Liturgy Communication

Beloved in Christ, 

I am writing to you today in order to address two significant topics related to our shared liturgical life: the use of alternative liturgies to those found in the Book of Common Prayer, and the use of the common cup in the administration of communion. I promised to write to you about these topics at our clergy retreat in February, and while this is a bit longer than my usual communications, I believe it is important for the bishop to help clarify and offer guidance about how we best steward the traditions we’ve inherited and promised to uphold into new landscapes. I know how very complex ministry is in this moment, and I hope this offers a helpful framework as we continue to navigate the road together.

Authorized Liturgies and Alternatives

Common prayer is a value that lies at the very heart of Anglican Christianity. How we speak to and about God in prayer, as well as the forms and shape of our public worship, have a profound impact on how we show up as God’s people in the world. The classic formula is so very true: praying shapes believing. For this reason, our liturgies are serious matters that demand our highest efforts and care.

A commitment to common prayer is also a way of living into the deep theological truth that, in Jesus, “we are” always precedes “I am.” In a cultural milieu that makes the individual the highest authority, and individual preference the ultimate arbiter of truth, following Jesus makes the countercultural claim that our truest and deepest identity is found in a community of disciples that transcends space and time, not as autonomous individuals. To be baptized is to belong fully to each other as members of Christ’s body, to make decisions about our common life with reference to each other, and to be accountable to one another for our decisions and leadership. I, along with all of you, made a solemn promise at ordination to “conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them.” A central part of that promise is upholding the way the Book of Common Prayer, other authorized liturgies, and the Constitution and Canons frame our approach to historic Christianity.

Because of this, it is my expectation that the Book of Common Prayer, and other liturgies authorized for use in this church, are the normative forms of worship in faith communities in this diocese. You can find a list of all the liturgies authorized for use in our church here.

At the same time, it has now been more than fifty years since our church has undertaken significant liturgical revision. I am deeply aware of how that can put local leaders in a significant bind, where there is a longing for new expressions that carry forward the essential Anglican charism of incarnating liturgy in the local vernacular, while the structures of the church with whom that authority ultimately lies have seemed unable to undertake larger scale revision. Resolution D050 from the 2015 General Convention makes provision for a congregation to use the framework outlined in “An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist” (BCP, 400) as a principal Sunday service, with the diocesan bishop’s permission. I am grateful for this resolution, as it opens the door for some necessary liturgical innovation and experimentation, while preserving the value of communal discernment and accountability. If you would like to use a liturgy outside of those authorized by the General Convention as your principal Sunday service under this provision, please send it to me at least one month before you plan to use it, and I will be happy to be in conversation with you about it.

Common Cup

Early on in the pandemic, as I was just coming in as your bishop, I gave permission to use individual cups to distribute sacramental wine. This was an anomaly to the ancient and longstanding practice of receiving from a common cup. I made that exception for pastoral reasons given how impossibly difficult everything was in that moment. While a great many of our congregations have now returned to the common cup, some have not. I have delayed sending a communication like this for some time, as I am deeply sensitive to the many pastoral dimensions of returning fully to its use.

As a bishop, I have promised to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the church. In my view, part of fulfilling this commitment includes not making a pandemic accommodation a permanent deviation from the longstanding practice of our church. I am asking all congregations return to the use of the common cup by the Day of Pentecost, 2025. This is in line with the overwhelming majority of dioceses in the Episcopal Church, which have already fully returned to this practice.

Since at least the fourth century, the use of the common cup for eucharistic wine has been an important sacramental expression of how we who are many are one body, because we all share in the one bread and one cup. Indeed, our former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry tells a powerful story of how his dad became an Episcopalian largely because he witnessed both black and white Christians receiving from a common communion cup in the heart of the segregated south. For this reason, the rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer are clear that there is only to be one chalice on the altar for the eucharistic prayer, even if additional wine needs to be consecrated from other vessels. It is a powerful and important symbol of our unity, our shared identity in Jesus, and our love, acceptance, and embrace of one another. This symbolism, and this theology, are particularly poignant and important in a season of deep divisions in our culture, and when so many are being targeted and scapegoated for their difference.

It has always been the teaching of the church that receiving either the bread or the wine is to fully share in the communion and benefits of Christ’s Body and Blood, and there have always been some who, for a variety of reasons, chose to not receive in both kinds. Part of our work as clergy is to regularly remind our people of the teaching and theology of the church around our liturgy and sacraments, and I would encourage you to do so in response to questions about Eucharistic practice.

The issue of the common cup has been studied a number of times by public health scientists over the years, and those studies have confirmed that there is very little risk, and almost no evidence, of infectious disease spreading in any significant way because of its use. The practice of intinction, on the other hand, is far less hygienic than drinking from a common cup, and I strongly encourage you to discontinue the practice of intinction altogether. You can find two of the studies around the health risks of the common cup here, and here.

How we balance faithfulness to the church’s witness and practice throughout the ages with the need to innovate in a new moment, is an exceedingly difficult challenge for anyone who assumes a leadership role in the church. My great hope is that the reflections and expectations I have outlined here will help you as you seek to strike that balance in your own community. As ever, please do be in touch with me directly with any questions you have about any of this, and I will continue to bring my best efforts to our common discernment as we move forward together into God’s future.

Grace and Peace, 

The Right Reverend Craig Loya