A Community Led Communion Liturgy
This communion liturgy is based on words from Scripture in John and the Wisdom of Solomon. This liturgy is to be led by the community, inviting the Holy Spirit to work through the priesthood of all believers. The cup and bread are passed beginning one person before the first reader, the cup and bread follow the leaders as the liturgy is passed and read around the circle of community. This liturgy is unlike other communion liturgies so some training on behalf of the participants may be necessary until this format becomes familiar.
Communion
Each believer should take turns reading the part of the leader throughout the liturgy, the liturgy should be passed around like the cup and the bread.
In everything, O God, you have exalted and glorified your people,
All: you have not neglected to help us at all times and in all places.[1]
You gave your people the food of angels, and without their toil, you supplied them from heaven bread to eat…Your sustenance manifested your sweetness toward your children.[2]
All: Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and yet delivered they still died.
Pass
Christ I am the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. The living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.[3]
All: Holy Holy Holy is Christ and the works of the Triune God
Pass
Christ’s flesh and blood was given for the life of the world. Christ’s Spirit was given for the life of the world and ascended to heaven. On the first day of the week, in the dark, Mary exclaimed “I have seen the Lord.”[4] Christ in flesh and spirit overcame the world and death in resurrection. Jesus bid all believers peace and mandated “as the Father sent me, so I send you.”[5]
Believers pass the peace to each member, embraces, handshakes, encouraging words should be said among all
Pass
In remembrance, just as Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them [6] we break bread together.
All: Together we answer our call.
(Believers break the bread and pass it along the table, each serving the next, the newly baptized should be the first to take communion)
All: Amen
Pass
Christ taught us: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.[7] We abide together in Christ and remember his sacrifice. Wine is the very life to human beings, [8]
All: We seek the cup that endures for eternal life, which you have given to us.[9]
(Believers pass the cup and drink or dip the bread in the wine, each serving the next)
All: Amen
Pass
God in heaven, you are kind and true, patient, and ruling all things in mercy. For even when we sin we are yours, knowing your power; but we will not sin because we know that you acknowledge us as yours. For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality. Christ’s sacrifice of body and blood, changed into all forms of mercy, serving an all-nourishing bounty, so that your children, whom you loved, O God, might learn that it is not the production of crops that feeds humankind but that your word sustains those who trust in you.[10]
All: We trust in the sustenance of your word.
(Believers reach to touch the bible, sharing a few among themselves, pausing to include their neighbors)
Pass
Your immortal Spirit is in all things. The Spirit hastens to make themselves known to those who desire.[11] Thus corrects little by little those who trespass, and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin, so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O God.[12]
All: Make us holy, able to observe holy things in holiness.[13]
Just as Christ was sent into the world, so Christ has sent us into the world. Christ sanctified for us, so that we also may be sanctified in truth. Sanctified for us and all those who will believe through our witness, a pureness that pervades all things.[14]
All: May we all be one, sanctified in our witness.
(Believers join hands around the common table)
Pass
As God in heaven is in Christ, and Christ in the Spirit, may all believers also be in the Triune, a reflection of eternal light and life, a spotless mirror of the workings of the Triune God, and an image of God’s goodness. The glory of God in heaven given to Christ, was given to us through the Spirit, One Triune God, who can do all things while remaining in one God, renews all things. In every generation the Triune passes into holy souls, making them friends of God and prophets. The Triune reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well.[15]
All: In God’s glory and righteousness, in one voice, let us praise the Triune God.
Alleluia. Alleuia. Alleiua.
(Believers, as they are able, raise hands, still joined in praise)
[1] Wisdom of Solomon 19:22
[2] Wisdom of Solomon 16:20-21
[3] John 6:49-51
[4] John 20:18
[5] John 20:21
[6] John 6:11-12
[7] John 6:53-58
[8] Sirach 31:27
[9] John 6:26-27
[10] Wisdom 16:x-26
[11] Wisdom 6:13
[12] Wisdom 12:1-2
[13] Wisdom 6:10
[14] Wisdom 7:24
[15] Wisdom 7
