Liturgy News

In June 2022, the Anglican Archbishop of Perth wrote to parishes. This is what she said: Recently I wrote of my intention to allow for the reinstatement of the Common Cup sometime this month. Given the rise in COVID cases over the past months, I had thought to revise this. However, after consultation, wide discussion and in the light of high vaccination rates and the State relaxing of COVID regulations I have decided to stay with the intention of allowing the Common Cup to be offered at Holy Communion from 16 June… This is not permission for intinction. Permission for the use of the individual communion cups will also end from that date. Most dioceses around the country have now returned to communion in both kinds. No doubt there will be people who do not yet feel able to share the Common Cup, and will choose to continue receiving in one kind. I know there will be much celebration and relief as we return to the communion practice which speaks so eloquently of our common life in Christ.
Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy AO

I suspect it will come as a shock to Australian Catholic communities that most Anglican dioceses in the country have already made provision for a return to drinking from the common cup for communion. In the United Kingdom, USA and Canada, Anglican/Episcopal Churches have done the same, some as long ago as mid-2021.

Anglican Churches are setting an example for our Catholic practice. They make a strong argument that communion under one kind only is not fully consistent with the command of the Lord: Take this bread and eat… Take this cup and drink… That is why, in celebrating Eucharist over the last couple of years, some Anglican dioceses have granted the concession of using individual cups for communicants or allowing intinction of the host in the consecrated wine, though in general these practices have been strenuously avoided. However, now that churches are open again and face masks are no longer mandatory, they have wasted no time in restoring the common cup as an integral part of receiving holy communion, even though it remains optional for parishes and individual communicants.

The familiar hygiene requirements are reintroduced (rotating the chalice, wiping the rim inside and out with a clean cloth) along with a few new rules (ministers should sanitise their hands and may wear a mask). Bishops across the USA noted that restoring the common cup in time for Easter would be welcomed with great joy by many, though they did acknowledge that some people understandably would be cautious. Many bishops noted that the main route of transmission of COVID is respiratory rather than gastrointestinal and so considered it safe to reintroduce the common cup. A study from Ottawa stated that the risk of catching COVID is far greater from breathing air exhaled by an infectious person next to you than from sharing a common cup.

I have long felt, wrote the Anglican bishop of New York, that the passing of the communion cup from person to person is one of the most powerful symbols we have in the Christian Church of our mutual vulnerability, depth of community, and open self-offering one to another.
So far, I have seen no action anywhere on the part of Catholic Churches. Why are we so timid? Are we not convinced of the power of our sacramental signs? When and who will make the first move?

MUCH OBLIGED

Instead, many Catholic dioceses in Australia and around the world have been announcing that the Sunday Mass obligation is being reinstated after being suspended during COVID lockdowns. Scotland restored the obligation from the beginning of Lent 2022 and England and Wales reintroduced it from Pentecost 2022. The bishops acknowledge, of course, that those who are impeded by reason of age or ill health are still excused. They further note that the desire to participate in Mass and share holy communion are hallmarks of the Catholic faith. The Eucharist makes the Church, and the Church makes the Eucharist, they affirm. The bishops recognise that live-streaming Masses and ‘virtual viewing’ had pastoral benefits during lockdown (and may continue to be fruitful for the housebound), but this is inadequate as a form of participation. In the USA and in Canada over the last twelve months, many dioceses have reimposed the obligation, saying that a return to in-person gatherings on Sundays is necessary for continued spiritual nourishment and growth.

Why have we had recourse first to Canon Law and the imposition of ‘obligation’ rather than address a return to the full sacramental sign of the Eucharist by restoring the common cup?
In Australia, statements reimposing the Sunday obligation were made in Hobart and Sydney towards the end of 2020, in Parramatta at the end of 2021 and in Perth in August 2022. Archbishop Anthony Fisher commented that we want people to come to Mass out of love more than obedience, but love itself brings responsibilities.

Perth’s archbishop, Timothy Costelloe, withdrew the dispensation from the obligation in the context of a long pastoral letter on the mystery of the Eucharist in the life of the Church (see https://perthcatholic.org.au). In this beautiful document, he points out that Christ, our faith, the Church and the sacraments are gifts from God and we are called to receive these gifts with reverence, with gratitude and with enthusiasm and… to cherish… respect and preserve them. He uses the opportunity to initiate a process of renewal in liturgical practice in the archdiocese. He addresses some practical issues (such as his intention to regulate the use of the old Latin Mass for the sake of unity) but he was not bold enough to mention communion from the cup at all.

As life gets back to normal and people return to offices and shops, theatres and stadiums, it is time for them to come back to church as well. The question is how to encourage and support them. It is not clear to me that ‘obligation’ by itself will work. As Archbishop Costelloe has demonstrated, our focus should be on spiritual renewal and creating opportunities to encounter Christ anew. I would argue that this must include attention to the sacramental signs of breaking the bread and sharing the common cup.

Tom Elich

Editor