Archbishop
Job of Telmessos, Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate at the World Council of Churches and renowned Liturgical
theologian: “The communion spoon has never been a matter of faith but
only an instrument used for the distribution of the Eucharist.”
KOINONIA AT THREAT?
by: Archbishop Job of Telmessos
The Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the World Council of Churches
by: Archbishop Job of Telmessos
The Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the World Council of Churches
It is the merit of the Encyclical of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
1920 to have introduced the concept of “koinonia (communion) of
Churches” in the ecumenical vocabulary which ought to become a key
concept in the theology of the 20th century. Subsequently, Eucharistic
ecclesiology has underlined the correlation between the Church and the
Eucharist. This was not a new theory, since we already find it in the
New Testament. It is remarkable that St. Paul, in his first epistle to
the Corinthians, speaks of Christians as being members of one body, the
body of Christ, (1 Co 12:12-30) right after having spoken about the
institution of the Eucharist (1 Co 11:23-26). And prior to that, the
Apostle pointed out that “we being many are one bread, and one body, for
we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Co 10:17). The unity of the
ecclesiastical body has always been manifested in partaking from one
bread and one cup. For this particular reason, the Orthodox Church does
not share the Eucharist with persons who are not in communion with her
for matters of faith (in cases of heresy, schism or rupture of
communion) and considers the eucharistic communion as the supreme
manifestation of the unity of the Church.
“A Church that does not
serve the Eucharist ceases to be a Church” has reminded us recently the
Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas. In fact, the Church never
ceased to celebrate the Eucharist since, even during the recent period
of lockdown due to the pandemic of the coronavirus, the Eucharist
continued to be served, although in a restricted way behind closed
doors, either at the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, or in
monasteries, and even in some parishes, with a considerably minimized
number of people. The pandemic has shaken up our practice and will still
do so, since many of us were not able to attend church services in the
past months and our practices ought to be reviewed in the months to
come. Certainly, many of us have been able to follow the church services
online, and this has been a consolation for us all in this period of
trial. Nevertheless, it is impossible to partake in communion online,
not only because we cannot consecrate bread and wine online, but above
all because the eucharistic communion is not an individualistic act,
since it presupposed the gathering (synaxis) of all in one body.
Now that in several countries the churches are gradually allowed to
reopen and to start their celebrations once again under the conditions
of “social distancing”, several challenges are facing us in celebrating
the Eucharist. Indeed, “social distancing” is a paradox, or at least an
antinomy, in serving the Eucharist which implies sharing the same bread
and partaking in the common cup. While some Christian Churches, such as
the Anglican and the Roman Catholic, seem to avoid, at least at this
point, sharing a common cup, and while receiving the body of Christ in
the hands is raising some hygienic issues for them, the Orthodox Church
is confronting debates regarding the use of the common spoon used for
the communion of the faithful.
One has to keep in mind that the
communion rites have evolved throughout history and that this is not the
first time that the Church has confronted such debates in times of
epidemic. Perhaps, experiencing such a pandemic may help us to
understand why in some period of history communion became not as
frequent as we used to experience it in the last decades, and why, for
some practical reasons, partaking to the common cup has been forbidden
for the laity in the West in the past centuries and the leavened bread
has been replaced by unleavened bread, while in the East receiving the
bread in the hand and partaking to the common cup was replaced for the
laity by receiving a piece of bread soaked in the chalice through a
spoon.
Therefore, one should not be surprised nor scandalized by
the discussions and the hygienic prescriptions concerning the communion
rites, since the matter of discussion is not the sanctity of the body
and blood of Christ, “the remedy of immortality”, but the instruments
being used, that is to say the practical means of its distribution that
can be affected by the virus. May St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain,
who lived on Mount Athos in the 18th century, comfort those who are
appalled, since he himself gave the instruction to priests giving
communion to contagious ill of sterilizing the communion spoon after its
use with vinegar in his commentary to canon 28 of the council in Trullo
in his edition of the Pedalion published in 1800. If this was admitted
in exceptional cases in his epoch, proper hygienic measures can be found
today when we are confronted with the coronavirus.
As His
All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stressed in his message
regarding Covid-19 last March, “that which is at stake is not our faith,
it is the faithful. It is not Christ, it is our Christians. It is not
the divine-man, but human beings”. We may add: it is not the Eucharist,
but the way we receive it for the wellbeing of both our soul and body.
The communion spoon has never been a matter of faith but only an
instrument used for the distribution of the Eucharist. May the
challenges we are facing now in our participation in holy communion due
to “social distancing” hygienic principles be the opportunity to
consider and to reflect on the importance of the Eucharist for our
spiritual life as well as for the communion of the Church in
constituting the one body of Christ by being partakers of the same bread
and of the common chalice.