The Eucharist is an Act of the Whole Church
I asked my District Superintendent to identify local United Methodist churches which celebrate Holy Communion every Lord’s Day as John Wesley expected and as our General Conference encourages. The best that she could offer is a UMC congregation that “serves” communion in a "brief" activity in a different part of the campus between its two principal "worship" activities. Communion is literally a footnote in the weekly order of worship, wedged into the schedule, for those who might want that kind of thing. No thanks. What this congregation is offering is communion as a option in the church’s cafeteria of activities, communion as one of its many services to religious consumers, communion as a private means of personal spiritual enrichment, communion in a closet out of sight of the larger congregation. This totally misses the meaning of Holy Communion and misleads the congregation on the nature of the sacrament. In 2004, The United Methodist Church adopted Thi...