World Communion Sunday* is observed on the first Sunday in October. This year, on October 4, we will take Communion with millions of Christian believers around the world as a celebration of our common union, our oneness in Christ. That oneness is especially significant this year because we sense its incompleteness.
As of this writing, Grace Church has gone six months without the congregation gathering together in person as one body. The COVID-19 pandemic has separated us from one another, just as we are separated from our sisters and brothers in Christ in Mali or Bali or Belize every World Communion Sunday. Yes, on Zoom we can see one another as we take the elements, but we ache for the day when the Elders can distribute the elements to all of us together in one place.
We will be physically apart from almost everyone in our “one another” circle. We may also be spiritually apart from one another because of cultural, tribal, and partisan conflicts that are shaking our country to its core. Would we who claim Jesus as Lord welcome others who do the same to our Communion table even when we know that we might encounter one another on opposite sides of a demonstration or debate?
We also recognize that for too many years the “other-ness” in one another means that some have borne unspeakable burdens in being marginalized, oppressed, enslaved, and even denied the right to life itself. As a member of a privileged group, I am complicit in the sins of systemic racism. Christ died so that sin might be forgiven, but do I continue in that sin by acting on unconscious biases or failing to act to end the injustices I see?
Immediately following what we call the “words of institution” in I Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul writes about eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. He enjoins the believers in Corinth to examine themselves, perhaps to see if they bring any sinful attitudes or behaviors to the Communion table. As we observe World Communion Sunday under some very unusual circumstances this year, and it gives us opportunity to reflect on how we view the “one anothers” in our world. As we take the bread and the cup on October 4, may we examine ourselves in that regard, repent of any tendencies to emphasize “otherness,” and celebrate the oneness that is ours in Christ.
Elder Pat Walsh, September 2020
*World Communion Sunday was first celebrated in 1933 at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. It was conceived by Reverend Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr, who was pastor of the church at that time. It was part of Shadyside Presbyterian’s attempt to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity. Today it is celebrated around the world.
