The Eucharist in Four Dimensions: The Meanings of Communion in Contemporary Culture

The Eucharist is common Sunday fare in most Anglican churches, and the point in ritual where God and humanity most closely meet. It nourishes the soul, deepens and extends community, reaches deeper than any other Christian practice. But collective worship has been in steep decline and Eucharistic practice has been further disrupted by the pandemic. In The Eucharist in Four Dimensions, Jessica Martin considers the place of the Eucharist today using four approaches: · The Point of the Eucharist – its essence, story and what it is for in contemporary culture; the divine value it gives to the weak and the broken; · Flat Eucharist – the meaning of the Eucharist in a world of written liturgy and screened worship; · The Eucharist as event - the role of physical gathering and communal eating in the Eucharistic drama of communal feast; how this works when we are physically absent; · The Eucharist in time – how memory brings together Jesus’s past physical present with the meetings and partings of our own lives. This is an essential guide to the Eucharist for all ministering in a world of streamed services and remote worship.