Can Holy Communion be celebrated remotely at home?
Different views from two evangelicals:
Can Baptism and the Lord’s Supper Go Online? By Bobby Jamieson, The Gospel Coalition:
The Lord’s Supper enacts the church’s unity. It consummates the church’s oneness. It gathers up the many who partake of the same elements together, in the same place, and makes them one. (So if baptism binds the one to the many, the Lord’s Supper makes the many one.) So to make the Lord’s Supper into something other than a meal of the whole church, sitting down together in the same room, is to make it something other than the Lord’s Supper. So, it’s not the case that a virtually mediated, physically dispersed Lord’s Supper is less than optimal: it’s simply not the Lord’s Supper.
Practicing the Ordinances in a Pandemic, by Bill Riedel, TGC
We encourage our members to prepare elements before our services begin as best they can, and prepare to participate throughout the service as best they can…Of course it’s better to be together physically. Lord willing, we will be. For now, we do our best to continue to provide for people what only Jesus’s church can provide. Even if it’s a shadow of our normal rhythms and gatherings, it’s a shadow that points us to the ultimate reality and hope we cling to in times of suffering and uncertainty. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, when celebrated in genuine faith, still confirm and nourish the believer in Christ—even if it’s celebrated online.
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