Growing up in the Wesleyan Church, I've not had tremendously moving experiences with the celebration of communion.  In the Wesleyan Church–as in many others–communion is served (by Discipline requirements) once a quarter.  The logic of this, I suppose, is to avoid the celebration of communion becoming a dead, lifeless ritual that is performed every week simply because "that is what we do" (makes you wonder about worship music and preaching, if routinization is the criterion for "lifeless ritual"…).  My experience has been pretty standard: the pastor rises, speaks a few words (perhaps from the Discipline) concerning the supper, and then ushers distribute the elements to the parishoners.  Generally, this happens at the immediate end of the service, and the rush is on to get the elements to everyone, imbibe them, and get everyone on the road.

While I have grown accustomed to this "routine" (funny how that happens anyway…), I have not been seriously impacted by the actual ritual on very many occasions.  In my own critique, I think the lack of impact stems mainly from the fact that the practice of communion–though done in a corporate setting–is mostly structured to be an individual response to God's grace in Christ.  I More >