NOTE TO READER (CLICK TO OPEN)
This work is a section of a larger work in progress with the title ‘Sacraments of (Un)belonging: Digital Creativity, Marginality, and the Disruption of Ecclesial Power’. The larger work is intended as a conference paper for BIAPT (The British & Irish Association for Practical Theology) conferences. I will give a shorter presentation at the online doctoral conference at the end of April 2026 and the full paper at the BIAPT residential conference in July 2026. This extract therefore has no concluding paragraphs. The discussion of sacraments and sacramentality is intended to lead to a discussion – in the full paper – of marginality, belonging and (un)belonging and digital creativity as ‘sacraments of unbelonging’.
Introduction
Sacrament and sacramentality form a key strand of my emergent creative practice and enquiry which engages with themes of marginality, liminality, belonging and (un)belonging. My enquiry is framed by the seven ecclesial sacraments, namely: Baptism; Confirmation; Eucharist; Reconciliation (penance or confession) Anointing of the Sick; Matrimony and Holy Orders. However, it is not intended as an interrogation of the seven sacraments themselves, or how they function liturgically but as a foundation for a more creative enquiry.
My aim in this paper is to explore both sacrament and sacramentality, beginning with a broad overview rooted in contemporary Catholic and Orthodox sacramental theologies. This focuses my enquiry on an incarnational theology which anchors the sacraments not in the church, but in the body and in the body of the world. An enquiry which leads me to critique the exclusion of non-normative body-minds from full sacramental participation and to explore how sacraments relate to experiences of (un)belonging. As such, I am interested in the ways in which liminal spaces (including digital creative spaces) offer not only freedom from institutional ecclesial norms but an intimate (and often disruptive) form of sacramental participation at the edges of (and beyond) church structures.
Sacrament or Sacramentality?
There is a preliminary distinction to be made between understandings of ‘sacrament’ and ‘sacramentality’. An arguably less challenging task would be to limit my enquiry to a discussion of ‘sacramentality’ which, in its broadest terms is not restricted to understandings of church-based sacraments, ritual activity, dogma or doctrine (Larson – Miller 2022) ‘Sacraments’ denote something specific and particular, usually understood as those formal church-based rituals linked to the rites of Christian initiation, healing and ‘service of communion.’ (Farwell and Moore-Keish 2022) I have however, taken a definitive theological stance in naming my research ‘Sacraments of (Un)belonging,’ rather than ‘Sacramentality of (Un)belonging’.
‘Sacramentality’ would probably fit my purposes more safely, in as much as I am asserting freedom from ecclesial restrictions. However, the seeming distinctions between sacrament and sacramentality are often blurred, nuanced and certainly much debated. ‘Sacraments’, understood as essentially corporate, point to communality, and are therefore key to the themes of belonging and (un)belonging at the heart of my research. Whilst I discuss sacrament and sacramentality in overlapping ways in this discussion, I do lay claim to the word ‘sacrament’ in a way which is deliberately disruptive of ecclesial boundaries.
What is a Sacrament?
It would be a lengthy and likely impossible task to interrogate the complexities of systematic and dogmatic approaches to sacramental theology in this limited space. It suffices to say that theologians have differed on the nature of sacrament and on what exactly ‘the’ sacraments are throughout most of church history (Holcomb and Johnson 2017) Despite the profound shifts in sacramental understanding which occurred post – reformation and post-Vatican II, Sacrament is still perhaps most widely defined as it was by Augustine of Hippo as, ‘ A visible sign of an invisible grace.’ (quoted in Farwell and Moore-Keish 2022)
How this deceptively simple definition is interpreted begins with denominational distinctions in which most reformed denominations, whilst recognising’[…] a diverse array of sacramental theologies,’ generally only acknowledge two ecclesial sacraments (‘ordinances’ in some traditions) namely Baptism and The Lord’s Supper, whilst Catholics accept seven.[1] The concepts of ‘signs and ‘grace’ might be more or less universally accepted but the nature and means of ‘signs’ and of ‘grace’ continue to be the focus of significant theological disagreements. (Farwell and Moore-Keish 2022)
As a theologian with (liberal) Catholic sensibilities, I am centring my enquiry on a contemporary foundation of Catholic sacramental theology (with some Orthodox help) My exploration is loosely (although not casually) constructed around the seven ecclesial sacraments which are acknowledged in the Roman and Anglo-Catholic traditions, as well as in the Eastern Orthodox church, which recognises them as ‘Holy Mysteries’. A dogmatic approach would insist that there are seven (and only seven) sacraments. Anything else which might resemble a sacrament (blessings and like) is a ‘sacramental’. And, significantly, the matter and form in which sacraments (and sacramentals) are performed is bound by Canon law and likewise limited to those with sacramental authority.
My task, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not to reinforce dogma. Nor is to interrogate the sacraments as they are prescribed. Rather it is to use them as a structural point of departure in which they become ready, familiar symbols of sacramental participation. In this way they continue to act as ‘signs’ which point to the ‘Creative and turbulent ‘ways in which grace can be encountered and revealed. (O’Donohue: 1998)
[1] Anglo-Catholics and Orthodox also recognise seven.