Anabaptist Communion

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
MaxPC
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Anabaptist Communion

Post by MaxPC »

Parameters: this thread is for understanding communion as practiced in Anabaptist fellowships today. Only replies from those who are currently full members of an Anabaptist fellowship are needed.

Please share from the following queries:
-How frequently does your fellowship receive communion?

-How is the communion service in your fellowship conducted?

-What are the principle Scripture(s) cited for supporting your fellowship's communion practices and the meaning/theology for those Scriptures within your fellowship?
Thank you.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
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gcdonner
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by gcdonner »

No replies from former Anabaptist members?
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MaxPC
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by MaxPC »

gcdonner wrote:No replies from former Anabaptist members?
Only if they were members within the last year (2016-17). I'm interested in the most current practices to avoid digressions into historic dissertations of "us" vs "them" as happened in the penance thread. I'm interested in practices and theology by full members in the present time.

Sorry, George :hug:
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
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JimFoxvog
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by JimFoxvog »

We typically have lay-led communion once a month. There's typically a communion themed song. We have a common cup with a choice of individual cups. The leader chooses whether we have a longer liturgy, or just a reading of the words from 1 Corinthians; there's a fair amount of variety. We stand in a circle and pass the elements around, each saying to the next "...the body of Christ..." and "...the blood of Christ..." (dots indicate we don't always use the exact same formula). We use grape juice and some sort of bread; sometimes unleavened.

(I've been part of an MC-USA church for 16 years.)
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Hats Off
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by Hats Off »

We keep communion twice a year, once in the spring just after Easter and again in the fall - some time in September or October. We sing several death/resurrection/communion themed songs, a scripture reading from one of the gospels, telling the account of Jesus' arrest and trial followed by a message from one of the local ministers - usually some kind of summary of Genesis, up to the point where the death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites. Another scripture reading follows, continuing the account up to where Jesus died on the cross. The bishop then continues with a communion themed message, followed by a reading of the Corinthian text and more comments on the meaning of the text. After prayer, the bishop takes a portion of bread, prays, and then walks around the meeting house, breaking off a piece of bread for each member of the local meeting. Next he takes a cup of wine, not grape juice, and everyone who took of the bread also takes a sip of wine from the common cup. This is followed by feet washing, where brothers was each other's feet and sisters do so among the sisters. Finally at the end the order of the church, along with comments shared at council meetings is read.
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by Josh »

I'm still technically a member of an FEC Anabaptist church, formerly MC USA. I am also a member received in communion with a closed-communion small independent house church which observes nonresistance and the seven ordinances, which is where I took communion last year.

In my present church we take communion once a year, after revival meetings. Counsel, excommunications, restoration of excommunicants, and benching and un-benching of ministers happens during this time. Applicants for membership ("converts") are also accepted for baptism at this time. This is the season we are in right now and it is a very joyful time, albeit mixed with some sorrow.

We draw heavily from Jesus' last supper in the gospel, 1 Co. 11, and 1 Co. 5.

We practice foot washing and the holy kiss along with communion - but encourage this things to happen elsewhere in the year too. I have only seen the holy kiss happen outside of communion, tho, I haven't seen any spontaneous footwashings.

I last took communion with an Anabaptist brother after a time of confession our sins to one another, plus with a third person we both considered a brother. My Anabaptist brother didn't feel he could take the body and blood rightly, so he served the two of us instead. The plain church where he is an applicant for membership and will be baptised felt this was an acceptable thing for us to do together provided we took it seriously and examined ourselves for sin.
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ohio jones
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by ohio jones »

MaxPC wrote:-How frequently does your fellowship receive communion?
This question just seems really odd. I think it's because we would not talk about "receiving" communion; we "partake" or "participate" in its observance. It's something we do together, not as passive individuals.

To answer the part about frequency, though, generally twice a year, spring and fall.
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Bootstrap
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by Bootstrap »

MaxPC wrote: -What are the principle Scripture(s) cited for supporting your fellowship's communion practices and the meaning/theology for those Scriptures within your fellowship?
From the Mennonite Confession of Faith:
We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a sign by which the church thankfully remembers the new covenant which Jesus established by his death. In this communion meal, the members of the church renew our covenant with God and with each other. As one body, we participate in the life of Jesus Christ given for the redemption of humankind. Thus we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. [1]

The Lord’s Supper points to Jesus Christ, whose body was given for us and whose shed blood established the new covenant.[2] In sharing the bread and cup, each believer remembers the death of Jesus and God’s act of deliverance in raising Jesus from the dead. As we relive this event with a common meal, we give thanks for all God’s acts of deliverance in the past and present, for the forgiveness of sins, and for God’s continuing grace in our lives.

The supper re-presents the presence of the risen Christ in the church. As we partake of the communion of the bread and cup, the gathered body of believers shares in the body and blood of Christ[3] and recognizes again that its life is sustained by Christ, the bread of life.

Remembering how Jesus laid down his life for his friends, we his followers recommit ourselves to the way of the cross. Confessing our sins to one another and receiving forgiveness, we are to come as one body to the table of the Lord. There we renew our baptismal covenant with God and with each other and recognize our unity with all believers everywhere in all times.

All are invited to the Lord’s table who have been baptized into the community of faith, are living at peace with God and with their brothers and sisters in the faith, and are willing to be accountable in their congregation.

Celebrating the Lord’s Supper in this manner, the church looks forward in joy and hope to the feast of the redeemed with Christ in the age to come.[4]
1 Cor. 11:26.
Jer. 31:31-34; 1 Cor. 11:24-25.
1 Cor. 10:16.
Luke 22:15-20, 28-30.
1. On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus and his disciples gathered to eat the Passover meal. This annual celebration called to remembrance God’s great act of delivering the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exod. 12). Jesus’ Last Supper signaled that he was leading his followers in a new exodus out of bondage and into salvation. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has rescued believers from sin and evil and brought them into a new covenant. The new people of God created through this covenant is continuous with the people of the old covenant, whom God rescued from bondage in Egypt. The people of the new covenant includes all who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
2. The bread of the Lord’s Supper is a sign of Christ’s body, and the cup is a sign of the new covenant in his blood (Luke 22:19-20). As Christians eat the bread and drink the cup, they experience Christ’s presence in their midst. The Lord’s Supper both represents Christ and is a way in which Christ is present again (“re-present”) in the body of believers. In this meal, the church renews its covenant to be the body of Christ in the world and to live the life of Christ on behalf of others.The communion meal is a sign of the unity of believers with one another as the church (1 Cor. 10:17). As branches are part of the vine, so believers are to be united with each other in Christ. Believers are to come to the Lord’s table in a worthy manner, without factions among them (1 Cor. 11:17-22, 27-34). Churches are encouraged to find ways to promote reconciliation and to prepare members for communion. The believers’ covenant with one another includes the pledge of love for brothers and sisters, of mutual accountability, of confession and forgiveness of sins, and of the sharing of material and spiritual resources as there is need. Such love and sharing reaches around the world as the church recognizes its global unity. This joyful, yet solemn fellowship in the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the fuller joy to come when all believers will feast with Christ in the reign of God (Rev. 19:9; compare Isa. 25:6-8).
3. Like baptism, the Lord’s Supper is a sign, representing both God’s action and covenant faithfulness in delivering us from sin and death, and representing the action of those who recommit to faithfulness in covenant with God. Because the church’s response to God’s salvation through Jesus includes thankfulness, the Lord’s Supper has sometimes been called “eucharist,” which means “thanksgiving.” And because the Lord’s Supper represents an event in which Jesus invited the community of his disciples to share the cup and the bread in fellowship with him and with each other around the same table, it is sometimes called “communion.”
4. The practice of the early church was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper frequently, every Lord’s day or even daily (Acts 2:46). The Anabaptists in the sixteenth century also shared the Lord’s Supper often as a sign of their renewed covenant with God and each other. Our churches are encouraged to celebrate the Lord’s Supper frequently, so that they may participate in the rich meanings of this event for the worship and life of the church.
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by Josh »

Our church rests on this confession, drafted in in 1632.
X. Of the Holy Supper

We also confess and observe the breaking of bread, or Supper, as the Lord Christ Jesus before His suffering instituted it with bread and wine, and observed and ate with His apostles, commanding them to observe it in remembrance of Him; which they accordingly taught and practiced in the church, and commanded that it should be kept in remembrance of the suffering and death of the Lord; and that His precious body was broken, and His blood shed, for us and all mankind, as also the fruits hereof, namely, redemption and eternal salvation, which He purchased thereby, showing such great love toward us sinful men; whereby we are admonished to the utmost, to love and forgive one another and our neighbor, as He has done unto us, and to be mindful to maintain and live up to the unity and fellowship which we have with God and one another, which is signified to us by this breaking of bread. Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 11:23.

XI. Of the Washing of the Saints' Feet

We also confess a washing of the saints' feet, as the Lord Christ not only instituted, enjoined and commanded it, but Himself, although He was their Lord and Master, washed His apostles' feet, thereby giving an example that they should likewise wash one another's feet, and do as He had done unto them; which they accordingly, from this time on, taught believers to observe, as a sign of true humility, and, especially, to remember by this feet washing, the true washing, whereby we are washed through His precious blood, and made pure after the soul. John 13:4-17; 1 Timothy 5:10.

XVI. Of the Ecclesiastical Ban, or Separation from the Church

We also believe in, and confess, a ban, Separation, and Christian correction in the church, for amendment, and not for destruction, in order to distinguish that which is pure from the impure: namely, when any one, after he is enlightened, has accepted the knowledge of the truth, and been incorporated into the communion of the saints, sins again unto death, either through willfulness, or through presumption against God, or through some other cause, and falls into the unfruitful works of darkness, thereby becoming separated from God, and forfeiting the kingdom of God, that such a one, after the deed is manifest and sufficiently known to the church, may not remain in the congregation of the righteous, but, as an offensive member and open sinner, shall and must be separated, put away, reproved before all, and purged out as leaven; and this for his amendment, as an example, that others may fear, and to keep the church pure, by cleansing her from such spots, lest, in default of this, the name of the Lord be blasphemed, the church dishonored, and offense given to them that are without; and finally, that the sinner may not be condemned with the world, but become convinced in his mind, and be moved to sorrow, repentance, and reformation. Jeremiah 59:2; 1 Corinthians 5:5, 13; 1 Timothy 5:20; 1 Corinthians 5:6; 2 Corinthians 10:8; 1 Corinthians 13:10.

Further, concerning brotherly reproof or admonition, as also the instruction of the erring it is necessary to exercise all diligence and care, to watch over them and to admonish them with all meekness, that they may be bettered, and to reprove, according as is proper, the stubborn who remain obdurate; in short, the church must put away from her the wicked (either in doctrine or life), and no other. James 5:19; Titus 3:10; 1 Corinthians 5:13.

XVII. Of Shunning the Separated

Concerning the withdrawing from, or shunning the separated, we believe and confess, that if any one, either through his wicked life or perverted doctrine, has so far fallen that he is separated from God, and, consequently, also separated and punished by the church, the same must, according to the doctrine of Christ and His apostles, be shunned, without distinction, by all the fellow members of the church, especially those to whom it is known, in eating, drinking, and other similar intercourse, and no company be had with him that they may not become contaminated by intercourse with him, nor made partakers of his sins; but that the sinner may be made ashamed, pricked in his heart, and convicted in his conscience, unto his reformation. 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; 2 Thessalonians 3:14.

Yet, in shunning as well as in reproving, such moderation and Christian discretion must be used, that it may conduce, not to the destruction, but to the reformation of the sinner. For, if he is needy, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or in any other distress, we are in duty bound, necessity requiring it, according to love and the doctrine of Christ and His apostles, to render him aid and assistance; otherwise, shunning would in this case tend more to destruction than to reformation.

Therefore, we must not count them as enemies, but admonish them as brethren, that thereby they may be brought to a knowledge of and to repentance and sorrow for their sins, so that they may become reconciled to God, and consequently be received again into the church, and that love may continue with them, according as is proper. 2 Thessalonians 3:15.
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MaxPC
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Re: Anabaptist Communion

Post by MaxPC »

ohio jones wrote:
MaxPC wrote:-How frequently does your fellowship receive communion?
This question just seems really odd. I think it's because we would not talk about "receiving" communion; we "partake" or "participate" in its observance. It's something we do together, not as passive individuals.

To answer the part about frequency, though, generally twice a year, spring and fall.
Thank you for your answer, OJ. I'm glad you were able translate for me :D
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
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