The Community At Communion

THE COMMUNITY AT COMMUNION

I love it when a parishioner asks a question!! Jerry Nichols sent me an email recently when he noticed that Trinity had changed the schedule for Communion! Not only did Jerry impress me by wanting to know the reasons behind this decision – I was also impressed that somebody actually reads the newsletter!! So here is Jerry’s question and my response for this week’s blog!

QUESTION: I was curious as to why there is a rescheduling of Communion to only Holy Days.

ANSWER: History gives precedent to celebrating holy communion according to the church calendar – not the secular one. When the Protestants broke away from the “Mother church” they had to decide whether to keep communion on the “everytime basis” or go to another system. Some elected to keep communion the center of worship (Lutherans, Episcopalian, Anglican, Disciples of Christ, to name a few) – others elected to have the sermon/message/lesson as the center of worship (Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, etc.) For those churches, the decision arose “but then when do we celebrate communion?” The decision was different from denomination to denomination, but primarily those churches looked at the church calendar and celebrated communion on some schedule that recognized the “high” holy days (some are higher than others!). Members of the Anabaptist persuasion (Church of the Brethren, Mennonite, Baptist, etc.) chose to limit the celebration to only a few times a year in order to make it more meaningful – and for some, to include the FULL expression of Jesus’ command to serve one another by also embracing a feetwashing ceremony at the same time. Each group began to “tweak” the communion ritual to meet their own needs.

For instance, as a denomination the UCC says “everyone is invited to the Lord’s table.” However, that “everyone” generally refers only to baptized believers. In some churches, however, that rule is being relaxed – but it has not become the “standard practice” even in the UCC. (At Trinity, we make no distinction – EVERYONE is invited to celebrate communion – but Trinity may be unique as UCC churches go.

Other denominations have other rules: only those who are members of that denomination may partake or of that specific local church or only those in “good standing” which generally means that the person hasn’t been party to some “sinful” circumstance such as divorce, or they have regularly attended worship or confession or have supported the church financially. All of these can play a part in whether or not one is welcome at the Lord’s table!

It was also common practice for churches to record whether or not a parishioner took part in communion when it was offered. The historical records of our church include great books of carefully recorded dates and names of all of those who took communion every time it was offered. It was also a practice (and may still be practiced!) that when one visited a church other than ones own and took communion, that a card was sent back to your home church saying that communion had been offered and received by the parishioner on such and such a date! Then the record book could accurately show that detail. Why was this important? Because a non-communioning member could be stricken from the membership rolls and although that doesn’t sound like too big a deal today, there was a time when that eventuality struck fear into the hearts of believers! What if you died and you weren’t a member of a church? What if you died and you hadn’t had communion for weeks or months or even years? What would happen to your immortal soul? These are not questions that need to be answered for those of us who are today’s UCC where God’s grace is great enough for even the most wayward of us – but for some, these questions had eternal consequences – thus the record keeping!




As time passed and faith groups evolved and changed, some communion rituals became less rigid – others, more – and some changed the “schedule” based on circumstances other than biblical ones!

At Trinity in the mid-1990s when our current location was established (and at both of our founding churches for decades previous) the schedule was based on the church calendar – communion was celebrated at the juncture of the holy seasons of the church year and at the important “anniversaries” of iconic Christian events – Christmas Eve, Easter, Maundy Thursday to name a few. That means that communion is celebrated approximately 9-11 times a year, depending on the way the calendar falls and which holy days are recognized.

It was a fairly sure bet that attendance at a given worship service increased if communion was offered (remember all that recording keeping?) So some smart clergy and savvy church counsels looked at the budget and determined that if they ADDED communion on the first Sunday of every month in ADDITION to all those “holy days” – why, we could pick up more cash in the offering plate!! And that is exactly what Trinity did in the late 90’s when attendance was down and the church was experiencing some really severe problems.

Now I don’t know about you – but “more money” is a lousy reason to celebrate communion if you ask me!! Changing the communion schedule to those important days in the life of the church gives me (or any pastor) a “hook” to hang the communion on!! It gives us a REASON to be coming to the Lord’s table – which is meaningful, I think – rather than “it happens to be the first Sunday of February!” Now, to be fair, we have added a few communions where there are no holy days – one in the summer, for instance… but that’s because there is a long “dry spell” in the church calendar during the season of Pentecost.

So that’s the (long version) reason why we recently changed Trinity’s communion schedule! I’d love to answer any more questions (theological or not!) – so why not give me some ideas for future blogs!

Blessings,

Rev Nan

THE MOSES GENERATION MEETS THE JOSHUA GENERATION (or "How Could Your Pastor Be So Dumb!!)

Yesterday I held a meeting with four volunteers from the congregation who wanted to help craft some new music ministry at Trinity by publishing our revised "Trinity Song Book"... the "old" one was removed from the pews several months ago. As we discussed the music that we wanted in the new songbook -- we also discussed the kinds of music we sing during worship services.

Now, being a wise and thoughtful pastor --and wanting to incorporate ALL kinds of music in worship without alienating any one "group" -- I have been diligent in my choices to include music from our hymnal that are "traditional" AND more modern. What I have been avoiding (for the most part) were those really OLD hymns -- the ones that grandma and grandpa sang and that I've often referred to as "oldy moldy". I THOUGHT that by choosing "In the Bulb There is a Flower" over "The Old Rugged Cross" that I was hitting on ALL cylinders -- meeting EVERYONE'S needs -- a familiar tune with new words -- or an easy tune with more contemporary language.

Imagine my surprise when my group of musical "helpers" said that they really wanted to hear the hymns from "their past"!! Those "oldy moldy" hymns!! Now let me just say here that these folks are WAY younger than I am -- less than 40 in all cases (I'm guessing!) -- in some, less than 30! You could have knocked me over with a feather!! Sing those OLD hymns?? No way!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

Could it be I've missed the boat entirely on the kinds of music that my congregation wants? When I heard that these younger people -- some parents -- want their children to learn the songs and hymns from their parents' spiritual heritage, I was moved -- and surprised!!

When I've talked about bringing a "blended" musical program to our "blended" worship I've thought that meant all those great (newer) UCC hymns mixed with some contemporary music printed in the bulletin... and frankly, some of what I think is contemporary isn't contemparary at all!! I'm learning that too!! Now what I'm hearing is that some of those really traditional hymns are missed, even by some of the younger members of the congregation.

SO -- expect a wider margin between what is REALLY contemporary (a new songbook will be forthcoming with some of the newer contemporary Christian music) and what is REALLY traditional. Don't worry, we'll sing some of those great UCC hymns too -- but you'll be singing a few more of the older ones as well.

It's all in a day's work, I suppose -- this thing about learning and relearning what's important when people worship! As the congregational grows and changes we will ALL need to grow and change -- it's just that this change felt a little bit more like moving backward instead of moving forward -- but maybe it was because I was facing the wrong direction!

Blessings 00 and let me know what you think!