Resources

At Covenant Christian Reformed Church in Sioux Center, Iowa, this communion table covering, designed by Jo Alberda, brings to mind that we are part of the vine that Jesus nourishes.

How Three Congregations Are Enriching Communion

The early church celebrated communion weekly. Catholic churches offer it weekly or even daily. Though Eucharist frequency varies widely among Protestants, denominations and congregations are re-visiting the sacrament.

United Church of Christ congregations are moving toward monthly or weekly communion. The percent of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (PDF) congregations celebrating weekly communion increased from 16% in 1989 to 42% in 2004. The United Methodists published This Holy Mystery to help worshipers reclaim the richness of the Lord’s Supper.

Vicar Ethan Magness says weekly communion, traditional liturgy, and preaching Christ’s free grace draw worshipers. Photo courtesy of Grace Anglican Fellowship.

An embodied way to receive the gospel

Ethan Magness was in seminary when he first read N.T. Wright’s The Meal That Jesus Gave Us. It struck him as an excellent clergy resource, a good Holy Communion overview for youth in confirmation classes, recent converts, and adults who wanted to do more than go through the motions.

Now Magness is a vicar at Grace Anglican Fellowship, north of Pittsburgh. The church attracts worshipers from nearby Slippery Rock University and Grove City College.

Unlike many church plants reaching out to 20-somethings, Grace Anglican doesn’t offer trendy multimedia services. Instead, worshipers say they like how traditional liturgy gives worship a corporate feel. And the congregation celebrates Holy Communion every Sunday.

“Having a more sacramental focus in worship is new for these folks. Most seem to really appreciate frequent reception of Holy Communion. They also appreciate the traditional Anglican connection of the preached gospel and the gospel as it is received in Holy Communion,” Magness says.

His parish sees the “Eucharist as sealing the promise of the gospel in the preached word,” so uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Magness describes it as “far more atonement centered” than the 1979 edition.

Working with Carolina Stained Glass, church members chose to include an image of a pottery chalice, not one of gold or jewels, to show that Christ’s blood is offered to all. Photo courtesy of Orange United Methodist Church.

Exploring, not killing, the mystery

Wanting to make worship more relational inspired worship leader Andy Keck to begin a Lord’s Supper project at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“The Lord’s Supper, through its language, movement, and action, provides us with a rich model. Putting it at the center of worship renewal can help a person’s relationship with Christ and with other members of the body of Christ,” he explains.

Orange United Methodist consulted with Gayle Carlton Felton, author of This Holy Mystery, to design a project keyed to several ways of learning. Certainly the most visible result was a stained glass window that the church commissioned.

Its hymn competition yielded two songs now sometimes sung at communion by the congregation or choir. “ ’Now We Come,’ by Brad McIntyre, is almost Taize in its singable quality. ‘Come and Feast, for All Are Welcomed,’ by Larry E. Schultz, combines a communion message with our church mission statement,” Keck says.

Schultz is music minister of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in nearby Raleigh. He set “Come and Feast” to Regent Square, the same tune as “Angels from the Realms of Glory.” “Come and Feast” and other Schultz compositions are in the new hymnal Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians, compiled by Jann Alredge-Clanton.

Orange adults studied William Willimon’s Sunday Dinner: The Lord’s Supper and Christian Life. Keck says that getting “a real grounding in the sacrament” frees worship leaders to be more creative with liturgies, such as varying the words to confession or invitation to communion.

“After the project, I did an 18-month series in the church newsletter, going line by line through the liturgy. We’re trying to walk the line between exploring the mystery and killing the mystery,” he adds.

Communion services often take more time in churches where people come up in groups to be served in circles or at altar rails.

For all ages

Whenever congregations propose having communion more often, members ask whether the sacrament will lose meaning. That very question came up at Sandersville United Methodist Church in Sandersville, Georgia. But Joy Pendry was glad someone asked.

“We have communion the first Sunday morning of each month. Our evening contemporary service celebrates it every third Sunday night. It’s fairly unusual for individuals in the congregation to refrain from taking the sacrament during worship. But we’d noticed an unfortunate trend of lower attendance on first Sunday mornings,” she says.

That trend prompted her to head up a project to help all ages more deeply understand communion in their daily lives. Pendry, a retired teacher, serves on the church council, plays in the handbell choir, and chairs the records and history committee.

The project began with an all day This Holy Mystery study, led by Gayle Carlton Felton and attended by leaders from several congregations. “We wanted parents to learn first, so they can answer questions as children begin their own Holy Communion study in January,” Pendry says.

Already members are raising issues common to many churches:

• “We go forward in small groups to kneel at the altar rail, be served, hear a prayer, and get dismissed. How can we make it feel less regimented and more joyful?”
• “Communion services last so long. Can we be more efficient?”
• “What if I don’t feel worthy enough to receive the sacrament? Should I still partake?”
• “How do these ideas on Holy Communion relate to the sacrament of baptism and other Methodist beliefs?”

Pendry says Sandersville has a built-in reason to help all ages experience the “Christian unity that comes from the oneness of the shared loaf and cup.

“Our Book of Resolutions says, ‘Because the table at which we gather belongs to the Lord, it should be open to all who respond to Christ’s love, regardless of age or church membership. The Wesleyan tradition has always recognized that Holy Communion may be an occasion for the reception of converting, justifying, and sanctifying grace,’ ” she explains.

Lay servers change monthly and already include children and youth on the teams. In the next phase, Sandersville will bring the elements to homebound and nursing home members. “We’ll offer a light lunch after morning worship, provide brief training, assign visits, and prayerfully send forth each team,” Pendry says.

The congregation also plans to study Charles Wesley’s Eucharistic hymns, ask its liturgical dance team to interpret communion music, and get congregational input on communion banners and bulletin covers.

Text by Joan Huyser-Honig
Photography by Steve Huyser-Honig

Back to N. T. Wright on the Gospel and Meal Jesus Gave Us