A work of the people - Communion from scratch

We started January at Wesley Hall Crookes, as we do every month, with an all-age worship service, but this month it was slightly different in that it involved Communion as well. We have a team of people who take responsibility for planing all-age worship once a month, and in planning the service, we thought about how we could perhaps make the service a little different and more interactive, to involve the children as well as the adults who were there.

Instead of working round a pre-prepared liturgy we decided to build our own from scratch, working from the premise that the root of 'liturgy' is 'the work of the people'. So we came to the service with nothing concrete planned, other than a choice of songs to sing: no prayers, no bread and no 'wine'. We built the service from that.

The church benefits from having a reasonably flexible worship space, and we had arranged the room so that the Communion table was in the centre, with chairs arranged around it. Two projectors were set up so that words for songs and video clips could be seen by everyone.

We began with singing (after announcements and a brief explanation of what we were hoping would happen during our time together), after which we began to prepare the bread and 'wine' for later. Dough for the bread had been prepared earlier, and this was passed round the congregation for everyone to knead (having cleansed their hands). Then grapes were handed out, and everyone was invited to squeeze their grape into the chalice. Thus everyone present had contributed to the Body & Blood of Christ that we would share later: they had all (literally) had a hand in the communion. As we passed a bowl and towel around the congregation, so that hands could be washed, we reminded one another of the cleansing that is ours through the death & resurrection of Jesus that this meal signifies. The bread then disappeared to the oven to bake.

After another song, we divided the congregation into six groups with pointers for composing our prayer of thanksgiving for use later, focusing on Creation, the World, our Community, Family & Friends, the Gifts we all have, and God's gift to us of Jesus. We sang again, and then shared prayers for others as boxes with prayer pointers & requests were passed round the congregation, followed by the Lord's Prayer together.


After the offering had been received, and the bread, still hot from the oven, had been placed on the table, representatives from each group shared their portion of the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving. We then shared the Narrative of Institution through a video clip of the Last Supper from 'The Bible' TV mini-series, before the bread and 'wine' were shared around the congregation. One final song, reminding us of our place in God's family, before joining hands to share the Grace together.

O Bread of Life - a Communion Hymn for Easter

Preparing for worship on Easter Day I was looking for a hymn to lead us into Communion and couldn't find the right one. So I decided to try and put into words what I was looking for, and this is what I wrote.

Do please let me know what you think, and do feel free to use it if you wish. I simply ask that you acknowledge the source.

O Bread of Life, our hands are lying open

To share these tokens of your boundless love;

Your life-blood spilled; your body torn and broken:

The gift of life for us from heaven above.

O Word of Life, our ears are waiting, open

To hear your message spoken to our heart:

The great Good News of death’s dominion broken;

Of lives set free; of joy in every part.

Spirit of Life, our hearts are yearning, open

To feel the flame of love burning within.

Come, fill us now, renewing lives once broken:

The risen life of Christ in us begin.

© 2012 John L Simms

Tune: Intercessor [11.10.11.10]

Frustrations and joys

One of the things I love about my life as a Presbyter in the Methodist Church is its unpredictability. However much you try to be proactive and plan ahead, there's always something that crops up to take you by surprise and demands that you react in the moment.

One of the things that really frustrates me about my life as a Presbyter in the Methodist Church is its unpredictability. However much you try to be proactive and plan ahead, there's always something that crops up to take you by surprise and demands that you react in the moment.

I've just come though 'one of those weekends' -  a long weekend, really, because it all started on Thursday evening. Some background: I have responsibility for one church in Sheffield, but two congregations - we brought the two together under common governance and trusteeship in September 2010, and a large part of my work focus over the last 15 months or so has been on forging stronger links between these two Christian communities. In the past we have socialised and eaten together (always popular) and studied and shared fellowship together. Last Thursday saw the start of a short (4 weeks) course on faith-sharing - a course produced by the Methodist Church called 'Talking of God'. What frustrated, no, saddened me about was the numbers that turned out, particularly the numbers from one of the congregations (not the one where the meeting was held). Like the Great Banquet, there were many valid reasons for not being there, but after I'd put in so much work preparing for the evening I was a little disheartened.

Then there was Saturday morning. For the last few years one of the congregations has shared in an 'away day', where we can worship together, think, talk and pray about the state of and future direction of the church. This year I'd planned for it to be an opportunity for both congregations to share together - to talk about how we can better be one church on two sites. But again, the attendance from one congregation was minimal, and attendance overall was very disappointing (half those there disappeared at lunchtime too). Again the plans I'd made had to be shelved, and the productivity of the day was severely reduced. There was opportunity for us to pray together, which was positive and helpful, but I have to say that I came home thinking 'Why do I bother?'

On Sunday morning I was planned to lead worship with the congregation that had been conspicuous by their absence over the weekend. We presented JMA awards early on to those who had raised almost £600 for the World Church and Mission in Britain, and as the culmination of worship we shared Communion together. I'd decided to not use a set liturgy this week, but to pray ex tempore, and I have to say that it was one of the most moving Communions I've shared in for a while. God was so clearly present with us as we prayed and shared together, and a number of people commented after the service about how moving they had found it.

I'm glad sometimes that God continues to surprise us, and to meet us in our deepest need, in our frustrations, and in simple things like Bread and Wine.