Monday, January 30, 2006

Sacrament of Communion

Thinklings has been doing a series on Church practices. They've come to communion. What are the who, what, when, and hows of communion at your church?

My church serves communion on the first Sunday of the month. The articles of communion are a little thimble cup of grape juice and small pieces of matzoh. We have a moment of silence to prepare for the sacrament. Generally a church member prays, the bread is served, then everyone partakes together. We repeat with the cup. You aren't supposed to partake of communion if you aren't a christian or aren't in the proper spiritual state.

Nothing spectacular there.

However at our contemporary services we sometimes do it differently. Anyway the way the service works is this: the articles of communion are set up on stands or tables at the front of the church. Ministers and other church leaders are positioned at each location. The Senior Pastor prays and people are invited forward at their own pace and can go to whichever location they want. The first people in line are served and partake of communion with the minister or leader. Then they turn around and do the same to the second person in line (a notecard with what to do is on the table). And so on and so on until the Ministers and leaders are served by the last people in line.

I don't know anybody else that does it this way, but it's great. I'm a traditionalist, but I would attend this service every communion Sunday if it didn't mean sitting through interpretive dance during the worship.

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