About Us.

Two seminarians who love technology and the church came across an incredible discovery: the holy sacrament of communion had not yet been made into an app.  We prayerfully decided to change that.  

Our Team

Co-creator

Kenji Kuramitsu
​Theologian

I am a writer, activist, chaplain and clinical social work student living in Chicago, IL. I’m currently working towards graduate degrees from McCormick Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago, and have a background in Social Work and Spanish. Being raised in multiple faith communities – Roman Catholic, evangelical, and UCC – helped me to nurture an ecumenical interest in social justice. I am passionate about Japanese American history, decolonial and antiracist organizing, and LGBTQ advocacy work in faith communities. I wrote a devotional prayer book called, A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer: Collects for the #BlackLivesMatter Movement and Beyond, and hope to write more in the future!

Co-creator

Shamika Klassen
​Founder of the Tech Chaplaincy Institute

After graduating from Stanford University, I served a year with AmeriCorps through Reading Partners in New York City. I went on to study technology, ethics, and social justice issues at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York.  While there, I developed technowomanism and tech chaplaincy.  In 2020, I founded the Tech Chaplaincy Institute and in 2022 sold the business to Learning Forte.   

Follow my doctoral and professional work while pursuing my Ph. D. in Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder here.  I aspire to use my skills as a researcher and Information Scientist to advocate and center marginalized voices in technological and digital products and services.  

Collaborator

Tony Dong
​​​Artist

Tony is a designer and developer. He works largely in ed-tech and creates digital tools for students and teachers. He is a Teach for America alumnus, former director of gifted programs at Mastery Charter and has served as director of instructional design and product owner for a learning management system. His work in ed-tech is a continuation of his commitment to serve young people and those who educate them.

Our Vision

​The church has celebrated this sacrament since its inception.  ​Now you can celebrate it in the palm of your hand!  By using spiritual communion as our inspiration, we decided to create an app that anyone with a high tech phone could use to remember the sacrifice that was made on the cross.  Just touch the screen to move through the spiritual communion.  

E-ucharist is designed for individual or group use. Tap on the wafer to begin.  While on the preparation screen, prepare your heart and mind to receive communion.   When you and your group are ready, tap the screen to start the prayer.  Read the prayer aloud or internally and tap the screen to move through the prayer.  After "Amen", your tap will take you to the home screen.  Repeat as often as you feel moved to.

E-ucharist was created by thoughtful, seminary-trained Christians passionate about connecting God’s people to the life of worship and the sacraments. We have not rushed into this process, nor taken the challenge to facilitate a digital Eucharist lightly. We have done our best to create this app diligently and ethically on every level, and we hope that you will respectfully engage this app as you would the celebration of the sacrament in (for lack of a better term) “the meatspace”.

Spiritual Communion is the seed from which this app is grown. Spiritual Communion is a longstanding tradition in the church whereby Christians are able to virtually receive Christ’s Body and Blood. One such prayer is the following, used in the app and employed by Christians for hundreds of years: My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.  I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.” The Anglican tradition historically holds a view that the body of Christ is “received by the faithful only in a heavenly and spiritual manner.” This may be seen as a relative of Spiritual Communion.

Put simply, E-ucharist is for Christians who celebrate the Eucharist.  We hope that as a person of faith and as a human being made in the image of God seeking union with Christ and his body and blood, you will feel invited to celebrate the Eucharist through this app.  Consider E-ucharist an open table where all, and we do mean ALL, Christians are welcome regardless of sex, race, gender, ethnicity, your past, your present, or who you are in any way.