{"id":77273,"date":"2020-04-17T05:46:16","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T09:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=77273"},"modified":"2020-04-17T07:03:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T11:03:56","slug":"byob-bring-your-own-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/04\/byob-bring-your-own-bread.html","title":{"rendered":"BYOB (Bring Your Own Bread): Celebrating Zoomcharist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Someone in my Sunday school class asked whether we could celebrate communion next Sunday. I suggested the acronym BYOB would work, not just for \u201cBring Your Own Bottle\u201d (although wine is one of the elements) but also \u201cBring Your Own Bread.\u201d I\u2019m glad that Zoomcharist hadn\u2019t occurred to me as a possible word yet at that point. I got there after briefly toying with the idea of calling it Comm-Zoom-ion.<\/p>\n

But lame attempts at puns aside, have any readers of this blog celebrated communion virtually? If so, what was it like? How did you go about it? What are your thoughts, insights, and recommendations?<\/p>\n

\"\"As I was thinking about and exploring this topic, I was reminded of the fact that the first meal on the moon was communion<\/a>. That example helps us put this topic in an interesting perspective. Does physical distancing equate with \u201csocial distancing\u201d? What about \u201cspiritual distancing\u201d?<\/p>\n

As the article I linked to above states, \u201cThe first food eaten on the moon. It wasn\u2019t dehydrated pudding or freeze-dried ice cream. It was Holy Communion\u2026After Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon, Buzz Aldrin took out a piece of bread and some wine that he packed in the personal preference kit that each astronaut was allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buzz Aldrin was roughly the distance of 30 Earths away<\/a> from all but a couple of other human beings. And he celebrated communion, and found it meaningful. I think you can too, especially if you are in direct contact via Zoom with other human beings in a way that exceeds the image quality and speed available at the time of the Apollo 11 mission.<\/p>\n

And for those who share my distinctive array of interests, this means that in the future celebrating the eucharist on Mars will also be a possibility, a topic that comes up here:<\/p>\n

Alone in a desert and no church to go\u00a0to!<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n