Communion and Eucharist

The two words "communion" and "eucharist" are used throughout this web site to describe a type of service at St. John the Divine Anglican Church. The 10:00 a.m. service is nearly identical to the current Roman Catholic mass. The other communion (or eucharistic) services use more Elizabethan English. [more detail]

Before the service begins there are announcements. These are supposed to end before the scheduled start time of the service, so that the service can begin exactly on time.

The service begins when the people leading it arrive. The 10:00 a.m. service begins with a formal procession. At other services, things are much simpler. Then the priest in charge makes a formal greeting to everyone. Then there are some prayers and readings from the Bible. After the readings there is a sermon or speech about some topic brought up by the readings or current events. Following this the communion proper begins.

The communion proper, or eucharist, is a ritualized re-enactment of the last supper when Jesus told the disciples that he was about to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world. A priest prepares some bread and wine similar to the way Jesus did at the last supper. Then, with the help of several other people, he or she distributes the bread and wine to every baptized person in the building who lines up to receive some.

After this there are more prayers. At the high services, the leaders leave in a grand procession, and the priest gives a final blessing and dismissal.

The numer of hymns (the songs everyone sings) can very from zero to 5 depending on the service.