indonesia who wanted to translate my writing about it into local languages so that worshipping Christians there could learn how I was thinking about this. I've had a lot of people get in touch with me and be really supportive. There are a number of folks who are religion scholars and theologians who really disagree with the approach I'm taking. And some of the disagreement has to do with the conviction that on-line communion is a disembodied kind of experience. That real presence can't happen because it's virtual. That it's not truly the gathering of the body of Christ because it’s being mediated by digital technology.
And so there definitely are theological objections but also then there's been by some friends and colleagues, objections to me weighing in on this because the Presiding Bishop encouraged fasting from the sacrament. For some people it's been unfortunate that I would publicly want to disagree with that.
The thing that really pushed me into the conversation was actually hearing from a Lutheran Bishop who said, despite what the Presiding Bishop has said, half the congregations in his synod were going ahead with online communion. And at that point, I consider myself a theologian of the church, and this is a topic that I've thought a lot about, and it seemed to me that someone should lay out the theological rationale for virtual communion and how to do it well.
I find that most people who aren't professional theologians don't really have a problem with it. I've had a number of people ask me why others would oppose it. They see us worshiping online and do not understand why people would support worship but not communion being offered at this time of great anxiety and challenge.
Pastor Lillejord: Well, I want to personally thank you for addressing it. Thank you for the wisdom, but also for your personal story. I think the church always has to engage in these discussions and not always agree with one another. This includes discussions about worshipping in person and/or online—before, during, and after this pandemic.
Dr. Thompson: Yes, and this is where many of us have been thinking in an either/or kind of way. Either church is fully in person and that's the way it's meant to be or it's virtual, and we’re being co-opted by market forces and settling for a poor substitute of the real thing. The experience of being terribly ill made me realize that digital technology is a tool that we can use well to help us better be the body of Christ. Or we can ignore it or use it poorly. And I think that we should have some robust discussions about that rather than just assume it's a poor substitute for the real thing. So, yeah, I'm hoping that we're being kind of forced into a conversation that could have been going on for the last 10-15 years.
I hope we will continue the conversation about what it looks like to be the virtual body of Christ faithfully in a time of pandemic. And this is where I think Luther at his best was thinking about caring for and meeting the needs of those who are suffering around him. He writes about the deadly plague because he cares about people who are dying and he wants church leaders and government leaders to respond to that. This is where the image of the body of Christ from First Corinthians comes in. The members of the body who are suffering deserve the most attention. So for me the call of the gospel is to help others know that when you're suffering you're not alone, God is with you and that being the body of Christ together is to be with people in that suffering and hopefully to alleviate some of it. And it seems to me that allowing people to participate in something like communion can bring great comfort and sustenance for their faith right now.
Church Anew continues to follow the conversation around sharing communion through digital media.
We were honored to have Diana Butler Bass write about this topic in a separate Church Anew blog post, “On Hoarding Eucharist in a Hungry World.”
Following her Church Anew post, Diana Butler Bass was interviewed by Religious News Service for their article, “Online Communion should be celebrated, not shunned, says Diana Butler Bass.”
Both Diana Butler Bass and Deanna A. Thompson participated in a May, 19, 2020 video conversation, “Being the Church in This Time of Pandemic,” which also features Joshua Case, an Episcopal priest in North Carolina, and Kelvin Holdsworth, an Episcopal Provost and Rector from Glasgow, Scotland. This is posted on Church Anew with express permission from the authors.
Deanna A. Thompson
Dr. Deanna A. Thompson is Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community and Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Before moving to St. Olaf, Thompson taught religion for over two decades at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Thompson is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from Martin Luther and feminism to the intersections of cancer, trauma, and faith, and what it means to be the church in the digital age. She is author of five books, including Crossing the Divide: Luther, Feminism, and the Cross; The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World; and most recently, Glimpsing Resurrection: Cancer, Trauma, and Ministry.
Nourished by Lutheran tradition, the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community engages people of all backgrounds and beliefs in deep exploration of core commitments and life choices in ways that foster inclusive community, both within and beyond St. Olaf College.
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