The Reformed Christian Approach to the Lord's Supper

The celebration of the Lord's Supper has been a key part of the worship life of the Presbyterian Church and the larger Reformed branch of Christianity since the earliest days of the Reformation. For almost 500 years, a group of Christians have adhered to the theology of French-Swiss reformer John Calvin and worshipped God largely in keeping with the tenets he set down in the 1500s. Central to the Reformed manner of worship is a respect and a desire for both "Word and Sacrament." While the word - both the proclaiming and the expounding upon the words of the Holy Scriptures - have always been a part of virtually every Reformed worship service through the centuries, the practice of marking the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper has varied greatly in frequency since the days of Calvin

Today, the majority of American Presbyterian churches celebrate Holy Communion on a monthly schedule, often on the first Sunday of the month. Is this adequate and right for today's church?

Calvin, writing in his famous "Institutes of Christian Faith," clearly advocated for the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper: "The Lord's Table should be spread at least once a week for the assembly of Christians and the promises in it should feed us spiritually." At the time of the Reformation, the practice of the Roman Catholic Church was a Holy Communion that was served infrequently at best, sometimes even less often than once per year and then only the officiating priest would receive the cup, while the congregants were served only the bread. Calvin called such practice "a most evident contrivance of the devil."

While Calvin was a key influencer of the Reformed tradition, his was not the only early voice that was honored. Overseeing the worship practices of the local church, the Geneva (Switzerland) Town Council - where Calvin was based -- never adopted Calvin's plan for weekly communion, but instead sided with Ulrich Zwingli, a Calvin contemporary and another giant of the Reformation movement, in determining the frequency of the Sacrament. Zwingli took a strictly memorial view of the Sacrament. According to Zwingli, by eating the bread and drinking from the cup, we are indeed remembering what Christ did in his final days - but that is all that is happening, a very special remembrance. That being the case, Zwingli saw a quarterly observance as being adequate. This was the schedule adopted in Geneva during Calvin's tenure and this was the schedule that made its way to Scotland, from which much of American Presbyterianism sprang.

Even though Scottish churchman John Knox wrote in favor of monthly observance of Holy Communion in his 1556 work "Order of Geneva," once again a council decision overruled the desires of one of history's most famed theologians. The "First Book of Discipline," adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1629 advised quarterly observances of Holy Communion in churches in the towns of Scotland and only twice per year in the rural areas. By the 18^th century, Scottish Holy Communion practice was down to an annual observance due in part to a distrust of church hierarchy, poverty and famine that made bread sometimes scarce and a lack of qualified ordained ministers to celebrate and oversee the Sacrament. Due to the infrequent nature of the celebration of Holy Communion, those times when it was celebrated came to take on the nature of a special festival that involved more than a single morning's worship service. Soon, fast days, preparatory services and similar events were created to correspond with the annual celebration of communion. It was as part of this celebration, that the use of "Communion tokens" came into wide use in the Scottish church. During a preparatory service of some type, church ministers or elders would "examine" church members and ensure that they were truly ready in body, mind and spirit to celebrate the Sacrament, then issuing congregants a token that would need to be presented during the service to receive Holy Communion. These tokens even became a treasured part of the Holy Communion ritual for a time, as the token would often be specially struck coins of lead or other metal that would feature the name of the church, the year and the initials of the presiding minister.

In the United States, the practice of yearly communion gradually gave way to a return to the quarterly frequency, particularly as the 19^th century progressed and the issue of a shortage of Presbyterian ministers was less of an issue. By the early years of the 20^th century, the constitutions of the largest northern and southern branches of Presbyterianism both called for "regular" celebration of Holy Communion, to be held at least quarterly. The exact schedule was left up to the local session. By contrast, the smaller Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a denomination that broke away from the larger Presbyterian groups in 1936, gives the local session even more latitude. The OPC's Directory For Worship describes Holy Communion as an "occasional" element of worship, but instructs the local churches to celebrate it "frequently" and gives no mandatory minimum schedule. OPC churches now follow a combination of quarterly, bimonthly or monthly celebrations.

As the 20^th century wore on, a theological shift began to take place within Presbyterianism. Communion tokens fell from regular use as communion began to be celebrated more frequently as "clergy and elders viewed communion as a means of grace, as opposed to a reward for knowledge and good behavior," according to the Presbyterian Heritage Center. It was this same theological view with further fueled the move toward monthly celebration in the majority of PC(USA) churches, even though the Book of Order still requires only "frequent" celebration of the Sacrament, to be held no less than quarterly.

Over the past 500 years, the positions, practices and even the theology of Holy Communion has changed, evolved and, in some cases come full circle. The Sacrament never really was the weekly observance called for by Calvin but the pattern of annual celebration proved to be too extreme. As we watch the pendulum swing back and forth, Presbyterians are left with the question of what is right for us now, here and in this time?

According to Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24 and other passages that relate the Last Supper story, we are to celebrate Holy Communion as a means to "remember" Christ. Calvin stressed this "remembrance" aspect of the meal.

As any Sunday School student who has ever struggled to master his or her weekly Bible memory verse knows, frequent repetition has long been understood as an important mnemonic device. Simple, repeated activity may indeed be the best way to remember simple facts and figures, but it is not the best way to remember something complex. The rhyme "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" helps us to remember the date of Columbus' first voyage, but does not do much to help a person work through the larger socio-cultural changes that resulted from the voyages of Columbus and others. To understand the complexities of something as important to us as Holy Communion, it is best to utilize what psychologists refer to as "spaced repetition,"

In church, what creates "spaced repetition?" Given that most people in most churches attend worship no more than once a week - and sometimes even that seems to be a stretch! - it would seem that there would need to be an interval of one or more worship services where Holy Communion is not celebrated in order to create the "space" needed between repetition. The themes of salvation, sacrifice and love still are addressed in other worship services, but the "remembrance" act needs to be spaced out, to allow a person time to reflect and digest the meaning attached to the memory. If spaced repetition creates the most effective memory and understanding of complex ideas and concepts, then a monthly observation of the Sacrament sounds about right. A weekly celebration would not allow fully for that space needed for reflection and the introduction of other, related and supporting ideas. A quarterly or even annual celebration would not provide the needed level of repetition to keep the concept fresh and at the forefront of the mind.

It is possible, even probable, that over the span of years, the needs of the people and the church have changed and there were times when God caused people to opt for weekly, annual or other schedules of the Sacrament because that was what his people needed at that time. God meets us where we are. Where the modern church is now and where modern people are now can best be served by having frequent, but spaced, repetition of this most wonderful reminder of the salvation available through Jesus.

Dan Heaton is a seminary student in the Detroit area.