How to Celebrate World Communion Sunday

The first Sunday in October is World Communion Sunday. It is a day to use the Lord's Supper, our common meal, to remember that the Church is one body. But it's not always clear how to celebrate this occasion within our individual churches.

Before reflecting on the meaning of this day, I want to offer some resources that can help you put together your services. Some are for our subscribers and some are free to anyone.

World Communion Sunday Service: Resources and Ideas

Worship Guide for World Communion Sunday

Our resource hub: A planning resource with free tips and ideas for celebrating global Christian unity as well as links to our subscriber sermon and service resources.

Liturgy for World Communion Sunday

Three great contemporary prayers to use in your services. (Free Content)

Scripture Guides for Passages Related to Communion and Christian Unity

These resources are available to all our paid subscribers. (Interested? Try a 14-Day Free Trial.)

With these planning resources in hand, let's talk about the why of World Communion Sunday—the heart issues at its core.

World Communion Sunday Reminds Us: We are United by Faith

For many of us, this coming Sunday will be celebrated as World Communion Sunday. It is a reminder that though we worship locally, we are part of a larger body, a body that is united not by race, ideology or politics, but by our faith in Jesus.

But what exactly does that look like?

How can we actually be in communion with our neighbors? Or our neighbor congregations? And how do we do so in such a way that we can honor our Lord while holding to our convictions?

Do we see the person on the other side as "the enemy," or at the least, our adversary?

Christian Unity Beyond Our Differences

This past week I was in a long conversation with a friend who happened to have some different political positions than I do. (At the moment, anyway. Lord knows my beliefs change over time). At one point, I noticed he started to get a bit angry as our perspectives differed. In the midst of that moment, I began to think a bit differently about the situation.

If we are truly brothers in Christ, no argument about politics should be able to separate us. Whether I am wrong or my friend is, ultimately it doesn't matter. Because what is most true, and most important, is that we are bonded together in Christ.

So how can each of us be committed to truth, but also as deeply to our communion with God and each other? How can we hold in tension our deepest convictions with our call to be one in Christ?

Perhaps it begins by dwelling upon the truth signified by the common elements of bread and wine. That before we loved anyone, before we cared for anything, before we developed any of our deeply held beliefs, we were loved by God.

Not an emotional, self-serving love, but the divine, sacrificial love we see in Jesus. The love of the one who, on the night before he died, invited his followers to take the bread and wine together as a symbol of their unity. And then called them to find a way to be together in the mess of everyday life and discipleship.

God bless,

Stu