Why communion is in person

This is the question we are asked most. Here is a direct answer.

Because God chose to come to us in a body, and continues to come to us through bodies: water, bread, and wine. The physicality is not decoration. It is the point.

The Augsburg Confession, which is the founding document of Lutheran identity, says the church is where the Gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered. Two of those three things travel well over a network. The third does not.

Holy Communion is bread that someone puts into your hand, and a cup that someone holds out to you. It is Christ present in the eating and drinking. Not symbolically, but really and truly. And that requires your body to be somewhere specific. Baptism is water poured over an actual head by an actual community making actual promises. Trying to replicate either of these over video is not an alternative form of the sacrament. It is a different thing entirely.

During 2020, nearly every Lutheran church body in the world addressed this question, and nearly all of them reached the same conclusion: online communion is not Lutheran communion. We agree with that conclusion and we are not looking for a workaround.

So we put the daily prayers and the teaching in front of you, every day, for as long as you want them. What we cannot do is bring you the table. That takes a person, not a page — here is how to reach one. Most congregations will bring communion to a home. Almost nobody knows to ask.

Asking for communion at home

Most Lutheran congregations already do this for members who cannot attend. The hard part is asking, so here is the email, written for you to copy and send to any Lutheran church near you.

Copy this

Subject: Requesting home communion

Hello,

My name is [your name]. I live in your area and I am unable to attend worship because [brief reason: illness, disability, distance, caregiving, etc.]. Would someone from your congregation be able to bring me Holy Communion at home?

My address is [address]. I am generally available [days/times]. Please let me know what information you need from me.

Thank you,
[your name]
[phone number]

The daily offices are different

Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer, and the other daily offices were designed for laypeople praying alone or in small groups, without a pastor present. They have been prayed this way for over a thousand years. They are fully legitimate digital worship, and they are what we do.

Pray the evening office now →