Communion every other Sunday?

SirKnight33 · Dec 26, 2014

Quick question. I have been attending a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod with my Girlfriend who is Lutheran for the past few months (I am a former Catholic) and I have been wondering why Communion is only celebrated every other Sunday? I see many ELCA Churches celebrate it every Sunday, but many LCMS and other confessional/conservative Churches only every other Sunday. Anyone able to enlighten me as to why this is the case.

Thanks a bunch

Sword of the Lord · Dec 27, 2014

It's a tradition that needs to be done away with. The typical answer I get (from pastors) is, "It wouldn't be as special if we celebrated every week." Ummm, yes it would. And then they quote Luther, saying that a Christian should celebrate a few times a year to be called a Christian, so weekly is not necessary. This tradition annoys many of us to no end, trust me! The Eucharist would be equally as special to me on a daily basis, so I don't see where they get the nerve to assume it would lose value to me on a weekly basis. In fact, between my "disability", the revolving door of guest pastors, and communing just twice a month, I find myself going to service less and only during communion weeks. So, in effect, they're making service less special to me by holding fast to this intolerable tradition.

And that's how I feel.

Sword of the Lord · Dec 27, 2014

Also no communion on Christmas Eve, just Christmas Day. At least for us. Booo!

Melethiel · Dec 27, 2014

An old pietist tradition that should be done away with ASAP. It probably started in rural areas where churches might not have a pastor every week, but now it's defended with lame excuses, like pointed out above.

Melethiel · Dec 27, 2014

Mikhael said:
Also no communion on Christmas Eve, just Christmas Day. At least for us. Booo!

To be fair, Christmas Eve is a vespers, a vigil service. It's not a divine service or a feast in and of itself. The church I attended actually did have communion, and I found it very odd. It's just as weird as having communion on Good Friday.

SirKnight33 · Dec 30, 2014

I see, it seems very odd especially coming from the Catholic Church where communion is celebrated daily.

EvangelCatholic · Dec 30, 2014

I was raised and schooled in the Missouri Synod up until the ‘Seminex’ situation in the 1970’s and have close relatives who remain in the LCMS. If as a member of the ELCA, I cannot respond on this forum, I ask the moderators to remove my post.

My own hunch why the LCMS, in general, is less likely to have weekly holy Communion is due to various factors. Contrary to the common practice of twice-monthly Eucharist, many LCMS parishes in the Northeast do celebrate the sacrament weekly. In-fact, I believe there are a few LCMS parishes that still have a daily Mass in metro New York and most have it weekly. That certainly was the case when I was a student in Lutheran parochial schools including the seminaries in Fort Wayne and St Louis. Interestingly, I understand that the LCMS seminaries no longer offer a daily Mass and have some rationale that the ordained professors in the seminaries are not able to preside at a Mass because they are not assigned to a parish!

A fair amount of the most ‘catholic” Lutherans in the LCMS left the synod and ultimately helped form the ELCA. Another factor in why the ELCA encourages a weekly parish Eucharist is that it is both consistent with the Lutheran Confessions and the practice of Lutherans world-wide. Along with all national synod churches in the Lutheran World Federation, the ELCA signed the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and is in full communion with Anglicans/ Episcopalians. All Catholic and perhaps most Anglican churches celebrate Mass weekly or more.

Also most Lutherans follow the episcopal form of governance and practice. In the ELCA, the synod bishop has responsibility and influence in parishes so that weekly holy Communion is not a decision made by a local congregation. My pastor mentioned to me that newly ordained priests coming out of the ELCA seminaries are thoroughly trained and expected to provide the Sacrament each Sunday and on holy days.

filosofer · Jan 1, 2015

Having served as pastor in LCMS and now TAALC, every congregation I have served has moved to every Sunday every service celebration of the Lord's Supper. It was not because I was on a campaign or forced it. I taught Adult Instruction classes (26 weeks each), and within two years they began asking why they couldn't receive communion every service. When it was discussed at Elders/Council/Voters, I put it this way: If you don't want to receive the Lord's Supper every Sunday, would you be willing to allow its celebration for the sake of those who do? Never has anyone objected. usually within a month even the opponents would say, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

The congregation I serve now had it every Sunday every service. My teaching for Adult Instruction was the same, so that new members would understand the background, Biblically, confessionally, and historically. People embrace it as it is truly a means of grace, forgiveness, etc.

QuiltAngel · Jan 2, 2015

It comes down to which LCMS church you are attending. Some have it monthly, some have it twice a month and some have it weekly. I would love to see communion weekly in every LCMS church.

LizaMarie · Jan 18, 2015

I attend a WELS church(been a member for 21 years) and I agree with all the above it should most definitely be celebrated every week.
We were celebrating it only once month until our current pastor who has been here the last 7 years moved it to twice monthly.
I think part of the reason it was celebrated once a month was our parish is in a rural area and the same pastor was pastor over both ours and one other 20 miles away.
We are no longer with that parish(closed).

Aibrean · Jan 24, 2015

Depends on the church. Ours is fully liturgical and has communion every Sunday.

LizaMarie · Jan 24, 2015

Mikhael said:
It's a tradition that needs to be done away with. The typical answer I get (from pastors) is, "It wouldn't be as special if we celebrated every week." Ummm, yes it would. And then they quote Luther, saying that a Christian should celebrate a few times a year to be called a Christian, so weekly is not necessary. This tradition annoys many of us to no end, trust me! The Eucharist would be equally as special to me on a daily basis, so I don't see where they get the nerve to assume it would lose value to me on a weekly basis. In fact, between my "disability", the revolving door of guest pastors, and communing just twice a month, I find myself going to service less and only during communion weeks. So, in effect, they're making service less special to me by holding fast to this intolerable tradition.

And that's how I feel.

That answer you were given would annoy me, too, but I've heard answers like that as well. Communion should be every Sunday IMO. Unfortunately it seems we've become more Protestant in having every other or once a month like those churches that don't recognize the real presence.

Tangible · Jan 28, 2015

We have communion only on second and fourth Sundays. So when there are five Sundays in a month we have to go two weeks without.

Also, no sacrament on Easter Sunday!!!! Easter!!

This is completely intolerable to me, but there are no other churches within reasonable driving distance for my family. Hopefully, one day this will change.

Sword of the Lord · Jan 28, 2015

Thankfully, we do first and third Sundays, so that when there's 5 Sunday's we don't skip a week and therefore occasionally get it twice in a row.

PreachersWife2004 · Feb 4, 2015

Tangible said:
We have communion only on second and fourth Sundays. So when there are five Sundays in a month we have to go two weeks without.

Also, no sacrament on Easter Sunday!!!! Easter!!

This is completely intolerable to me, but there are no other churches within reasonable driving distance for my family. Hopefully, one day this will change.

We have communion the 1st and 3rd Sundays, and the 5th on the occasions where there is one.

We also don't have communion on Easter, and that's because our focus is on his resurrection, not his death. We have communion on Maundy Thursday, but not Good Friday because we do a Tennebrae service. I wouldn't mind communion on Good Friday, but the only way that would work would be to have two separate services and that would kill attendance.

It's the perils of a small church, I guess.

CaliforniaJosiah · Feb 5, 2015

When I joined my LCMS parish, it had the Eucharist on the First, Third and Fifth Sundays.

LONG story (which I'd be pleased to share), I took this up as something I wanted to patiently.... WITHIN the "system"...... lovingly..... change. It happened (yes, WITH the pastor's encouragement all along). We now have it every Sunday. The change was met with GREAT embrace.... not one, not even one person commented that they didn't like the change to every Sunday.... several commented they never understood why we didn't always offer this every week. The pastor privately thanked me for advancing this... and for my patient way in which I did.

Only down point: Guess who got appointed to the Altar Guild to help with set up and clean up..... J/K, I don't mind.

Our parish is tiny - so it's all probably easier. But THEOLOGICALLY, I passionately believe it should be every Sunday.

Thank you!

Pax

- Josiah (yeah, I don't usually post at CF anymore .... but I still lurk)

.

LizaMarie · Feb 15, 2015

We are having communion in my (WELS) church Ash Wednesday plus the imposition of the Ashes. Very Good. This is the first pastor that had our church do the imposition of the Ashes, the first two when we joined did not. I like it
(we did it in the ELCA one thing I greatly missed.)

SalusaSecundus · Feb 15, 2015

SirKnight33 said:
Quick question. I have been attending a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod with my Girlfriend who is Lutheran for the past few months (I am a former Catholic) and I have been wondering why Communion is only celebrated every other Sunday? I see many ELCA Churches celebrate it every Sunday, but many LCMS and other confessional/conservative Churches only every other Sunday. Anyone able to enlighten me as to why this is the case.

Thanks a bunch

Our church (WELS) has it every other week. I woud prefer it every week but these are the last vestiges of pietism that we are slowly getting rid of.

SalusaSecundus · Feb 15, 2015

LizaMarie said:
We are having communion in my (WELS) church Ash Wednesday plus the imposition of the Ashes. Very Good. This is the first pastor that had our church do the imposition of the Ashes, the first two when we joined did not. I like it
(we did it in the ELCA one thing I greatly missed.)

Our WELS parish is doing ashes as well. Apparently it's the first time doing it.

Mrs Awesome · Mar 11, 2015

It depends on the wishes of the congregation and no way is better than the other. My father is a retired ordained LCMS minister and is now an active hospital chaplain. When he preached, the churches he was the senior pastor for (he had several churches over his career), only had Communion every other Sunday. This is how I know it to be done traditionally within the LCMS. However, the LCMS church I attend now has Communion every Sunday. There is no right or wrong way to do this. All Jesus says is to "do this in remembrance of me". He doesn't tell us how often or when.

If you would rather take Communion every week instead of every other Sunday, then I urge you to speak with the pastor at the church you attend. Perhaps others have this same idea and as more people come forward, things will change.

Communion every other Sunday?

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