The Absence of Presence and the Presence of Absence: Social Distancing, Sacraments, and the Virtual Religious Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. The Expansion of the Virtual Church Community
3. Church, Community, and Communication in the Past
4. Religion Online and Online Religion
5. Virtual Presence or Embodied Community?
6. Easter 2020: A Case Study
7. A “Virtual” Eucharist?
8. Conclusions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Albert, Jean-Pierre. 2005. Who Believes in Transubstantiation? L’Homme 175–76: 369–73. [Google Scholar]
- Allen, Elise Ann. 2020. As coronavirus empties churches, Italian priest fills pews with photos of parishioners. Crux. Available online: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/03/as-coronavirus-empties-churches-italian-priest-fills-pews-with-photos-of-parishioners/ (accessed on 10 April 2020).
- Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. [Google Scholar]
- Bazin, Jean-Nicolas, and Jerome Cottin. 2004. Virtual Christianity: Potential and Challenge for the Churches. Geneva: WCC Publications. [Google Scholar]
- Berger, Teresa. 2018. @ Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Bishop of Albany. 2020. Twitter. Available online: https://twitter.com/AlbBishopEd/status/1248328659129249794 (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Campbell, Heidi. 2005a. Exploring Religious Community Online. We Are One in the Network. New York: Peter Lange. [Google Scholar]
- Campbell, Heidi. 2005b. Spiritualising the internet. Uncovering discourses and narratives of religious internet usage. Online. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 1: 1–26. [Google Scholar]
- Campbell, Heidi. 2013. Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds. Abingdon: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Catholic, Church. 1994. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liguori: Liguori Publications. [Google Scholar]
- Cheong, Pauline Hope, Peter Fischer-Nielsen, Stefan Gelfgren, and Charles Ess. 2012. Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures. New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar]
- Chiu, Remi. 2018. Singing on the Street and in the Home in Times of Pestilence: Lessons from the 1576–78 Plague of Milan. In Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy. Edited by Maya Corry, Marco Faini and Alessia Meneghin. Leiden: Brill, pp. 27–44. [Google Scholar]
- Church of England. 2020. Coronavirus Covid-19 Guidance for Parishes in Holy Week. Available online: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-parishes/holy-week-and-easter-2020 (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Congregation for the Clergy. 1994. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests. Available online: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_cclergy_doc_31011994_directory_en.html (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Darnton, Robert. 2012. Poetry and the Police Communication Networks in Eighteenth-Century Paris. Cambridge: Belknap Press. [Google Scholar]
- Davies, Michael. 1997. A Short History of the Roman Mass. Kansas City: TAN Books & Publishers. [Google Scholar]
- Delap, Dana. 2020. How we shared the bread and wine on Zoom. The Church Times. Available online: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/17-april/comment/opinion/how-we-shared-the-bread-and-wine-on-zoom (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Dodd, Liz. 2020. Mass attendance triples in Wales thanks to online services. The Tablet. Available online: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12778/mass-attendance-triples-in-wales-thanks-to-online-services (accessed on 19 April 2020).
- Eisenstein, Elizabeth. 1993. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Falcone, Jessica M. 2019. Sacred realms in virtual worlds: The making of Buddhist spaces in Second Life. Critical Research on Religion 7: 147–67. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Feenberg, Andrew. 1999. Questioning Technology. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Flynn, J. D., and E. D. Condon. 2020. Confession by Phone, Skype, or Emoji? Could it Happen during Coronavirus Pandemic? Available online: https://angelusnews.com/faith/confession-by-phone-skype-or-emoji-could-it-happen-during-coronavirus-pandemic/ (accessed on 10 April 2020).
- Foley, John P. 2002. Pontifical Council for Social Communications: The Church and Internet. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Available online: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_church-internet_en.html (accessed on 18 April 2020).
- Fraser, Giles. 2020. Zoom eucharist felt like an episode of Masterchef—and I loved it. The Post. Available online: https://unherd.com/thepost/zoom-eucharist-felt-like-an-episode-of-masterchef-and-i-loved-it/ (accessed on 18 April 2020).
- Gitelman, Lisa. 1999. Scripts, Grooves and Writing Machines. Representing Technology in the Edison Era. Stanford: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Glatz, Carol. 2020. Vatican reveals huge online growth over Easter. The Tablet. Available online: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12779/vatican-reveals-huge-online-growth-over-easter (accessed on 18 April 2020).
- Helland, Christopher. 2005. Online Religion as Lived Religion. Methodological Issues in the Study of Religious Participation on the Internet. Online. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 1: 1–16. [Google Scholar]
- Irwin, Kevin W. 2005. Models of the Eucharist. New York: Paulist Press. [Google Scholar]
- Jacobs, Stephen. 2007. Virtually Sacred: The Performance of Asynchronous Cyber-Rituals in Online Spaces. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12: 1103–21. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kayahara, Jennifer. 2006. Community and Communication: A Rounded Perspective. In Networked Neighborhoods: The Connected Community in Context. Edited by Patrick Purcell. London: Springer. [Google Scholar]
- Kruger, Oliver. 2005. Methods and Theory for Studying Religion on the Internet: Introduction to the Special Issue on Theory and Methodology. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 1: 1–7. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Labenek, Andrew W. 2014. The Promise and Problematic of the Virtual Eucharist Mass according to the Roman Catholic Church’s Position in “The Church and the Internet.”. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository, Western University, London, ON, USA. [Google Scholar]
- Lombardi, Federico. 2020. Empty Piazzas, Filled Spaces. Vatican News. Available online: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-04/empty-piazzas-filled-spaces-lombardi-living-through-the-crisis-1.html (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- London College of Bishops. 2020. The Eucharist in a Time of Physical Distancing. Diocese of London Communications. Available online: https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/the-eucharist-in-a-time-of-physical-distancing/ (accessed on 19 April 2020).
- Lubov, Deborah Castellano. 2020. Alessandro Gisotti on Massive Growth in Vatican Media Engagement This Easter & Holy Week. Zenit. Available online: https://zenit.org/articles/alessandro-gisotti-reflects-on-massive-vatican-growth-this-easter-holy-week/ (accessed on 21 April 2020).
- Lyons, Nathan. 2009. Signs in the Dust. A Theory of Natural Culture and Cultural Nature. Oxford: OUP. [Google Scholar]
- Mayr, Otto. 1986. Authority, Liberty, and Automatic Machinery, in Early Modern Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. [Google Scholar]
- Mesch, Gustavo, and Talmud Ilan. 2006. The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships. The Information Society 22: 137–48. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Meyers, Ruth A. 2020. Spiritual Communion in a Season of Social Distancing. Available online: https://cdsp.edu/2020/04/spiritual-communion-in-a-season-of-social-distancing/ (accessed on 10 April 2020).
- Misa, Thomas J., Brey Philip, and Feenberg Andrew. 2003. Modernity and Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press. [Google Scholar]
- Ong, Walter. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen. [Google Scholar]
- Pontifex. 2020. Twitter. Available online: https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/1251092023987355650 (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Pope, Paul, VI. 1965a. Gaudium et Spes. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Pope, Paul, VI. 1965b. Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_presbyterorum-ordinis_en.html (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Roman Catholic Church. 1983. New Code of Canon Law. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_introduction_en.html (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Stoddart, Aidan Luke. 2020. A Eucharistic Proposal for a Time of Pandemic. Available online: https://www.harvardepiscopalians.org/a-eucharistic-proposal?fbclid=IwAR157aV-8O-8fcnjBvKcMvWSWLrWe5UNmnEiiHLjfttkefvCccRHPkcoGbw (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Toronto, Sun. 2020. Reaching the Masses. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4xhWqoqNBo (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Vallely, Paul. 2020. This is teaching us about the mass. The Church Times. Available online: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/9-april/comment/columnists/paul-vallely-this-is-teaching-us-about-the-mass (accessed on 19 April 2020).
- Vatican, News. 2020. Covid-19. Vatican Holy Week Celebrations under Study. Available online: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-03/vatican-coronavirus-easter-triduum-celebrations.html (accessed on 19 April 2020).
- Ward, Graham. 2006. The Future of Religion. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74: 179–86. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Welby, Justin. 2020. Twitter. Available online: https://twitter.com/JustinWelby/status/1249220707466305536 (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Williams, Rowan. 2015. Response to Kerr, Hedley, Pickstock, Ward and Soskice. Modern Theology 31: 630–36. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
© 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Parish, H. The Absence of Presence and the Presence of Absence: Social Distancing, Sacraments, and the Virtual Religious Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Religions 2020, 11, 276. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060276
Parish H. The Absence of Presence and the Presence of Absence: Social Distancing, Sacraments, and the Virtual Religious Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Religions. 2020; 11(6):276. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060276
Chicago/Turabian StyleParish, Helen. 2020. "The Absence of Presence and the Presence of Absence: Social Distancing, Sacraments, and the Virtual Religious Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic" Religions 11, no. 6: 276. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060276