Move towards weekly communion

Submitted by Dave Lewis, pastor, United Presbyterian Church of Shawnee, Oklahoma

We are easing people into the idea of weekly communion. We began this process by celebrating communion through all of Eastertide of last year. We will celebrate communion all of Advent this year. In this way we hope to make the transition less painful for our holdouts.

We also have begun leading the entire worship service from the communion table, including the sermon. The pulpit is only used for the lay liturgist. Everything else in the service is led from the table.

We placed our font at the back of the sanctuary in a direct line with the table. This symbolizes for us that we live our lives between these two sacraments. We also open the font in worship and people are free to dip their finger in the water and mark the cross on their head as a baptismal reminder. Having the font in the back of the church allows us to gather around it during baptisms. We then dismiss the church from the font as a reminder that baptism sends us out into the world.

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