But we don’t always have a minister…
We can’t have a weekly Communion service, because we can’t get a minister to come every week.
The supply of authorised celebrants – whether lay or ordained – certainly limits the possibility of a weekly Eucharist. But the church has always had this problem. The Do This project is not about “having to have” a Eucharist each week; it is about making the most of the resources of gospel, including the Eucharist, whenever we can.
For the sake of good order, the Uniting Church permits only ordained ministers or specially authorised lay celebrants to preside at a Communion service. As is often the case in other churches which do celebrate weekly Eucharists, celebrants are not available all the time, in all places.
The importance of the Eucharist, however, is not determined by the availability of a celebrant. We might say that, in circumstances where a celebrant is not available, the issue is less “having to have” a Communion service every time the community gathers for its main worship service than it is simply “wanting” these to be Communion services.
The question then becomes, How best can we meet this “want”? Two things will help us improve our performance here.
The first is for Presbyteries to work to enable Communion to be received at each principal service, wherever that is desired by the local community. The organisation of the church – and its worship services – is certainly made easier by the typical monthly Communions of local congregations: we don’t need so many authorised celebrants. But ease of organisation is not a Presbytery’s priority. Rather, the sheep are to be shepherded. This will, at least, include re-visiting the question of lay celebrancy or even “local” ordinations, but it might also provide some helpful motivation for amalgamating small congregations to make the most of what authorised celebrancy might be available.
The second thing which will aid in a shift to weekly Eucharist will be perceptions within the ordained ministry itself. The argument for largely limiting sacramental authorisation to ordained ministers includes the notion that this authority bestows not a right to celebrate but a responsibility to celebrate. We might need to see a step up in the sense of responsibility of, say, ministers not committed to Sunday worship leadership (retired and non-parished ministers) to assist the church with sacramental celebration.
The question of the supply of celebrants doesn’t change the basic premise: we are called to “Do This”. It is one thing if, in fact we can’t; it is quite another if, for convenience’ sake, we won’t.