Extended Communion

Today I've been visiting people who, for one reason or another, are unable to receive Communion at Church. As I don't have dispensation to "do" Communion myself, I was doing an "Extended Communion" - taking some of the bread and wine that had been blessed on Sunday, and using it to allow the people I visited to share in the Lord's Supper (as the words in the Order of Service put it.)

I won't get into the way different traditions might see this, but while preparing sheets with the service on and thinking about what is likely to happen when I am able to preside over Communion both in the home and in the Church, I was struck by the fact that in some ways there are some fantastic things about this way of doing a Home Communion.

The main thing in some ways is that Church Members who are in a way detached from the main congregation can receive the same bread and wine, blessed at the same time, as the rest of the congregation. When we talk about sharing in the one loaf, or the one cup, knowing that you are sharing with the people who were there strikes me as being quite a powerful image of how they are part of the congregation even if they find it a struggle to get beyond their own front door.

At the same time there is something of a practicality issue. Bread can only be kept so long before it becomes unsuitable for human consumption, so I am limited to trying to fit all the visits in within two or three days of a given Communion Service. This may not always be practical - there are some people who I am currently unable to visit, and they will have to now wait for the next time there is a Communion - and in the Methodist Church, that's usually something that takes place once a month.... Once I am able to preside, that will cease to be an issue.

Part of me wants to find an alternative solution for after September - one that might allow me to retain the feeling of sharing not just with the one or two people present at a home visit, but with the whole congregation. One possibility might be to actually bake the bread myself (or at least use our Breadmaker), slice and freeze it, and then use this both in Church and in Home Communions. Literally then we would all be sharing in one loaf - even if the blessing of it takes place days or even weeks apart!