Communion/Lord's Supper/Eucharist

[Melinda in VT]

Eastern Orthodox:

Wine with bread in it. Common cup, served by spoon. Partake every week we are prepared. Avoid during things like cycles and simply not prepared.

 

Can you explain the bolded part? I'm having a fuzzy-headed day, and I realize that I might be interpreting this incorrectly.

[Ellie]

I'm working my way up to the open mouth. :001_smile: There is a lot of talk about the old ways coming back into the Catholic Church and this is one of the things I am hearing about. No more hands because it takes away the meaning.

The Holy Father will only serve Communion on the tongue, with the recipient kneeling. :-) Receiving on the tongue and kneeling have never been prohibited, even though most churches no longer have communion rails. Some people still receive on the tongue at my parish, and some kneel, as well.

 

I don't know what it is with the new wafers, but they just don't dissolve like the old ones. I always end up chewing a bit to get it down before i get to the wine. :blush: Bad, I know.

I have never heard that you weren't supposed to chew.:001_huh: I'll have to ask the question tonight. :-)

[ktgrok]

Wine and wafer, every service (sundays and weekdays), the Real Presence. It's called the Eucharist or Holy Communion. There is a single chalice, which is always silver. The silver is antibacterial, and we use high alcohol content wine, so there is no risk of disease being shared. As many priests have pointed out you are MUCH more likely to catch something shaking hands during the peace.0

[Lovedtodeath]

Eastern Orthodox:

Wine with bread in it. Common cup, served by spoon. Partake every week we are prepared. Avoid during things like cycles and simply not prepared.

So is a wine soaked piece of bread what ends up on the spoon?

[ScoutTN]

Grape juice in tiny cups, small square oyster crackers, the Lord's Supper or Communion. Every Sunday.

[mommaduck]

So is a wine soaked piece of bread what ends up on the spoon?

 

Yes.

 

Can you explain the bolded part? I'm having a fuzzy-headed day, and I realize that I might be interpreting this incorrectly.

 

No, I'm sure you're interpreting it correctly ;) (avoiding communion during your monthly cycle) This is NOT because we're "unclean", but rather because communion is considered Holy and we don't want to be "expelling it" (even though scientifically this may not hold up, it's tradition. Some older people, will not take communion if they have a papercut or such).

[milovany]

.

Edited April 12, 2011 by milovaný

[Georgiana Daniels]

We do teensy crackers and white grape juice. Have yet to figure out why we use white grape juice. Lord's Supper or Communion.

 

I'm surprised that some churches use real wine (even though it's Biblical!) I guess I'm used to being around Christians who think wine is taboo (I come from a conservative background, though the church we attend today isn't necessarily so.)

[Caroline]

I grew up in a church that was both United Methodist and Presbyterian, USA. We had communion on the first Sunday of the month and Christmas Eve. We tore off a piece of bread from the loaf and dipped it in our choice of grape juice or wine. Everyone is welcome at the Lord's Supper.

[....]

I grew up in a church that was both United Methodist and Presbyterian, USA.

 

The same church?? :confused: That's wild. My son went to preschool at a Presbyterian church. They were the nicest people I've ever met. :001_smile: We actually cried in the parking lot at the end of the Pre-K year, saying good-bye to everybody.

[6packofun]

At our Baptist church we use grape juice and these gross Chicklet-looking, preformed, styrofoam-tasting bread things. Sorry, they are just icky and I'm sure the church thought they were doing a great thing by buying them in maga bulk but I'm ready to offer some alternative on my dime. I don't know if they think we should be sacrificing our tastebuds for this serious sacrament or what. Our old church used pita bread, cut into pieces and that was totally fine.

[Caroline]

The same church?? :confused: That's wild. My son went to preschool at a Presbyterian church. They were the nicest people I've ever met. :001_smile: We actually cried in the parking lot at the end of the Pre-K year, saying good-bye to everybody.

 

Yes, both in the same church. We would have a United Methodist minister for a few years and then switch to Presbyterian for a few years. I loved growing up in that church. I assume it is a unique situation. We also had folk music Sundays on fifth Sundays. I miss it.

[Joanne]

We do teensy crackers and white grape juice. Have yet to figure out why we use white grape juice. Lord's Supper or Communion.

 

I'm surprised that some churches use real wine (even though it's Biblical!) I guess I'm used to being around Christians who think wine is taboo (I come from a conservative background, though the church we attend today isn't necessarily so.)

 

The reason I don't do/like wine is that I can't take alcohol in any form (I'm recovering from alcoholism). I'm not against alcohol in general, though.

[Pax]

We're Quaker and we believe the whole of life to be sacramental. Friends do not consider the observance of the sacraments to be wrong, but they do regard participation in such an outward rite as unnecessary to genuine Christian discipleship or entry into the community of Christ's people.

We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and in communion with that Spirit. If the believer experiences such spiritual baptism and communion, then no rite or ritual is necessary; whereas, if the rite or ritual is observed without the inward transformation which these outward sacraments are intended to symbolize, then the observances become meaningless and hypocritical.

 

The Quaker ideal is to make every meal at every table a Lord's Supper. Again, the reality lies, not in the nature of the material substance, but in the way it stirs the heart of every partaker. We are called upon to remember Christ every time bread is broken. Friends use the words "baptism" and "communion" to describe the experience of Christ's presence and his ministry in worship. John the Baptist was pointing to this when he said: "I have baptized with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Worship reaches its goal when those who worship feel the baptism of the Spirit. Communion occurs when the worshiper communes with God and with those who are gathered in the Lord's name.

[Chris in VA]

Have I shared my "funny Communion story?"

 

Well here it is again--

 

True story--

 

Ronald Reagan went to church with Nancy. Not being familiar with the Communion routine at her church, he was nervous, so she said, Just do what I do. So, they went to the altar rail together. Priest came around, distributed the host (wafer). Nancy took by intinction, so she kept a hold on her host. Ronnie did the same, keeping a close eye on her and observing and following her lead carefully. Cup was offered to Nancy--Unfortunately, as she dipped her host, she dropped it into the Cup!

Bet you can guess what Ronnie did as the Cup came to him! :lol:

[chiguirre]

The Holy Father will only serve Communion on the tongue, with the recipient kneeling. :-) Receiving on the tongue and kneeling have never been prohibited, even though most churches no longer have communion rails. Some people still receive on the tongue at my parish, and some kneel, as well.

 

Hmmm, our parish is so big that it takes 10 minutes with a priest, deacon and 8 extraordinary ministers distributing Communion. If they went back to the communion rail and the priest putting the wafer on each person's tongue, we'd be there almost an hour just for the distribution of the Eucharist. Our parish has 7 weekend masses and there's no more space in the schedule to add any more.

 

I learned the "no chewing rule" in the 70s and dc have both been instructed that way for their First Holy Communion.

[Michele B]

The reason I don't do/like wine is that I can't take alcohol in any form (I'm recovering from alcoholism). I'm not against alcohol in general, though.

 

In a catholic church it is perfectly fine to receive in only "one kind." :001_smile: So if you needed to, you would just receive the bread. Or the wine if you could not have the bread. I don't think gluten-free is allowed in the Catholic Church.

[Joanne]

We're Quaker and we believe the whole of life to be sacramental. Friends do not consider the observance of the sacraments to be wrong, but they do regard participation in such an outward rite as unnecessary to genuine Christian discipleship or entry into the community of Christ's people.

We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and in communion with that Spirit. If the believer experiences such spiritual baptism and communion, then no rite or ritual is necessary; whereas, if the rite or ritual is observed without the inward transformation which these outward sacraments are intended to symbolize, then the observances become meaningless and hypocritical.

 

The Quaker ideal is to make every meal at every table a Lord's Supper. Again, the reality lies, not in the nature of the material substance, but in the way it stirs the heart of every partaker. We are called upon to remember Christ every time bread is broken. Friends use the words "baptism" and "communion" to describe the experience of Christ's presence and his ministry in worship. John the Baptist was pointing to this when he said: "I have baptized with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Worship reaches its goal when those who worship feel the baptism of the Spirit. Communion occurs when the worshiper communes with God and with those who are gathered in the Lord's name.

 

Love this. If I decide to be reborn as a Christian, I am going Quaker.

 

Except I can't wrap my brain around pacifism.

[justamouse]

Except I can't wrap my brain around pacifism.

 

Get out. Really? I thought that would be the easiest part for you.

[FrogMom5]

Wine. Wafer. At least every Sunday. Eucharist.

Denise

[KarenNC]

Presbyterian church where I grew up:

Communion, quarterly, homemade wine, oyster crackers, once in a while a loaf of Italian bread where one pulled a chunk off

trays passed around pews, people consumed as it came to them

 

Baptist church I attended in college:

don't remember what it was called, quarterly, grape juice, melba toast

trays passed around pews, but everyone waited and consumed together

 

Episcopal churches I joined later:

Eucharist, most services, port, wafers (the ones that are like rounds of typing paper) or homemade altar bread (from a monastery recipe)

went to the front, knelt and received from the priest

[ktgrok]

Hmmm, our parish is so big that it takes 10 minutes with a priest, deacon and 8 extraordinary ministers distributing Communion. If they went back to the communion rail and the priest putting the wafer on each person's tongue, we'd be there almost an hour just for the distribution of the Eucharist. Our parish has 7 weekend masses and there's no more space in the schedule to add any more.

 

I learned the "no chewing rule" in the 70s and dc have both been instructed that way for their First Holy Communion.

 

Episcopal Churches are smaller, so kneeling at thr rail is still done, although we also have a need for lay eucharistic ministers to speed it along. It does go more quickly than you would think. The shortage of priests would have to be solved, and more, smaller parishes created for it to work in the RC church I think.

[mrsrevmeg]

Wow. Why so rare?

 

 

I have no idea. One of many reasons that it is our former church.

[Cheryl in NM]

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Officially it's The Lord's Supper, casually referred to as Communion

We use wine, but offer grape juice for those with medical and addiction issues. We offer a communal cup as well as tiny cups.

We use wafers (in previous churches we've used homemade unleavened bread that the Pastor tore off a piece and handed each parishioner.) The wafer is handed to the parishioner, who then puts it in his/her mouth and we don't have rules about chewing/not chewing.

It is offered 1st & 3rd Sundays at the Liturgical service and 2nd & 4th Sundays at the Contemporary service, with none offered on a 5th Sunday.

Children are not allowed to partake until they have had religious instruction called Confirmation and that doesn't start until 7th or 8th grade in our church and lasts 1-2 years. At that time the child is confirming their baptism and taking responsibility for their own faith.

ETA: We line up at the front of the church, but some churches have kneeling rails. This is called The Table. Communion begins when everyone is lined up and ends with a blessing by the Pastor after everyone has finished. Our church is small so we usually only have 1, occasionally 2 Tables.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Cheryl in NM

[Xuzi]

LDS/Mormon

 

Bread & Water

 

Called the Sacrament

 

Served Weekly

 

It's one of the few times where you'll hear an LDS route prayer (the other time is Baptism). Our prayer for the bread and water are in our Scriptures (twice - once in the Book of Mormon, and again in the Doctrine and Covenants), and the Priests (16-18 y.o. boys ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, or an older man with the Melchezideic Priesthood if there aren't any young men in the congregation) who bless the Sacrament have to say it word. for. word. or the Bishop will ask them to say it again (they just look over to him when they're done, and he'll nod if they did it well, or shake their head if they need to repeat it).

 

It's passed to the congregation by the Deacons (12-13 year old boys), first the bread, then the water. The bread is broken into pieces during the Sacrament hymn that is sung before the prayers. The bread is blessed first, then passed to the congregation, then the water is blessed and passed. The trays are passed down the pews and you take one piece of bread, or one small cup of water per person.

 

It is the most sacred part of our Sunday services. The Chapel is very quiet during the administration of the Sacrament, and if your baby starts fussing you take them out, and a Deacon will bring a tray out to the foyer so you can still participate.

 

We consider it a renewal of the Covenants we make at Baptism, and a part of the repentence process. Through the prayers we ask that we may always remember Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit to be with us, that with His help we'll be able to keep His commandments.

[Diana B]

Wine & Unleavened Crackers - taken once a year on the Passover. And we call it Passover. Part of a very somber service baptized members take part in on the evening of Passover.

 

The cracker is passed around (already broken up) on a tray and the wine in little cups (very little) on a tray.

 

Would you mind saying what denomination this is? I haven't heard of this practice before.

 

I am a member of the United Church of God (one of many Church of God groups) - we don't really fall under a denomination. We keep a Fri Sundown to Sat Sundown Sabbath, the Holy Days that Christ kept, (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, etc). (But not SDA or Messianic Jew - our doctrines can differ quite a bit from those.)

 

Passover is this coming Sunday night. We will partake in the bread and wine after a foot washing ceremony. It's a very somber service for baptized members only (we baptize as adults - no babies /kids).

 

It's followed the next night with special family dinners to welcome in the Days of Unleavened Bread where we actually get rid of all the leavening in our homes for a week.

[jewellsmommy]

We are southern baptist. We have Lord's supper. It is always offered on Resurrection Sunday and Christmas Eve. The rest of the year is somewhat sporadic. We use grape juice and whole wheat unleavened flat type bread. The grape juice is in individual little cups. The bread is pre-broken into chunks.

[Georgiana Daniels]

The reason I don't do/like wine is that I can't take alcohol in any form (I'm recovering from alcoholism). I'm not against alcohol in general, though.

 

Ahh! That is a really going point. Perhaps the churches that opt for grape juice are being sensitive. Thanks for the input :)

[Georgiana Daniels]

We will partake in the bread and wine after a foot washing ceremony. It's a very somber service for baptized members only (we baptize as adults - no babies /kids).

 

 

 

We participated in a foot washing ceremony once, and it was a powerful experience.

[tntgoodwin]

Thanks everyone for sharing!

 

One question - what is "intinction"?

[jelbe5]

We are Lutheran. We commune every week. We use wafers and both wine and grape juice are available. We have two stations where you may commune by intinction. The Pastor gives out the wafer, then the recipient moves to the wine and dips the wafer in the wine, then puts it in the mouth. We have one kneeling station where the option of wine or grape juice is provided in tiny cups.

Edited April 12, 2011 by jelbe5

[Melinda in VT]

Thanks everyone for sharing!

 

One question - what is "intinction"?

 

Intinction is a method of taking communion in which you take your piece of bread and dip it in a chalice of juice or wine before eating it.

[Melinda in VT]

I am a member of the United Church of God (one of many Church of God groups) - we don't really fall under a denomination. We keep a Fri Sundown to Sat Sundown Sabbath, the Holy Days that Christ kept, (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, etc). (But not SDA or Messianic Jew - our doctrines can differ quite a bit from those.)

 

Passover is this coming Sunday night. We will partake in the bread and wine after a foot washing ceremony. It's a very somber service for baptized members only (we baptize as adults - no babies /kids).

 

It's followed the next night with special family dinners to welcome in the Days of Unleavened Bread where we actually get rid of all the leavening in our homes for a week.

 

Thanks! I learned something new. :001_smile:

[6packofun]

Look at this pretty, simple unleavened bread made by this blogger: http://mylittlekitchen.blogspot.com/2006/03/communion-bread.html

 

I love how she cuts it to make 40 pieces for people to tear off! Neat.

[edithcrawley]

United Methodist here. We use grape juice and a loaf, and use the intinction method (also known colloquially as "rip and dip"), and do communion on the first Sunday of the month. For a few months last winter we used the little oyster cracker things and thimble sized glasses to drink from (this was during the H1N1 scare). For the few GF folks in the congregation, they have crouton sized pieces of bread and the thimble shot glasses for them on a plate so they don't get contamination from the main chalices. (For a few months, they tried having everyone use a GF loaf, but after they saw the number of crumbs, they decided it wasn't worth it)

[6packofun]

Here is a nice link of unleavened bread recipes! http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/UB%20Bread%20Recipes.pdf

[Lovedtodeath]

Look at this pretty, simple unleavened bread made by this blogger: http://mylittlekitchen.blogspot.com/2006/03/communion-bread.html

 

I love how she cuts it to make 40 pieces for people to tear off! Neat.

Thanks for that link. Very cool.

[Diana B]

Here is a nice link of unleavened bread recipes! http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/UB%20Bread%20Recipes.pdf

 

I've made many of these before. Going a whole week on unleavened bread, I've tried just about all of them.

 

This link is actually from the Philadelphia Church - another 'Church of God' with similar beliefs as myself!

[Cinder]

We currently attend a non-denominational church where it's called communion. We use grape juice and those oyster cracker things. Communion service is held once a month.

[mcconnellboys]

Methodist off-shoot; grape juice in a small glass; wafer taken from a tray; partake at the end of each service, if we choose; we call it communion.

[ktgrok]

We participated in a foot washing ceremony once, and it was a powerful experience.

 

Agreed. The Episcopal Church does this the Thursday of Holy Week, and I have always found it very profound.