Another visual shift after the Second Vatican Council was the removal of communion rails. Vatican II did not mandate a removal of the railing, but many churches got rid of them, and new churches were built without them.
Without looking at practical or theological rationale for keeping or removing altar rails, I want to tell you what it felt like to me as a teenager in the Church. The communion rail separated the sanctuary from the nave. Clergy and servers were on the sanctuary side of the railing doing important ritual actions in a foreign language. The other side of the railing was for the “rest of us” as praying people. I felt we were in the spectator seats. I was not allowed on the other side of the railing except when I received my First Communion. Clergy and servers were all male. I did see women in the sanctuary sometimes before or after Mass. They were the sisters who taught in the Grade School, and they were setting-up for or cleaning-up after Mass.
For me, the communion rail was a barrier and a separation telling me I was not worthy to be on the other side of the railing. I wasn’t sure some of the boys I went to school with were worthy to be inside the railing, but they did go to server training and knew all that Latin. They must have been holier than me?
When the railing was removed, I didn’t feel like it lessened the importance of what happened around the altar and at the pulpit. Instead, it brought me into the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary, as a participant. Sacred actions (and sacred people) were in both spaces without a barrier.
Vatican II didn’t reject a hierarchical Church, but it added other models of Church to the mix, such as the Body of Christ and the People of God. We are all members of the Body of Christ, and we each have an important role to play. The eye is not the hand, but we need both. We are the People of God. We have different roles, but we are all loved by God. We are a community of disciples making our way to the heavenly banquet, rich and poor, male and female, ordained and laity, educated and not, young and old, every walk of life – one People of God.
There are people who want to bring back communion railings today. I found many of their websites in an Internet search. I agree with their desire for tradition and a sense of the sacred. But there are many customs from before Vatican II that I do not want to reintroduce, and the communion railing is one of them. I have an adverse reaction to some practices because of the reasons above: they make me feel like an outsider in my Church, like I don’t have anything useful to contribute. They make me feel like I am not worthy. And I’m not! But Lord, “only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
[I worked in an historic cathedral with a communion railing. I am not in favor of removing it. It is architecturally correct and helpful for security. But I would not bring it back where it has been removed. I would not add it to new construction. Feel free to disagree. Blessings.]
