Over the last few years, several members of Grace have expressed the desire for Holy Communion every Sunday. Such a request is in harmony with:
- the practice of the early Christian Community, which observed the Sacrament every Lord’s Day;
- the practice of Luther and the Reformers, who restored the practice of every Sunday Communion after centuries of infrequent communion in the Roman Church;
- resolutions from our Synod in convention, which has encouraged congregations to consider “recovering” the Lord’s Supper in its services every Lord’s Day;
- the trend in churches today, which is toward a more frequent Communion practice.
Luther gave the following instruction to pastors regarding the Lord’s Supper:
“We should teach and preach in such a way that the people make themselves come [to the Lord’s Supper] without our law and just plain compel us pastors to administer the Sacrament to them.”
This is exactly what has been happening in our congregation, and I am thankful for it. As I have said in our cottage meetings, the request to receive the Sacrament every Lord’s Day has not come from me, but from our members. Every pastor should be so blessed as to have people who, on their own initiative, want the Sacrament more frequently.
The elders have discussed the matter of weekly Communion over a period of several years, we discussed it in Adult Sunday school a couple of years ago, we invited Rev. Ken Wieting, author of The Blessings of Weekly Communion, to address the topic last year in a Saturday evening session and in Adult Sunday School, and we are engaging in cottage meetings this summer to teach and to receive feedback.
In addition, this blog may be used by you to ask any question and provide any feedback you would like on the subject. Your comments and concern matter to me and the Board of Elders. You can also place writen questions in the Armstrong mailbox in the foyer or in the elder’s mailbox in the church office.
FYI: also attached are comments from Pastor Wieting dealing with the most common objections to weekly Communion and his responses.
We hope that the congregation can vote on the matter in the fall, and if you have any questions or concerns, please let me or an elder know.
Pastor John Armstrong
Do you have a question or comment regarding weekly Communion? Please take a few moments and share your thoughts.
I’m in full support of the idea. Very few opportunities are more important than partaking of this Holy meal as often as possible. Once every 7 days may not be enough for some, there’s private as well. Every-other week can make it easy to minimize one’s time at The Lord’s Table. I suppose there may be folks who don’t yet understand the impact having Holy Communion would have on their spiritual lives. I don’t question it. I want it!
Comment by Ricky Fitch — July 22, 2009 @ 2:36 am