Some years ago, a significant crisis unfolded when the Samoan Government aligned Samoa's time with New Zealand's. This decision posed a challenge for a denomination that observed Saturday as the Sabbath, as they were now faced with the question of which day truly represented the Sabbath.

So how would the Church adapt its liturgical calendar if we colonised Mars or the moon?"

Humans are biologically designed to have a wake-sleep cycle synced with Earth's day-night cycle. If we're in an environment where the day-night cycle radically differs from what we're programmed to work with, we ignore it.

For instance, the International Space Station goes around the earth in about forty-five minutes, meaning the astronauts on board get twenty-two minutes of light and twenty-two minutes of dark. There's no way they want to fall asleep every twenty-two minutes and then wake up twenty-two minutes later for the duration of their mission.

There wouldn't be a need to change the liturgical calendar on Mars because Mars is very close to the Earth. It's only a few light minutes away, so even if their Sunday slides are a few hours from Sunday on Earth (because of the difference in the day lengths), you can still approximate that. So, they would still have the same kind of Sunday cycle, they could still celebrate Christmas and Easter at the same times, and so on.

But what if you go further afield—like out of our solar system? In that case, there's no easy way to communicate with earth because of the light-speed limit. The local church in this other solar system may develop its own liturgical calendar based on the local planetary rotation period.

It's not going to happen soon so don't worry too much. Read more

The comments are from Thomas O'Loughlin, emeritus professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham and Director of Studia Traditionis Theologiae.

"There are some things Zoom and YouTube just won't do because real experiences are whole human experiences," O'Loughlin said.

"Can you send an apple by email?" he asked.

He says he will accept doing Mass online when people give up going out to dine with others and when people dine alone at home with pre-packaged food and say it is as rich an experience as it is eating and drinking with friends.

People wanting to have Mass on their TV or computer at home and priests supplying it sounds a warning about the real nature of the community, he said.

"Eucharist makes little sense without a community."

Challenging the meeting, O'Loughlin posed the question as to whether the Church had stopped being a real community and is being reduced to religious ideology.

He sounded a warning that we may be reducing the Eucharist to just getting communion, almost makes it a commodity!

O'Loughlin said the Church has a wealth of spirituality it can call on during COVID-19 lockdown and questioned why we opted for the "summit" experience.

He says he agrees that Mass is the summit of Christian prayer but suggested perhaps the Church has forgotten the hinterland.

O'Loughlin said that the Liturgy of the Hours, shared prayer, Lectio Divina, prayer together and scripture study we just some of the examples from the Church's spiritual tradition that respects the characteristics of the liturgy and that are easily adapted to a virtual environment.

"Why did we pick on something so physical such as eating and drinking?" O'Loughlin asked.

Spiritual Communion

Questioned on whether it was appropriate to use the readings of the day and make a "spiritual communion," O'Loughlin sounded a stern warning.

He observed that spiritual communion came from the time when only priests received communion and was developed by the heretical Jansenists to a point were nuns were not seen as worthy of physically receiving communion.

Spiritual communion "is tied up with notions of unworthiness and impurity" and it is a part of a moral theology we left long ago, he said.

Flashes of Insight

O'Loughlin made the comments in an international conversation hosted by CathNews on Zoom and as part of its "Flashes of Insight" series produced in association with La-Croix International.

Host of the conversation, Dr Joseph Grayland, Director of Liturgy in the Palmerston North Diocese, New Zealand, says the idea for "Let's Talk Liturgy" came about due to the disruption to worship brought about through the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Grayland says the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted laity and clergy alike.

"For many people, the online Mass, viewed from the living room was sufficient, they didn't have to go out and it fulfilled the need for Sunday Mass."

"The priests also liked doing this because it was readily identifiable as part of their mission".

Labelling online video Mass as a form of clericalism, Grayland says there are real concerns around the passive, observer approach and the personal nature of the "priest's Mass."

Flashes of Insight - Let's Talk Liturgy is, therefore, an opportunity for people to discuss and consider the nature of liturgy in an international context.

Over 80 people from the UK, Australia, the Pacific are involved in the conversation.

The second round of conversations continued last evening and at least one more round is planned.

Watch "Can you send an apple by email".