The main objections to weekly communion I have heard at my church (we currently do it every other week) are 1) “if we do it too often, it will become less meaningful” and 2) “we can’t afford it.” I don’t really buy either of these arguments. We hear the Word preached every Sunday but we don’t use this argument to say that we should have sermons every other week instead of weekly. As for the financial issue, I think this is just an excuse. If everyone in the congregation put a buck or two more in the offering plate every Sunday it wouldn’t be an issue. I hope to talk to my pastor about these things soon – thankfully he is not the one raising these objections. He is very much confessional but relatively new to the parish (a little more than a year).

We have two services on Sunday and alternate the Sacrament between the two. When there is a fifth Sunday the Lord’s Supper is given at both early and late service.
Last Easter we attempted to offer the Lord’s Supper at both services every week with the understanding that unless three was major opposition we would keep offering the Sacrament at both services after the Easter season.
Sadly, there was major opposition and we went back to alternating Sundays for distribution. After that, the old joke that if the Lord’s Supper was offered every week it wouldn’t be special anymore just wasn’t funny as it used to be.
A quick look at demographics showed that younger members seemed to be very receptive to the idea of receiving the Sacrament every service while the older members; not so much.

I’m very thankful to be in a congregation that offers the Sacrament on each Sunday. From the layman’s perspective, I could never figure out how a pastor could justify refusing the Sacrament to his members (at least those in good standing) that frequently. It seems very Pietistic to want to make it a “special” thing by offering it infrequently.

“The Blessings of Weekly Communion” is a great resource for studying this issue. My parish read through it in Adult Education class. At the moment we have Communion at least three Sundays out of four or four out of five when an additional Sunday falls in a particular month and I think my Pastor is gently trying to move the congregation towards every Sunday observance.

It is most assuredly our heritage as Lutherans.

Christine

Is bi-weekly Communion primarily a practice in larger congregations?

My perish alternates Holy Communion every other week for a given service. I always thought it was due to the fact that our average attendance was 900+ a week spread across four worship services. Since we only use individual Communion wine cups, it might be tedious and time consuming to offer Holy Communion every week. It’s not a good reason, but that’s the excuse I would expect to hear.

When I started in the ministry some 22 years ago, my first parish celebrated the Lord’s Supper only once a month. After a little while we began celebrating every other week. The same objections were made then — that the Lord’s Supper would become less special. What happened was surprising — though it should not have been — our weekly attendance actually increased on Communion Sundays. While I was never able to convince them of weekly celebrations of the Lord’s Supper that has always been my goal in the congregations I have served.

“if we do it too often, it will become less meaningful”

I’ve heard that, too – and have come to really appreciate the weekly sacrament in our own congregation. I’ve always thought about the “less meaningful” argument with two responses:

1) If we truly confess that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ, our bigger concern should be people clamoring for it daily. There’s nothing routine about the real presence.

2) Why is it that you don’t hear many Catholics telling us that the weekly Sacrament really isn’t “that special anymore”?

It is most assuredly our heritage as Lutherans.

There’s a difference between tradition and “tradition”, as it were – just because we did something in the 1950s doesn’t make it a good idea. I recall our pastor telling a story of when he began ministry and visiting shut-ins with communion he had to gently approach a topic that made him uncomfortable: following an older ‘tradition’ he would give the Sacrament, in response the communicant would write a check. While the shut-ins thought nothing of the practice, to him it felt a little too transactional.

It is most assuredly our heritage as Lutherans.

Chad, we do still have some remnants of pietism that came over with some Lutheran immigrants.

My mother’s congregation in East Prussia where she grew up also believed that frequent Communion would “take away” from the specialness of the Sacrament. However, after the battles of the Prussian Union where Reformed/Lutheran practice was blended by the state, I can understand how it happened.

As for Catholics, yes, they have the opportunity to receive at every Mass as long as they are “properly disposed”, i.e., not conscious of grave sin, having fasted for one hour and not being a party in an “irregular” marriage.

Also, if parish priests could get the ones who dash out the door right after receiving to stay for the whole liturgy, then I’d be impressed. We may be struggling to restore Word and Sacrament to the proper balance but so is Rome, in the other direction.

Thanks for the post! This is a topic that I, too, have been considering quite a bit, especially since I’ll be presenting a paper on “Encouraging Frequent Reception” at an upcoming conference. Among the various resources I’m studying, I just finished Wieting’s book myself and found it quite helpful as I prepare my paper.

Offering the Lord’s Supper more frequently was a challenge when I first came to serve here, but one that helped us all to grow in our understanding and appreciation of the Sacrament. Our congregation is of a regional nature and members travel up to 75 miles one way to get here on a Sunday. Often because of distance, weather, etc. many would attend regularly, but end up missing Communion services. So we had a practical reason for offering the Sacrament more often, besides all the priceless spiritual blessings that come with receiving the Sacrament. The two most common objections to more frequent offering of the Sacrament were, as mentioned, “It won’t be special anymore” and “Our practice of closed communion will scare visitors off if we offer it more”. So we offered a Bible study (repeated midweek) on the subject of the Sacrament, concluding with a lesson on what Scripture says about frequently receiving the Sacrament as well as a brief walk through church history. It was the best attended Bible study I’ve ever had in nearly 5 years of serving here. At the end of the study, I even had members come up to me and ask, “Pastor, if this is what we receive in the Lord’s Supper, why don’t we receive it every week?” We, then, surveyed the congregation and an increase in offerings from once a month to twice a month and on major festivals was approved. Perhaps someday we’ll get to a point where we can offer it weekly.

As to the objections, at this point, if we tried to return to offering the Sacrament only once a month, I can’t imagine what the backlash would be like now. So I don’t think there’s any worry about it not being “special”. At the same time, we’ve used our more frequent offerings of the Supper as teachable moments to emphasize the loving purpose in the practice of closed communion…and it hasn’t scared any visitors off yet.

So thanks again for the post! It’s well appreciated!

How very true! Communion every day would be even better! We only grow stronger in our faith as we read, hear, and study God’s Word and receive His Body and Blood – what can be more meaningful? What can be more important? What can be more comforting? Worship without communion is somehow not complete, or at least not as richly complete as it should be. If communicants are specifically taught what communion means and gives to us – perhaps there would be such a need for at least weekly communion that no church would be able to justify not offering it.

We have communion 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays as well as festival days (Christmas, Easter, etc.). There has been some discussion of every Sunday. The altar guild (of which I am a member) has some reservations because of the small size of our group (about 10) and the increased work involved. I don’t know that there is any big objection otherwise. The worship committee has discussed it with the pastor from time to time. Thanks for a great post – I’ll be sure our pastor sees it.

Last year I travelled alot and visited a score of congregations in various states. Anectdotally, I can say that there isn’t really a stereotypical congregation that does this bi-weekly communion. I ran into it pretty regularly regardless of the size of the congregation or the part of the country I was in.

Because of my experience, I add an additional arguement to the overwhelming list of reasons to bless the congregation with the supernatural benefits of regular (at least weekly) communion services:

You will have visiting LCMS members (especially military folk like myself) to your church periodically who have been far from home and far from the pastoral care of their home churches. There is no telling how long it has been since they had an opportunity to have the Lord’s Supper. They finally get a chance to attend a service within the synod so that they can receive the Lord’s body and blood and it happens to be your non-communion service. It is unfortunate and disappointing.

I’ve had congregations actually apologize to me as a visitor for not having communion during the only service that I could attend. They have good reason to be ashamed. It is a bad practice that deprives weary souls of God’s gifts for the sake of convenience or foolish human notions.

It appears to me that over the last few decades, weekly communion is becoming more and more common in the LCMS, and not just in the confessional/liturgical branch. This is why Page 5 seems now like such an oddity. Much of the opposition to weekly communion appears to come from older members defending the tradition that they are accustomed to, and they often have a hard time articulating their position.

As one who practices weekly communion, it is hard for me to imagine worship without the Eucharist as the centerpiece. On the occasional midweek vespers service that doesn’t include communion, I miss it.

It seems to me if the large number of people in your worship service is your excuse for sometimes eliminating Communion, then you would be better off splitting, planting, or joining more manageable congregations.

“Is there a good reason?” I’d say “yes, there might be.” That being “Pastoral Care”; trying to gently lead the congregation to such a point without them interpreting it as “being forced” or “we do it this way because pastor wants it done this way.” Dr. Wilhelm Petersen, (ELS) used to tell us of when he arrived at his first parish in northern Minnesota. Then, in good Norwegian fashion (and due in part to being served by circuit riders), the congregations communed 4x/year. After years of gentle but consistent teaching and leading, they were communing once/month by the time he left. So, while every Sunday/every worship service should be our goal, I don’t think we can automatically fault pastors/congregations who don’t reach it at the same time we do.

The local LCMS parish that I am most familiar with offers communion every Sunday but during alternate services. So, one Sunday communion is celebrated at the 9am service, the next Sunday it is at the 11 am service. I asked the pastor why this was, and he said it was a compromise between those who wanted communion every Sunday and those who wanted communion less frequently.

What struck me about that compromise, though, is that it would allow a Christian to pattern their church attendence so as to avoid communion entirely. Which would be weird, granted, but entirely possible.

When I was a teenager my aunt’s ELCA parish only had communion 4 times a year, then moved to once a month, then finally to every week. It was quite a transition for her to make, as I recall.

Personally, as a Catholic, I find the lack of eucharistic services in liturgical Protestant churches to be very strange. If one actually believes that the Lord is really present in the Eucharist, why wouldn’t there be a stampede towards frequent, weekly celebration of the sacrament?

Absolutely yes, I agree! As long as you have a pastor prepared to consecrate it, he should do so and give it to the people. Ap. 24 leaves no doubt.

And let us not forget the reference in the Lutheran Confessions of the apostolic practice of communion 3 yes that’s THREE times a week: Tappert p. 250 AP XXIV:8.

“I’ve been pondering … the quirky, ‘Service of Communion without Communion’ the infamous ‘page 5′ service of The Lutheran Hymnal…”

I don’t have a copy of SB&H (so I don’t know if it was included there, as well), but in my historical review of hymnals used by my parish as we prepared for the switch to LSB, I found that TLH was the ONLY hymnal to have the “dry mass” printed as a separate service. Like LSB, the other hymnals merely noted “if there is no Holy Communion, the service concludes with the Lord’s prayer and Benediction.” Because of this, “p. 5″ retained an odd rubric – standing for the Gospel reading in a non-eucharistic service. Now that we have gone to LSB, I have had to include this statement in our bulletin during the morning offices we use (Matins and Service of Prayer & Preaching): “Because standing for the Gospel has traditionally been connected with the eucharistic presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, the rubrics for this this service call for us to remain seated for all the readings, even those from the Gospels.”

We have the “full mass” twice a month. I have convinced the congregation, in service to those whose occupations require them to be away from the parish every other week, to have a “post-service order of communion” the other weeks. Those who desire to commune remain after the final hymn. When the liturgy is the truncated Divine Service, we go straight into the Liturgy of the Sacrament. When the liturgy is an office (Matins or Service of Prayer & Preaching), we use the Order of Corporate Confession & Absolution before the Liturgy of the Sacrament. I haven’t quite yet had the fortitude to use (or some would say I have had the wisdom to NOT use) the dismissal from one of the Eastern liturgies (I think it’s the Divine Liturgy of Gregory the Great?) that goes something along the lines of “depart all you unlearned and unwise… depart all you unrepentant and those who value salvation not…”

While we offer the sacrament weekly, there are some quarters where everyone’s schedule is in sync with the “full mass” Sundays, so we will go nearly three months without anyone staying after. My next step, I guess, is to not so subtly state (I guess my hints have been too subtle thus far) that PASTOR would like to receive this blessing each week, but if no one else is there, “private mass” is not a usual and ordinary practice in the church, so he must forego the gift unless someone will do him the favor of staying.

At my home congregation, the Lord’s Supper is offered at each Divine Service. When our early service has the Divine service, the late celebrates Matins. I know of some folks who simply attend back and forth as the Divine Service occurs so they can receive our Lord’s body and blood each week. fAlong with offering the Sacrament each Divine Service, both of my pastors faithfully preach regularly on the blessings our Lord gives in His Supper. This is quite the contrast from congregations where I have worshiped in the past.

In one place, several members overtly stated how, after receiving the Lord’s Supper once each month, they had gotten their”fill”. This saddened me, since they desired not to take full advantage of our Lord’s ongoing, free graciousness. He offers His body and blood through the hands of His called and ordained servants, our pastors. Thus receiving this “medicine of immortality” (quoting Polycarp), we proclaim our Lord’s self-giving death until He comes. (1 Cor. 11:26) Jesus always desires to give us all of Himself. And, how much Jesus do we need? As much of Himself as He Himself gives us for the remission of all our sins. After all, in His Church, “He daily and richly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers in Christ Jesus.” (SC,Creed, explanation of the second article.)

Oops. I meant “third article”.

First of all, if your church subscribes to the Confessions because they are the correct exposition of the Word of God, then having the Eucharist every Sunday is the correct practice!

Secondly, the 70′s called and they would like their “clown mass” back! A priest on EWTN was talking about this going on in the wake of Vatican II back in the day, stating that things have come a long way since then.

Apparently not. Please, no more clown masses.

I can’t think of a single good reason not to offer Communion every Sunday just like the AC proudly says we do as evidence that our churches are not some new church or cult.

In the Preface to the LC — so often left out of printings of the LC — Luther says that if the Sacrament were properly taught the parishioners themselves would be demanding it of their pastors, without any external compulsion such as rules from Rome.

I suspect the original idea of not having Communion every Sunday was exactly that, to demonstrate that we do not take orders from Rome, and even Luther laments in the same Preface that now that the tyranny of the pope is abolished people despise the Sacrament. Even as he makes it clear that this is no way to make that point.

As to it being less special if taken too often, Rome itself contended with that centuries ago, and it got to be so “special” that even though Communion is offered at every Mass Rome had to make a rule which still stands, called the Easter Duty, to TAKE Communion at least once a year, anywhere between the First Sunday in Lent and Trinity Sunday.

So, even if your only goal is to be NOT Roman, the way to do that is to press your pastor for Sunday Communion and want of yourself to go!

The title of Page 5 is “The Order of Morning Service Without Communion” and IMHO works just fine as an order of morning service without Communion but not disjunct from, so to speak, the order of morning service with Communion. I would find a service book with five Divine Service “settings”, some in with and without Communion form, some not, two calendars, two lectionaries, Matins and Morning Prayer, Vespers and Evening Prayer, and a Prayer and Preaching Service to boot, considerably quirkier.

Christine:
“However, after the battles of the Prussian Union where Reformed/Lutheran practice was blended by the state, I can understand how it happened.”

I’m not sure what the “reformed” practice is; I’m not reformed. But I have studied Calvin who argued initially for daily Eucharist and affirmed (ironically, I say) to the end of his life that abuse of the eucharist would lead inevitably to its infrequent observance.
Here’s one classical reformed church who observes the Lord’s Supper weekly: http://www.refchurchbluebell.com/

Past Elder, I wonder what Dr. Luther would say to people that are offered the Sacrament every service but demand that the pastor pull back to alternating between early and late. I suspect He would be none too happy and maybe even a bit angry.

There is a bigger issue here, which the stubbornness and disobedience that some of us Lutheran laypeople show toward the pastors whom we have called.

I certainly understand a gradual process of teaching, preaching and acclimating a congregation to more frequent communion. However, at some point, Christians need to submit to Godly teaching and leadership on these points, and set aside their own habits and opinions.

I sense a part of this problem is that some older congregants are unwilling to follow a younger pastor. This problem is addressed directly in the Epistles.

The one good reason I can think of for less-than-weekly communion is that the congregation is served by a circuit rider. This is also the only good reason I can think of for lay-led worship. Even when this situation exists, it should be a transitional step until a congregation is able to call a full-time pastor.

Dear Marinus,

The differences between Lutheran and Reformed Christians in Europe go deeper than whether or not Communion is celebrated weekly.

You might want to do a little research on the Prussian Union yourself as it would take up too much space here to post the information or perhaps take a look at the information that Pastor McCain has right here on his site regading Reformed Christianity.

Lutherans who left Europe sacrificed much to come here in order to be able to practice their faith. Our views on Holy Communion are rooted in the western catholic tradition and are at variance with the teachings of Calvin on some very important points.

Christine

Hey Frank! (I know there’s a “reply” function, but I like reading comments in order commented.) In the Middle Ages it was custom but not church law to go to Communion three times a year: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Otherwise one “heard” Mass, a phrase that was still common in my younger days and still heard to0day once on a while — you go from Take and Eat, Take and Drink, to hear, just be present while the right stuff is done. It was the Fourth Lateran Council (had they been as enlightened as we, it would have been called Lateran IV!) in 1215 that enacted the law that one had to go to Communion at least once a year (canon 21). Trent hadn’t happened yet. So it’s in this background that Luther in the same Preface has to argue for AT LEAST four times a year. Every other Sunday is at least some progress, but as to what Luther would say about those who think we don’t need it often, he did have something to say in the Preface and in no uncertain terms. To-day he’s probably be told to quit breaking the 8th Commandment. It cracks me up that in our single volume LC we put the Preface in the Appendix and describe it as addressing the issues of his day. Well it did, but at the same time, the thing is so timely it could have been written earlier this morning!

@Michael Mohr
The SB&H has the provision “If there is no communion….”

Dear Christine,
Thanks for the helpful information. I’m well aware of the compromises required to form the Unionist churches. I’m also well aware of the fact that early American Lutheranism had its “crypto-Calvinists”. But there are crypto-Lutherans in the reformed church as well. It is interesting to note that the editor of the “Lutheran Observer” in the mid 19th century could accuse a leading Reformed Pastor (John Williamson Nevin) of “exploded superstition, semi-Romanism, and equal to Puseyism; it was mystical, confused and carnal” in reference to his summary of Calvin’s Eucharist. Believe what you will about Calvin, the caro vivifica stood at the centre of Calvin’s eucharistic theology: “….The integrity of the Sacrament, which the whole world cannot violate, lies in this: that the flesh and blood of Christ are no less truly given to the unworthy than to [believers]“. Thus Calvin in “De la Cene, 4.17.33(2:1406-7. I’m surprised the modern reformed haven’t condemned Calvin as heretical. Here, he even contradicts Augustine and stands with St.Paul and Luther by saying that even the unbelievers receive Christ’s truly divine and corporeal body and blood which carry forward in the Supper with full objective force. Augustine believed “he who believes has already eaten” and “unbelievers receive only the sign”. That modern “calvinists” are not in lock-step with Calvin is no concern to me; I’m after all a Lutheran, I’m only quibbling, I suppose, with your rather broad strokes on Calvinism.
Grace and Peace.

That “confession” was written to appease the Zwinglians and was (even by Calvin)admitted to be an abject failure. We Lutherans can be forgiven for seeing nothing but the confusion caused by Calvin and the outright sacramentarianism of his followers, but there is reason enough to believe that he himself had changed his mind by the end of his life and embraced, perhaps grudgingly, Lutheran eucharistic theology as his own…

McCain: Calvin was consistently anti-Lutheran on the issue of the Supper his entire life and career. I’m not sure where you are obtaining your understanding of Calvin’s position on the Eucharist, but it is incorrect. See Sasse’s THIS IS MY BODY for more information.

@ptmccain
And here I am thinking, “It’s a joke, right? Just a joke (don’t click the link . . . don’t click the link . . .).” I clicked the link. My head hurts.

My only response is, never say the words, “Next thing you know, you people will start having an {insert ludicrous gimmick here} Mass.” Because the next thing you know, somebody will try it.

The same thing probably happened with the Pirate Mass: http://bit.ly/N4KpS

@Barry
Thanks, Barry. I couldn’t remember which it was. Thanks for looking that up.

Wow. Many interesting comments, most of which I agree with, but not one reflects my concern. We celebrate the Holy Supper every Sunday, but at alternating services, except on major feast days (such as Easter) when we do so at both. If all services were Divine Service, I (and, I hope, many others) would really miss singing Matins. It is (in LSB, as it was in TLH) a very beautiful service. If we lived in a monastery, we could sing Matins 6 days a week, but we don’t. Therefore, I hope we continue to sing Matins at one service on most Sundays! I would hope that smaller churches with only one service would not lose the opportunity to sing Matins entirely.

We have the Eucharist EVERY Sunday at EVERY service as well as every Wednesday night (except during Lent and Advent – need to ask my pastor why on that, haven’t figured that out yet). Although we do miss Matins, I love receiving the Supper every week and not having to change services to do it. We did that in Fort Wayne and I hated having to go to another service if I desired to receive communion. I have even seen churches offering it at different services and different locations (more than one worship site). Not sure how anyone can keep that straight.

Whereas I love Matins and Vespers and also Morning and Evening Prayer and Compline, those services are Prayer Offices and not THE Divine Service. I want my congregation to be able to sing these services as easily as exhaling because they are a gift for all Christians, not just relegated to monasteries. See CPH’s new Treasury of Daily Prayer. That said, and remember I love to sing the Prayer offices, I could never feel good about standing in the way of the Real Presence of our Lord in the Divine Service.

At our congregation, we have the Divine Service every Lord’s Day and Major Feast, including Epiphany and Ascension. We also have Morning Prayer or Matins every Weds at 9:30a and during Lent, Vespers and Advent, Evening Prayer. Not nearly frequently enough, but offered. I have toyed with the idea of offering Vespers in the late afternoon before evening Scripture Study on Weds. But, that is as far as I’ve gotten.

I found that once I learned the Prayer Offices, they were a joy to use as devotions both personal and family and lend a richness of expression to even daily thoughts of prayer to our Lord. It doesn’t help that at our district functions we use such foreign forms of prayer and devotion rather than taking the opportunity too pray together.