Being Reconciled at the Lord's Table

From 19-23 February, I had the privilege of representing the Church of Ireland at the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation (IALC) held this year in Seoul, South Korea. This IALC is the official network for liturgy of the Anglican Communion, recognized by the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates' Meeting, and convenes every 2-3 years. The IALC brings together liturgists and worship leaders from around the communion, to consult, study, and pray together, and to offer resources to the churches. This year 42 members were present from 17 churches of the Communion, and with a significant representation from East Asian countries given the location of the event.

As you might imagine, with 42 liturgists meeting together, there were a great many services! We gathered for morning and evening worship each day, with different participants in the conference having prepared the service. This meant a wonderful mix of familiar and new, with many of the services following the basic structure of morning and evening prayer that we would be familiar with in the Church of Ireland, but with slightly different wording in some cases. Though the working language of the conference was English, these services were often conducted in a mixture of languages, with readings and prayers being offered in the native languages of those who were involved in leading. At one evening prayer, a Japanese participant, the Revd Ichihara Shintaro, was leading the service. He encouraged everyone to feel comfortable and go with the flow—no one, he assured us, would understand everything in the service, as there were 8 different languages involved! At every service, participants were invited to pray the Lord’s Prayer in their own language. The was a most profound moment at each service, like being in the midst of a sea of language, with such a diversity of ethnicities and languages gathered together!

A very powerful and moving part of the conference was the opportunity to learn about the development of a new Eucharistic prayer taking into account East Asian cultural sensibilities. This may sound like a slightly obscure exercise, but bear with me! The prayer has been worked on by participants of the Anglican Liturgical Network of East Asia (ALNEA), an informal network of IALC delegates from those countries. The seed for this network was planted in 2009, in conversation among delegates from the Philippines, South Korea and Japan, Revd Ichihara, with conversations continuing over several years, and the real work of drafting finally taking place in October 2023 at a gathering in Tokyo. If this seems like a small thing to you, I encourage you to consider the history of the East Asian region going back to WWII. Japanese militarism and aggression in the region were not minor factors in the war: there are deep scars and animosities still present in the region today. The memory of the war is alive and well, and indeed the possession of various small ‘contested’ islands right around the region is a live issue.

And yet!—slowly, steadily, and patiently (a story about mustard seeds comes to mind), an amazing work of reconciliation has been taking place amongst these representatives from different Asian countries, to articulate something that they share and something that is precious to them: the celebration of the sacrament of Holy Communion, proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes, being nourished at the Lord’s Table in receiving the body and blood of Christ. The prayer, drafted in English, as that is the common language among those working on it, has now been translated into each of their own national languages. We read and discussed the prayer that they had prepared as part of our meeting, but more than that, we experienced it (led in Korean by the Bishop of Seoul) at the closing Eucharist of the conference. It was remarkable to participate in this liturgy, and to affirm the work of our fellow Anglicans as they seek to participate in the healing and reconciling work of the Spirit and to offer this example of life-giving renewal to the wider church.