My title is in quotation marks because it’s the title of a column contributing writer Kate Cohen wrote for the Washington Post on Aug. 29, 2023. She writes what most of us as practitioners have known for some time now: since the pandemic, both church and theater attendance nationally has been down 25-40% and it is generally believed that a good number of those are not coming back. Cohen says, “I’m worried about all spaces where people come together in shared purpose. Meaning-full spaces. Like theaters.” She quotes United Church of Christ pastor Rev. Molly Baskette in talking about the “participatory transcendence that you get when humans are in the flesh together.”
We experienced that Sunday when Sarah, our youth and I broke off real bread, offered real grape juice, and said, “This is the body of Christ, broken for you” and, “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.” As a congregation we were on our knees, shoulder to shoulder, receiving ordinary food made extraordinary by the sacred words of consecration first said by Christ Jesus. THAT is “participatory transcendence.”
During COVID we offered drive-through communion, which was better than isolation at home, but it could never take the place of being with the physical body of Christ in person … and that’s before we get to the second communion afterward of donuts and coffee together.
Summer is over and Labor Day has passed. We have more opportunities this fall than we have had in four years. As Cohen says, “the immunocompromised get a pass.” To that I would add our mobility impaired as well. “But for the rest of us,” she says, “it’s time to start rebuilding our habits and reinhabiting the buildings that give our lives meaning. Go back to that meaningful space – or go find one – and keep going.”
Thank you, Kate; well said.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
