Clarification: I’m not saying that all Baptists have communion services, but that certainly some have regular communion services. As many Baptist churches do not have a hierarchy to which they report (they may be part of a denomination, but usually the denomination has little control over individual churches), there can be variation from church to church on communion practices.
Ummmm, no. At least not from what I was taught in the 1950s. According to the nuns, one’s milk bottle* had to be pure white in order to partake of the Body and (symbolic at the time) Blood of Christ; if one was in any other state, one was supposed to decline politely.
*Anyone who has been indoctrinated with the old Baltimore Catechism will recognize the symbolism. At least, it’s one of the images that I’ve never been able to purge.
As President Clinton said, “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” Communion is a mystery, and then every theologian spends the next twenty pages “explaining” it. Much has been made of the differences among the beliefs of the various denominations, but really I cannot see why they cannot see that it is a tempest in a teacup. “Your semantics do not match my semantics.” The Catholics concede that Jesus is the wine and the bread in a spiritual sense only, since the stuff tastes like wine and bread. The Methodists insists that it is only symbol but concede that the symbol is very deep and redemptive. Am I the only one who see these views converging? Why cannot the Christians get together on this?
Also of interest is the evolution of the practice. See Elaine Pagels “Beyond Belief”. In the Didache (extra-Biblical writings that predate the Gospels) there is a communion meal that does not include such a radical practice of eating the savior, so to speak. The early Christians chose the more radical tradition. Why? One answer is that they wanted to fully identify with the suffering of Jesus. If you read the Gospel accounts, you would be surprised to find this ceremony practiced rather than a foot washing.
Just to add to what’s been said before, I am pretty sure that nearly all Christian denominations practice communion. In particular, the LDS practice communion (though with bread and water rather than bread and wine, as do the JWs (although, if I understand the position correctly, not all witnesses are admitted to communion). I cannot say what the theological signficance of communion is for those denominations, but I’m willing to bet that they do consider it important.
The fact that some denominations practice it rarely doesn’t mean that they regard it as unimportant; on the contrary, as Poly has pointed out, that could indicate that they regard it as very important indeed, and that they approach it with great reverence.
It might be worth pointing out that, for most Christians, baptism is the primary *
individual* encounter with Christ, and communion is the primary communal encounter with Christ. And it is, of course, the communal dimension which makes a church a church, as opposed to a group of Christian individuals.
There can be a tension between emphasising the individual relationship with God and the communal relationship with God, and different denominations resolve this tension in different ways. At the risk of grossly over-simplifying, one of the salient characteristics of Protestantism is that it tends to put more emphasis on the individual dimension, and less on the communal dimension, than do Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This possibly partly explains why the Catholics and the Orthodox practice, and encourage, frequent communion, while at least some Protestant denominations do not.
There may be Christian groups – though I don’t know of any – which don’t practice communion at all, in any form, and reject the notion. If they exist at all, I would expect to find them emerging from the Protestant tradition. I somehow doubt that those groups would consider themselves churches, and I’m pretty sure that most other denominations would not consider them churches. In what I am happy (despite ftg’s reservations) to call mainstream Christian ecclesiology, if you don’t have people in communion with one another as well as with God, you don’t have a church. The frequent practice of communion may not be essential, but to be in communion is.
I’m not Baptist, but just wanted to chime in.
I attend a Lutheran church (it’s part of the ELCA - Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, but there’s also Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and Lutheran Church - Wisconsin Synod).
We have communion every week, and offer both wine and white grape juice. Most weeks we use the wafers, but the first Sunday of the month and certain holidays we use communion bread, baked by a church member. It’s a specific recipe they have to follow.
Kids are alllowed to take communion after they take a set of classes (3 classes) at about age 7 or 8, or when the parents feel they’re ready. First Communion is always on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. My son did it last spring, and just turned 8 this summer. For First Communion, the kids bake the communion bread.
I’ve heard that some churchs use grape juice and saltines, usually the ones that only celebrate communion a few times a year. Can anyone verify that?
Son of Man is used in the Book of Enoch to refer to the Messiah quite clearly. Enoch predates Jesus’s birth by a long shot.
Venial sins are those sins that are not serious enough to break communion with God; they are not required to be confessed. One can receive communion while having committed venial sins, simply because it is nigh-impossible to go even a single hour without committing one. Mortal sins are required to be confessed, and receiving communion while in a state of mortal sin is itself a mortal sin.
I was raised Presbyterian (no longer am), and we (and every other Presbyterian USA church that follows the rules, although I can’t vouch for those other wacky Presbyterian groups) had communion (aka “The Lord’s Supper”, but the terms were used interchangeably) once a month. While we did have confirmation (classes, etc, and a ceremony that was not a sacrament, of course) which I believe in some other Protestant churches may be your “first communion”, with us one started taking communion when one felt it was personally appropriate. Bread (leavened and quite tasty) and grape juice are passed around by elders after the “service” by the pastor, and the ceremony is symbolic.
For Christmas the current pastor does communion by intinction, which is fancy schmancy and smacks a bit of papism. 
I’ve been a few times, and I was favorably impressed by the little speech he gave before the communion service, making it clear that anybody should feel free to participate in the spirit of community, regardless of faith. I’m sure that’s just something he says for Christmas, though, when one can expect a few black sheep and visitors of other denominations and faiths. It’s pretty isolating when you go to a Catholic wedding or funeral or something and everybody but you goes up to take communion.
I am not aware of any Presbyterian group that does not hold communion services.
As has been said before (and I will repeat for clarification), the Catholic church teaches that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Jesus in a very real and physical sense. Even though it looks, tastes, and smells like bread and wine, it is physically very much the actual body and blood of Jesus. As in, the physical body of Jesus is really present on the alter and in the Tabernacle (where the Eucharist is placed after communion).
There are some (perhaps many) Catholics who would agree that the wine and bread are Jesus’ body in a spiritual sense only, but they do so in direct contradiction to the very strong teaching of the Church over almost 2000 years (along with the beliefs of the vast majority of the Church’s members over those years).
So really, the views aren’t converging at all (unless the Methodists are starting to incorporate validly ordained Catholic priests celebrating the Eucharist in their services).
Thanks to all that responded to my question regarding Baptists and other Protestants partaking of communion. I definitely learned something. I had no idea that it was so universal among non-Catholics.
I’m not sure what you find fancy-schmancy about intinction and why it smacks of papism. What do you mean? I’m just looking for an explanation, not flaming or anything.
We use intinction when we have the wafers - the pastor holds the tray of wafers, and gives you one (and says, “Zsofia, the Body of Christ, given for you”), then you move over one step to the assistant who has two chalices, one with wine and one with white grape juice, who says, “Zsofia, the Blood of Christ, shed for you” and you dip your wafer in the chalice of your choice and eat it.
When we use communion bread, you get a little cup and a chunk of bread.
Our pastor also invites everyone forward to participate, too. They ask that you wear a nametag (stickers are in the pews), so the communion servers can address you by name.
Actually, in the Latin (Roman) Rite, intinction is seriously discouraged. I have only encountered it among the Eastern Rite churches.
Which churches were they that didn’t serve communion? I’m surprised - I’d always assumed that communion and baptism were the near universal sacraments that almost everyone did.
The church I grew up in only had communion on the first Sunday of the month and on special occasions - the church I’m at now only does it 6 or 7 times/year…if someone was an infrequent attender, they might think that we don’t do it. But it’s simply not the focus of every service the way it is for Anglicans, Catholics, and the Orthodoxy.
Sorry, that was kind of a joke - I mean it’s not what they’re used to, all that getting up and walking up there and there’s a cup that isn’t plastic and all. I suppose the communion they’re accustomed to, which I grew up with, was a much more “private” affair - the bread and the little tray with the cups were passed around, while the congregation remains seated, and one partakes in quiet contemplation. There’s something vaugely Catholic in everybody’s mind (well, based on overheard conversation - everybody comes up and asks my mom because she’s widely known as an ex-Catholic) about getting up and getting it from the pastor, who says something to you. (Not “The body of Christ”, more like “Merry Christmas, haven’t seen you here in a while, you look great”). It’s less introspective and personal-between-you-and-God, in a way.
Oh, and my mom and I ribbed the pastor a bit about his “new papist ritual” when we went to dinner with him and his wife a few weeks after the first Christmas he did it, and he said he’d considered doing actual wine, and had asked the Session what they thought about it (and about maybe doing a communal cup, if it was alcohol) and was surprised to find how much it shocked them.
This is South Carolina. The first time my dad asked this guy over for dinner he hid all the liquor so he wouldn’t know we drink at home, and the pastor brought a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. :smack: