Celebrating Communion needs a lot more thought and work than it gets in most non-liturgical churches: we do it so poorly. New Zealand Baptist churches have emphasised so strongly the symbolic meaning of the meal that it has become thin and virtually without meaning. We have been so keen to make sure nothing Catholic sneaks in around the edges that we have lost any opportunity to encounter the risen Christ in a transforming way. This is not the place for a discussion of the theology of Communion/Eucharist/Lords Supper/Mass, but the issue is a very important one in the emerging culture with its desire for mystery, relationship, and a faith that ‘works’. The Communion can meet all those needs if we use it rightly. I believe Communion needs to become a more significant focus of worship thinking over the next few years. A useful starting point would be reading Mass Culture, edited by Pete Ward (Oxford:The Bible reading Fellowship, 1999).
Baptist Churches generally do not have communion every Sunday. They have it on the first Sunday morning and the third Sunday evening of each month. Cityside works within that framework although we have often talked of wanting to have it every Sunday. Issues of time prevent us. The materials that follow assume communion is less than weekly.
In the morning service, Communion generally follows the sermon slot – although this is not fixed, and it could be moved somewhere else within the service depending on what else is happening. Communion services tend to be focussed toward the taking of Communion – either by having the different parts of the service slightly ‘themed’ towards communion, or by using the sermon slot to lead people toward communion in a meditative way. The idea is for communion not to be an ‘add-on’ to the rest of the service, but to set the context and style for the whole service.
One way we have tried to do this is by devoting the sermon slot to different traditional forms of ‘praying the scriptures,’ with people introducing and leading guided meditations or activities based on Lectio Divina, Ignatian Prayer, Scripture re-writing, etc. If there is a ‘normal’ sermon, it will be shorter than on a regular Sunday and communion will offer a response to it.
We usually set up a low round table for Communion, and invite people to come forward to receive the elements. Generally there are three servers – one for the bread (a whole loaf), one for a goblet (which contains port), one for small cups (containing non-alcoholic juice) – and people walk forward, and around the table. Servers are invited to say some variation on ‘[name], Christ’s body, given for you’, ‘the life of Jesus, given for you’, or to be silent, as they prefer. We have deliberately chosen to ask people to get out of their seats to receive communion, rather than adopting the approach where the elements are passed around the seats. This is partly because it physically enacts the dimension of response which is so central to communion. It requires a much more deliberate decision on the part of the receiver to go forward, than to have communion come to them. Another reason for inviting people to move is simply the belief that when we engage our whole bodies in worship, more aspects of ourselves are open to and participating in the experience.
Attention to aesthetics is an important part of the way we offer Communion. Because we are inviting people to participate in a multi-leveled symbolic act, the environment and the way the senses are involved in the ritual have a strong part to play in how fully and to what depth people are able to engage. Aspects of this attention to detail include: the lighting of a ‘Christ candle’ before the words of institution, other visual aspects such as coloured cloth or a visual display, the visual quality of the goblet and bottles, and the presence of other visual symbols such as video loops. Also, the choice of music influences the congregation in a range of ways — emotionally, and also on the level of ideas — depending on how the lyrics and style of the music relate to the themes of communion.
Because people are already moving around the space, and are in a reflective mode we often combine communion with prayer actions such as candle lighting or writing and hanging prayers. We set out three sand trays each with a central lit candle, and baskets of votive candles. People can pass by the sand trays and light a candle to symbolise a prayer, either on their way to the communion table, or on their way back to their seat. Part of the effectiveness of this is again linked to the response dimension of Communion. As we reflect on what Christ means to us, and renew our awareness of the community of Christ’s body in the church, a natural and helpful outworking of our reflections is to offer prayer, either for ourselves or others. Any other ‘station’ activity could also be incorporated at this time (see section 5.c).
The words and actions in the lead up to communion are important. Those who lead this part of the service are encouraged to take their time, to pay attention to the overall mood of the congregation, and to be aware of how their demeanour affects the tone of the ritual.
It can be a good idea to introduce Communion with a suggestion for a particular ‘way in’ to the ritual. Most of us have participated in Communion so many times that it can be helpful to have some specific stimulus or hook to direct our reflections. This might be contemplation of Jesus’ death on the cross, or the idea of sharing in Jesus’ new life, or being part of Jesus’ body, being a member of a church community, the concept of sacrifice or commitment etc., etc. Over time, it’s helpful to have a balance between the inward and personal (my relationship to Jesus) and the outward and communal (my relationship to others).
For the ‘words of institution,’ we generally use the familiar text from 1 Corinthians 11, or from one of the Gospels, and actually physically break the bread and pour the wine as we speak. Prayer is included at relevant points, acknowledging the role of God in giving us Jesus to die and rise, in gathering us together as the body, in being present to us through the bread and wine, and so on.
We remind people (mostly for the sake of visitors) that the single goblet has port, the small cups are non-alcoholic, and there are rice crackers for the wheat intolerant. When we invite people to the table it is without restriction – it is an ‘open’ table in that we do not require people to be baptised or even necessarily Christian believers before they can take communion. However, we do choose words that indicate that taking communion is a meaningful act between us and God, and therefore not to be taken lightly. It is important for people to know when to start coming forward, so this is made explicit in words, and also by beginning to play the background CD track.
As I mentioned earlier, in Baptist and other non-sacramental circles, Communion has tended to be seen as ‘merely symbolic’: that is, a visual aid to memory, without any actual transformative effect. However, at Cityside, while we acknowledge that Communion is a representative act and not a magical one, we affirm that there is enormous power in symbol, and that there is a real mystery in the way taking communion enables us to encounter Jesus and participate in his death and life. God is present to us in the bread and the wine in a profound and ultimately inexplicable way.
And finally, another dimension of communion that is important to our community is the relationship between the communion table and the dinner table. That is, Christ is present with us when we meet and share food and acknowledge his presence, both in the formal ritual of communion and as we eat together in our homes. A sacramental understanding of communion opens up for us also a sacramental awareness of Christ’s presence in our daily lives.
Examples of prayers, readings, and resources for use in a communion service
1. The Passion
Leader: In the company of his friends, who knew nothing of the fears he faced, he held up a cup and said: “This is my blood, shed for you – a sign of the covenant that I have made: that you love one another as I do love you; that you love one another as I will always love you.”
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his friends, he saw their surface treatment and stock answers to his pain. In his human spirit he needed to articulate the frightening truth, “You will all desert me.” As if deliberately, “No! I will never leave you!” cut so deeply into his pain – reinforcing their shallowness, their isolating ignorance. Uttering, “Peter, even you will desert me…” stamped his loneliness.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his friends he went to pray. Beads of sweat poured from his brow. His anguish, his desperate pleas to God to release him from this. His terror as he realised that our God pained, and deliberated, and struggled, and agonised and identified with him and still said: “Son, I have got to have it this way.”
“Dear Father take this away, please?”
“Son, I have got to have it this way”
“Dear Father…”
“I have got to have it this way…”
And his friends salted his wounds as they slept in ignorance.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his friends, he saw the betrayer come. A kiss, a sign of trust, a statement of love, stripped of meaning to become a statement of hate. The bad taste in his mouth as he looked his betrayer in the eye and saw an old friend for who he was… and wasn’t. In the midst of the righteous commotion – because there was, not because there needed to be – he looked at all of them and was alone.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his enemies, he stood in an atmosphere of hate. His inside crying out against the injustice of the accusations, angry shouts and curses at him, not one in his defence. A mob of scared, misunderstandings – too deaf to truth, too afraid to let go of religious protection. His chosen people… his representatives in this world… his blessed nation… of despair and insecure hate.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his enemies, he stood before the authorities of the land. The belittling interview of a man who cared more for his image than for justice. “What is truth?” question-smacked his face. He, the truth, was now a lie, just like the Judas kiss. And he stood as the crowd chose selfish over selfless. He was innocent but condemned… who he was did not matter; who people perceived him to be was his identity – he was stripped of himself.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his enemies he was tortured and beaten, because they did… not because they needed to. And he was mocked for having been honest with himself and with others. He was smashed and humiliated to satisfy insecure power plays, shoved to and fro between cowards and try-hards. He was an object of petty frustration. He was made lower than what he had made.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his friends and enemies, he was spread out upon a cross and stapled to it with a routine nailing. The hammering soldier thought nothing of this lump of flesh, this distortion of a man. He was numb to the cries of pain, the tears of distress, the paleness of the body in the cold of winter – this was the death of a village idiot. Egged on by the crowd, the torture was entertainment and the soldier lapped up the attention – this was his day and this was his trophy… a shivering bloodied nobody.
Congregation: This is our Christ.
Leader: In the company of his friends and enemies, he became a number in the State records, like the two either side of him. With all having forsaken him: “Dear God? Why are you standing in the shadows? How can you just watch this? Why have you – you of all – why have you abandoned me?”
Congregation: This is our Christ
Leader: In a world of so much pain, what use would a painless Messiah be?
(Stu McGregor)
2. Communion Responsive Reading
Jesus, Emmanuel, we consider this bread:
your body; this cup: your blood.
We remember your death.
May eating your broken body help us to encounter
the parts of ourselves that are also broken.
May drinking your poured-out blood help us to recognise
where our energy and joy have been drained.
As we share in your death, may we also embrace your resurrection.
Let the new life which entered your body also be ours.
Let damaged relationships, disfigured self-images, and dismembered beliefs be renewed.
May the dry bones of our lives awaken into shape and movement through your Spirit’s breath.
May your body give strength to our limbs and your blood enrich our hearts.
Amen.
(Brenda Stone)
3. Invitation to the Feast
Come, all you who thirst,
all you who hunger for the bread of life,
all you whose souls cry out for healing;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are weary,
all you who are bowed down with worry,
all you who ache with the tiredness of living;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you poor,
all you who are without food or refuge,
all you who go hungry in a fat land;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are bitter,
all you whose hopes have tarnished into cynicism,
all you who feel betrayed and cannot forgive;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who grieve,
all you who suffer loss as a fresh knife wound,
all you who curse the God you love;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are sinners,
all you who have sold the gift that is within you,
all you who toss uneasily on your bed at night;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are oppressed,
all you who have forgotten the meaning of freedom,
all you whose cries cut to the very heart of God;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are traitors,
all you who use your wealth and power to crucify God,
all you who cannot help yourselves;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come all you who are sick,
all you whose bodies or minds have failed you,
all you who long above all for healing;
Come, come to the feast of life.
Come, all you who are lost,
all you who search for meaning but cannot find it,
all you who have no place of belonging;
Come, come to the feast of life.
The table of Jesus is your place of gathering;
Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved:
here there is a place set for you;
Come, come to the feast of life.
(Mike Riddell. Ponsonby Baptist Church communion liturgy, c.1983)
4. Stranger on the Way
On the road from yesterday to tomorrow,
Striking off for a new place in the hope of leaving the past behind,
We find ourselves hurting and confused,
Tramping our pain into the dust of the track.
We are so fixed on our destination
And preoccupied with how to get there,
That we hardly have time for strangers along the way
Or the idle tales that there may be another Way to travel.
Yet you join us without invitation,
Busting in on our conversations and schedules,
Speaking to us of the very things
We do not want to hear.
You wait for us to bring you in,
To make a place for you at our table,
To share the simple stuff of our lives with you
And so turn a stranger into a guest.
In the eating and talking and drinking
There is the hope of recognition,
That the scales might fall from our eyes
So we discover who you are, Jesus the Christ.
Lord, while resurrection might be on our lips,
It is not often in our hearts.
We would prefer you dead and innocuous
Than living, present and dangerous.
But here we are now
With you standing in our midst;
And in the presence of true Life
We want to embrace you and the dance you call us to.
We welcome you to our tombs;
Come with your irrepressible life
Into the gloom of our compromises and half-truths,
And stir us from our lethargy.
Save us from our own brain-numbing conformity;
Take our mouldering hearts
And in the white heat of your resurrection
Set them on fire.
Cause our hearts to burn within us;
Speak the holy word
Which is able to sear our sun-bleached bones
And clothe them with living flesh.
We would be on the side of life
Against the forces of death.
We would be on the side of light
Against the forces of darkness.
We would blaze out in passionate living
Rather than suffocate in compromise;
We would light such a fire in the world
That the beacon might never be quenched.
Risen stranger on the road,
You have the life which knows no end.
As we share what we have with you,
We ask you to do the same for us.
In eating and drinking and dancing,
Give us a preview of the life to come.
Travel alongside us on the road,
And welcome us at last to your eternal home.
Amen.
(Mike Riddell. Parallel Universe Resurrection Service.1995)
5. Dividing and Multiplying
God of the impossible equation,
we are painfully aware of how little we have to give
and how great the demands upon us.
We are guilty of hoarding our meagre stockpile,
protecting it from others,
Consuming it in secrecy and silence.
The crowds are too many,
the people are too close,
the hunger is too much.
We turn away in pain,
because our resources are simply not enough
for all that is asked of us.
Help us in our poverty
to remember our brother Jesus
and the life he lived to teach us.
We remember what happened
when the wine ran out at the wedding,
and there was only water left.
We recall what he said
when the crowds were hungry
and the disciples had nothing to offer.
He said to them
with love and understanding:
“You give them something to eat.”
In the blessing and the breaking
and the sharing,
a miracle took place.
Lord, we offer you our lack,
that by dividing it with Jesus
it may somehow be multiplied.
Take us and use us
Bless us and break us
Hold us and share us
That by your grace we may become food for the world. Amen.
(Mike Riddell. Parallel Universe)
6. Inclusivity of Communion
Reading: Luke 5:27-32
As we come to the communion table this morning
I want to tell you that we’re all invited.
No exceptions.
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus would eat with anyone.
“What is he doing eating with crooks and sinners?” was the complaint,
and it wasn’t just the once that Jesus had this question leveled at him.
In Luke 15:1-2 we hear the same grumble,
‘By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.”’
The Pharisees didn’t approve of Jesus’ social life,
but it’s understandable when we consider that basically
the Pharisees were separatists.
Not exactly your mix and mingle types.
The Pharisees were sticklers for Leviticus 10:10,
‘You are to distinguish between the holy and the common,
and between the unclean and the clean.’
You can see then why Jesus would be a worry to them.
According to the Pharisees, salvation came through segregation.
The further you kept away from sinners the better off you were.
The only problem with such a concept is that it doesn’t cope with the evil within.
In contrast to the Pharisees,
Jesus was depicted as setting up a new principle:
Salvation by association.
Why did Jesus associate with Levi?
Because it is the sick who need the doctor.
Yes, inclusiveness, everybody is welcome,
that was Jesus’ motto, Jesus’ hallmark.
With Jesus Jews would eat with Gentiles,
saints with sinners and the clean with the unclean.
Friends, the scriptures tell us that Jesus came ‘eating and drinking…’
He ate with Pharisees and he also ate with tax collectors and sinners.
And as a consequence, the only conclusion I can come to
is that Jesus’ inclusiveness, his ‘everybody’s in’ sort of table fellowship,
ought to highlight the inclusive, everybody’s welcome philosophy
of the Christian church today.
Jesus ate with gentiles, prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners
as well as the blind, lame, maimed and poor.
And the fact that Jesus ate with all these people?
Surely it means that he will also eat with us.
(Source unknown)
7. Video loops
Last Temptation of Christ — the death scene.
The Piano – sinking with piano.
Big Night – fight on the beach and closing scene in the kitchen.
Jesus of Montreal – many useful scenes, use whatever scene suits the theme on the day.
Hurt – Johhny Cash music video.
8. Praying the Scriptures — used in place of sermon.
Ignatian Prayer
The leader introduced us to this form of praying the scriptures, and described some of her own experiences of using it.
Ignatius of Loyola’s (1491-1556) aim was to bring the reality of our daily lives into contact with the reality of a bible passage. The purpose of the prayer is to make a gospel story ‘come to life’ in the present time. The idea is that after reading the text, or while listening to the text being read, you visualise the story and imagine yourself within the events. Picture where you are standing, what you are seeing and hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting, and then in your imagination let a ‘scene’ unfold which may or may not play out in the same way as the biblical text. Sometimes you may be an onlooker, sometimes you may become a central participant in the action. Where is Jesus in relation to you… and what is he saying and doing? If there is something that attracts or challenges you, stay with it. Note your reactions, feelings, thoughts, and questions. Talk to Jesus about them.
After explaining the process, we were led into the meditation, using the biblical text she had chosen. We were invited to respond to Jesus in prayer and in the quietness, and to write down any gifts we received or struggles we had in the course of the meditation. Communion followed this meditation.
(Carolyn Hames)
Lectio Divina
This meditation takes place across four stages.
- Lectio (reading/hearing): what word or phrase or image attracts you?
- Meditatio (thinking/pondering): think about that word/phrase/image.
- Oratio (speaking/responding): how do you want to respond to what you sense God is saying to you? Prayer? Candle? Write? Draw?
- Contemplatio (listening in God’s presence): when your responding to God’s word has run its course, be still. Relax. Enjoy. Bask.
After being introduced to this form of meditation, we took some time to practice it using two different translations of Matthew 11: 28-30. We were encouraged to take the bread and wine of communion as part of our meditation, some time after points 3 and 4 above.
(Mark Pierson)
Imaginative Re-writing
We were given pieces of paper and a pen. The leader introduced us to the idea of this practice, which is to engage with a piece of scripture and then to re-write it in a way that brings out some aspects of the story that had struck us particularly. Two different methods were suggested:
- Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the scene. Notice what’s happening around you, what you think and feel about what is happening. Then write the story as though you were that person – either as a memory (journal) or a ‘present’ moment-by-moment reflection.
- Stay ‘outside’ the story and re-write it into a different setting or context – new environment, new era, new physical details, new characters, but with the same basic narrative shape or idea.
The leader read out the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke’s Gospel and then played music while the re-writing took place. Then we took communion.
Picking up some of the papers that had been left behind afterwards, it was interesting to note how many people had written themselves in as one of the passers-by on the side of the road, feeling too busy, stressed, and pressed for time to stop and help. This perhaps reflects some of the feelings of people in the congregation about the pace of their own lives and the implications of this pace. And it demonstrates one way that the meditation and writing can raise to consciousness issues that are present for people, that they might only partly be aware of.
(Brenda Stone)
Augustinian Meditation
This form of meditation on the scriptures is again intended to create an immediate relationship between reader and text, bypassing for the moment issues of context and historicity. The idea is to hear the words of the story as God’s words to us in relation to our present life circumstances. It is not a form of biblical interpretation, but rather a method to engage the imagination in the context of prayer, and to perhaps become aware of some things that God might want to bring to our attention.
The leader introduced the meditation and then read the story of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). There was then a period of silence as we reflected on the story. The leader had provided the following prompts in the newsletter to aid our meditation:
Do I need to give encouragement… or be encouraged and ‘take heart’?
Is there anything in my life that I need to throw off?
Is there something in my life that is causing me to be spiritually blind?
What is my response to Jesus’ question, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
The meditation was followed by communion.
(Carolyn Hames)
9. ‘American Beauty’ Communion
Read 1 Corinthians 11: 2, 3
Introduce and read text from ‘American Beauty’:
‘It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was like dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. for fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart is going to cave in.’ (Ricky Fitts, American Beauty, Directed by Sam Mendes, 1999)
Words: As you take bread and wine this morning, reflect on an experience you want to remember and be thankful for –
- maybe an experience of God, of the Holy Spirit active in the world or your life
- maybe an experience you didn’t recognise God in at the time, but do now and you need to remember that
- maybe just a good experience you’d like to hold on to.
The opposite of Ricky Fitts’ words is also true: sometimes it seems as if there is so much pain in the world, or in your world, that you feel you can’t take it, like your heart is going to cave in.
Either way… bring that to the communion table this morning. Remember your experience before God… light a candle as a symbol of your thankfulness or prayer.
Play looped video clip from American Beauty… the floating bag scene.
Communion servers go forward after the spoken words on the video.
(Mark Pierson)
10. Communion/Lozenge event
For one communion Sunday, the ‘praying the Scriptures’ technique of ‘the lozenge’ was used (a term coined by the Citysider who introduced us to the method). The idea is to take one verse only from the Bible, and roll it around in your mind over a long period of time (like one would a lozenge in the mouth), until it ‘dissolves’ to become a part of the make-up of your inner world. The verse chosen for this occasion was Zephaniah 3:17: ‘The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.’ (NIV trans.)
The leader read out this verse slowly and repeatedly (with long pauses) over a period of about 10 — 15 minutes. In the pauses, another member of the congregation played the cello. And, during this time period, two other people ‘painted in tongues’: a large piece of white paper (roughly 2mx3m) was attached to a board that was standing upright at the front of the space, with a collection of paints, glitter, glue, feathers, pastels, etc. in front of it. The two painters interpreted the text in an improvised composition as the reading took place.
After the lozenge, one of the painters became the leader of the next section, which was the preparation for communion.
She read out slowly Exodus 40:1-16, (Message version), which describes the setting up of the Tent of Meeting. As each section was read out, the lozenge leader, the cello player, and the other painter acted out the setting up of the ‘tent’ but bringing out utensils for communion instead of the tabernacle items.
At the words ‘curtain made of blue, purple and scarlet material’, the painting was lifted off the boards.
At ‘Bring the Table’, the communion table was brought out, and the painting draped on top of it.
At ‘plates and dishes of pure gold’, the trays of cups were placed on the table, and at ‘jugs for the pouring out of offerings,’ the goblet of port, and at ‘bread of the presence’ the plate with the bread.
At ‘golden lampstand,’ the candle was brought to the table and lit. At ‘gold altar of incense,’ an incense stick was brought out and lit.
At ‘bronze washbasin,’ a bowl of water was placed in front of the table and water poured into it, for handwashing.
At ‘take the Anointing Oil…’, the three people setting up took glitter and ‘anointed’ the table and elements.
At ‘bring Aaron and his children to the entrance…’, the three washed each other’s hands and stood at the table. The leader sprinkled them with glitter.
At ‘anoint them… so they may serve me as priests,’ the leader took glitter and sprinkled the rest of the congregation.
Then she handed the elements to each of the servers, saying as she did so the words of institution, and then invited the congregation to come and take communion.
(Andrew Rockell and Kristin Herman, with Natasha Hofmans-Sheard and Chris McKinlay)
11. Some short prayers and sentences:
Intro: (Light candle) It is time now for Communion, where we celebrate how Jesus Christ, in his living and dying and living again, has made possible a new life for all humanity, of unity with God and one another…
Prayer: Grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit these gifts of bread and wine may be to us Christ’s body and blood.
Words of Institution, then:
Come to the table, all you who hunger and thirst after God.
Eat and Drink.
Meet Christ here, and affirm his presence within you and each one of us, by the Holy Spirit.
Prayer after communion: Though we are many, we are one, because we all share the same bread. Unite us in our common love for Christ, a common purpose to know and be known by him, and release us to grow and serve you in the joy of our uniqueness and the strength of our friendship together. Amen.
(Brenda Stone)