Part 1

The meaning of the name 'Holy Communion'.

Depending on which part of the Christian Church you belong to, the Communion is also called "The Lord's Supper" or "The Eucharist" ( which means "Thanksgiving"); or, if you are Eastern Orthodox, "The Holy Liturgy"; or (if you are a Roman Catholic ) "The Mass" (a word based on the ancient ending of the service; or, (more rarely) "The Holy Mysteries" ( a name I love because it originally meant, 'Something which you do not know by ordinary thinking, but which God reveals to those who seek him'.)

My comments will be based on the modern Church of England (which I shall call "C of E") service as seen in a prayer book called "Common Worship", (meaning, worship shared in common with everybody in the C of E).

So what should come into your mind when you see the words "Holy Communion" ?

An ordinary dictionary helps:

Mine says that 'HOLY' means: belonging to, or devoted to God. It says that to 'COMMUNE' is to converse together intimately; or, to have a deep and close spiritual relationship.

This all means, therefore, that Holy Communion is a special way of having close contact with God himself.

How the service of Holy Communion was put together.

Why is it set out like it is?

The example which Jesus set us was to attend the local synagogue (Jewish place of worship) once a week, and to go to the temple in Jerusalem for the big festivals (e.g. The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple).

At the meal which Jesus shared with his disciples before he was taken prisoner and crucified, he broke bread (flat, round biscuity bread) and blessed a special cup of wine and water, said two strange things about them. When he broke the bread he said "This is my body": and when he gave them the wine cup he said "This is my blood". Then he gave one of the very few instructions or commands that he gave them and us: "Do this in memory of me".

The very first Christians carried out both these things which Jesus did.

1. They attended synagogue services.
2. They met in homes to break bread and share a special cup of wine.

The majority of Jews did not believe that Jesus was the special king (which they called The Messiah or The Christ) foretold by the prophets, and they put Christians out of the synagogues.

About this time many non-Jews (whom the Jews called Gentiles - they believed in the Jewish faith but were born outside Israel/Palestine) became Christians. These people had been brought up to attend synagogues, but of course shared the fate of the Jews who also became Christians, and were expelled from the synagogues.

So the Christians had nowhere to meet except in each others' houses.

Here they had a service like the synagogue services - prayers, hymns (which were Psalms from the Old Testament), readings from Scripture and a sermon, with a collection (almsgiving). Then they went on to do what Jesus commanded with bread and wine, often within the context of a meal.

So, if you lived in about 50 AD (not much over 20 years after Jesus rose from the dead), and wanted to meet the Christians in any town, you had to find out where they gathered for "The Breaking of Bread" (as they called it) and then go to the appropriate house.

At first the Bible Readings were only from the Old Testament. This was because Jesus put nothing in writing and nobody had written any of the New Testament.

To answer the problems and questions of these first Christians, people like Paul, Peter, James and John sometimes wrote quite long letters explaining things. The most important of them were normally read out to assembled Christians and often copies were made and passed from house-church to house-church. These letters are called the 'Epistles' (meaning 'Letters') and are found in the New Testament section of the Bible.

Six or more people wrote down some of their memories of what Jesus did and said.

Eventually four of them were widely accepted as reliable and became known as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and extracts were read at Christian services. (You will find these at the beginning of the New Testament, before the Epistles).

We can now understand that the modern Communion service is really two services together:

1. The readings, hymns, sermon and prayers are like the synagogue service:

2. The taking of bread and wine in obedience to the command given by Jesus at his last supper, when he said, "Do this".

The general outline or format of the service contains similar elements to other denominations, whether you are Methodist, Roman Catholic or belong to many other varieties of Church, although the way things are done and the style of worship can seem very different.

The Holy Communion is a simple but wonderful way of drawing close to God and to our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, and of receiving strength and help for our daily lives.