Now, there are benefits to my academic shyness. For one, I don't think I've ever been "that annoying freshman" who voices his opinion on every topic that seemingly every class at AU has. Reportedly, it also makes the things I do say seem that much more poignant/wise (I don't say this to toot my own horn, just what a handful of people have told me throughout my life). Anyways, today in worship class, I broke with my habit and asked a question.
We spent the lecture talking about the sacrament of the Eucharist. One of the questions that popped up was what was needed to take Communion, which led to a discussion on virtual worship and pre-consecrated elements. Evidently, there are some online churches that will ship their members already consecrated Communion elements so that everyone "in attendance" can partake of the Communion. The Council of Bishops in the UMC has evidently ruled that that practice is not ok. This leaves the question of is it possible to have an online worshipping community that takes the sacraments? I was mulling something over in my head during all of this.
The sacrament of communion needs to take place in a community of the faith and it also needs to be presided over by an ordained elder (in the UMC). However, in the 21st century, people can be in community with one another and not be in the same location. For example, I have a very close friend that I have only ever met one time in person (someone who I met on a college visit and we've managed to keep in touch pretty regularly these past five years). In addition, through online communities like Tumblr, Twitter, Imgur, and Reddit (and Facebook to some extent), you can be friends (and I mean that sincerely) with someone and have never even have met them at all. This rose the following question in my mind:
What is the effective consecration range of an elder?
That is to say, what how close do the elements have to be to the elder in order for them to consecrate them? Do they have to be within reaching distance? If you believe that the presiding elder has to touch the elements at some point during the liturgy, then yes. But lets say you don't believe that. Could an elder consecrate a loaf of bread that is in the same room but a few yards away? What if that loaf of bread was in another room, but just beyond the door? What if you're participating in worship via Skype from the other side of the world and you have a loaf of bread and a cup of grape juice? Can the presiding elder consecrate them via Skype?
So I mulled it over in my head for a while and I eventually raised my hand at the next point for questions and asked the professor (an ordained elder in the UMC) that question. "As an elder what is your effective consecration range?" This led to even more great classroom discussion (especially once she and everyone else realized the implications of my question; I think her initial response once she realized the implication was "WOW"). I was also stopped when leaving class and told by some classmates that they really liked the question(s) I raised during the lecture. For someone who's always been afraid of speaking up in class and asking questions that might be bad, that was some much-needed affirmation.
Today I saw God in having the courage to ask a question during class.
No comments:
Post a Comment