Ray Anglesea used this order of service, with permission, at Crook recently, and has asked for it to be posted on this site.
Invitation to Communion
All
our needs have been provided: living water and a living Word, the consolation
and challenge of the Spirit, and this, food for the journey shared at the table
of Jesus. With our Christian friends around the world we say “Blessed is the
church that faithfully eats and drinks in remembrance of Jesus, that God may
nourish and sustain, comfort and challenge, teach and transform us.” We come to
this table to know Christ’s presence in bread broken and cup outpoured, to
receive union with Christ in and with the body, and to look forward to the
feast of the coming kingdom. Receive the bread and the wine! Receive the
hospitality of God!
The Story
We
gather around this table because, on the night on which Jesus was betrayed with
a kiss, he called his disciples to an upper room and there sat at table with
them. He took bread, giving thanks to God for the gift of the wheat of the
field and the work of labouring
hands,
and he broke the bread, saying “This is my body, broken for you. Eat and
remember.”
After
they had supper, he took the cup, again giving thanks to God for the fruit of
the vine and for the courage of the human heart, he offered the cup saying, “This
is the cup of the new covenant, poured out for the many. Drink and remember.” So long as we eat this bread and drink this
cup, we proclaim the Lord’s coming.
The Great Thanksgiving
Jesus
is here! Christ is risen indeed! We praise God who comes to us in the Word made
flesh and in bread and wine. We praise God! We praise you, Gracious God, for you knelt
gently in the dust and lovingly fashioned us. You placed your imprint on our
souls, with the prayer that we would be a sign of your presence on this earth
you so love.
You
gave us all we needed, and more: a world of bounty and beauty, the light of the
law, the song of the psalmists and the rod of the prophets. At the right time,
you gave us Jesus, who came to live among us to heal the sick and cast out
demons, to feed the hungry and proclaim your reign, to embrace children and
cleanse the Temple, to suffer and to die, and to be raised on the third day,
that we might know and might live your love for all humanity. Christ’s living
presence, the breath of the Holy Spirit, continues to give us life – gathering
us into communities of faith seeking understanding to break open the Word and
spread the banquet, enlightening and enlivening our lives, that more and more we
may know the power of the living God. Therefore with the whole realm of nature
around us, with the whole company of heaven, and with our loved ones, separate
from us now yet who in this mystery are close to us, we join in the song of the
faithful:
O holy, holy, holy God, O God of time
and space. All earth and sea and sky above bear witness to your Grace. Hosanna
in the highest heav’n, creation sings your praise. Hosanna in the highest
heav’n, creation sings your praise
(Sung to I heard the voice of Jesus say:
Tune Kingsfold ).
And
blessed is the One who comes and bears Your name always. We praise you that we
are here today, around the table of Jesus. We have heard the good news of your
love; the cross is the sign of your arms stretched out in love for us and the
empty tomb declares your love stronger than death. In our remembering we sing
the mystery of faith
Sing Christ has died and Christ is
risen, Christ will come again!
Sing Christ has died and Christ is
risen, Christ will come again!
(tune: Kingsfold first four lines).
Send
your Holy Spirit upon this bread and wine, and upon your people, that Christ
may be in us, and we may be ready to live for you today, and every day to come.
We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in
the love of the Creator, one God, to whom be glory and praise forever. And the people
sing:
Amen,
amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and amen!
Amen,
amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and amen!
(tune: Kingsfold last four lines).
The Fraction
Bread
is broken and shared, so that we might know how deeply we are loved. Eat and
give thanks. Wine is poured so that the life of Christ may flow through us.
Drink deeply and rejoice.
The Sharing
The Prayer after Communion
Bread
broken and shared makes us whole. The cup poured out fires our love. You have
given us all we need. Now send us out in hope and confidence to serve.
The Blessing
When the
doors of our hearts as well as our rooms are locked then the Risen Lord comes
and stands in the midst of us saying: “Peace be with you”. Know that we are the
deeply loved people of God and that God will lead us in the ways of peace.
Source:
Service of Holy Communion; URC General Assembly, Cardiff, 2014
With kind permission office of the
General Assembly
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