How often should communion be given?

HighLonesome said:

Where are you Luther and Walther?

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GratiaCorpusChristi said:

What I simply can't comprehend is denying the congregation a weekly Sacrament but holding a weekly collection of the offering...

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DaRev said:

Weekly communion was the norm until the "protestantation" of the Lutheran Church.

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Luther1521 said:

GCC,

First of all the custom was up until 40 years ago once a month and then they adopted a twice a month system. Only in the last 10-15 years have churches really adopted an every Sunday communion policy much like our Roman Catholic cousins. Change never comes easy in the Lutheran Church and for some it is the mimicking of the Roman Catholics that kept us from doing as they do. Only recently have ministers in the Lutheran Church taught the benefits of Holy Communion every week.

So please be patient with those who have not established this practice

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Luther1521 said:

It will probably be our generation that brings genuflection into vogue in our church.

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GratiaCorpusChristi said:

Yes, but this followed an earlier abandonment of weekly communion. (So DaRev, "Weekly communion was the norm until the "protestantation" of the Lutheran Church.")



Already workin' on it!

But I would point out that there is a big difference between weekly communion and genuflection. Genuflection is a periphrial 'high church' sort of thing. I love it, but it's not necessary. But I can no longer imagine the fullness of Sunday morning covenant worship without the Sacrament, any more than a Jew can hold a proper Sabbath without the bread-wine meal at Friday dusk.

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Luther1521 said:

I never said there wasn't a big difference, but in terms of Lutherans bringing the customs from the Roman Catholic tradition into their worship, it is happening. I began to cross myself just a few years ago when it came time to take communion, and now I do it much more often and when the Gloria Patri is sung or said I bow towards the cross through the trinity and stand erect for the rest.

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GratiaCorpusChristi said:

That's cool.

I just mean to say that weekly communion is a Lutheran tradition, and that it's abandonment came through Pietism and union with Reformed traditions. It's contemporary introduction is a reintroduction of a traditionally Lutheran practice, and not an adoption of a Catholic one.

And I also mean to say that wereas everything else is somewhat accidental, the inclusion of Holy Communion in the Sunday morning liturgy is, I think, essential. The abandonment of weekly communion in the Lutheran churches reflects, I believe, a loss in lay understanding of the magnitude of the Eucharistic presence of Christ and the influx of Pietist emphasis on preaching (particurally technique-oriented preaching). It reflects a loss of of appreciation of God's self-giving to man in favor of anthropocentric self-help culture and individual piety, and the exchange of God's self-giving to man in favor of man's attempt to do something for God. In short, it reflects a loss of the connection between the gospel as an abstract doctrine and the gospel as practiced and performed on us by God in our liturgies.

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