Canon Ian Ellis, of the Church of Ireland, raises important questions about the scandal of Eucharistic division in the Churches.
On Maundy Thursday we called to mind the Last Supper and Christ’s institution of the Eucharist. While it is often referred to as the sacrament of unity, the Eucharist paradoxically remains a focus of disunity.
The sixth meeting of the World Conference on Faith and Order, was held from 24th-28th October last year in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt. Yet it would seem that increasingly in ecumenical encounters, including at the Wadi El Natrun meeting, the issue of Eucharistic sharing is sidelined and has become, to adapt the phrase, the theological elephant in the room. It is there, but is not discussed.
For example, even the September 2025 meeting of the standing WCC-Roman Catholic Church joint working group (JWG) does not seem to have had this topic on its agenda. Without mentioning Eucharistic sharing, the JWG decided to continue its work in at least three directions: to explore different understandings of salvation; to study processes that have been implemented “in different global contexts in order to offer practical tools of collective reconciliation”; and to focus on the challenges caused by intolerance and religious fanaticism.
Again, these are all worthy if somewhat esoteric matters, but Eucharistic sharing is ignored.
As if to underline this, I have been informed that at a meeting of a WCC delegation with Pope Leo on February 28th last in the Vatican, while Eucharistic sharing was mentioned in passing, it was not actually discussed.
To return to the Wadi El Natrun ecumenical world faith and order conference, a formal message was issued at its conclusion, rejoicing “that the past century of faith and order work has revealed that on many questions we agree more than we disagree”, and adding that despite disunity, “the ecumenical journey towards visible unity” had continued.
Despite such a lacklustre tone, to its credit, the message went on to affirm that unity is not simply about agreement, but is essentially about “communion” and “begins to be visible when we live together, moving towards mutual sharing of the Eucharist and recognition of each other’s ministries”.
Yet there is no sense of urgency about healing divisions, with the message seeing the ecumenical journey in very broad terms as a call “to renew our commitment to faith, mission, and unity in Christ Jesus; to listen together to the Holy Spirit; to walk together as pilgrims: as children of the Father learning together to live out our faith, hope, and love, and in the practice of justice, reconciliation, and unity”.
While the message ended with an encouragement to “aspire to live the unity for which Christ prayed”, and while there is a degree of sadness in the churches about disunity, it seems that the scandal of Eucharistic division is not really felt as a scandal at all.
Canon Ian Ellis is a former editor of The Church of Ireland Gazette. His publications on ecumenism include Vision and Reality: A survey of twentieth century Irish inter-church relations and A Century of Mission and Unity.
(Source: The Irish Times)