Your Confirmation: A Christian Handbook For Adults

John Stott, Christian Behaviour: Fellowship and the Holy Communion (Chapter 9)

A. Fellowship
-the transition into a vital fellowship in the church is often painful. Once the transition has
been made it is joyful and essential to Christian health.

Members of Jesus Christ’s body

a) Church Membership is an Article of Faith
God's purpose not to save us as individuals but to build a church and build us together.
brothers and sisters in God's family
citizens of his kingdom
stones in his temple
sheep of Christ's flock
branches of his vine
members of his body
Ephesians 2:19-22; John 10:14-16; John 15:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:27

b) Church Membership also offers enormous help: stability; deep friendships with whom we
share doubts, fears, problems, temptations, joys, hopes.

B. Holy Communion
-most churches recognize it as the heart of Christian worship.
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a
discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until
midnight. (NRSV)
-Old Testament equivalent was the Passover.

Four Important Themes

a) Remembrance
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that
the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he
had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in
remembrance of me." 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This
cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
me." (NRSV)

-Jesus urged disciples to remember his death and its purpose.

"To the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our Master and
only Saviour Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his
precious blood-shedding he hath obtained to us, he hath instituted and ordained holy
mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our

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 great and endless comfort." (BCP, 3rd exhortation)

b) Participation
-more than a commemoration; through Lord's Supper we also participate in its benefits.
1 Corinthians 10:16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of
Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? (NRSV)

In what do we participate?
-in the body and blood of Christ - in the death of Jesus Christ together with the benefits
of his death;
How do we participate?
-by faith

c) Fellowship
-represented by our gathering around the table - like a family at dinner;
-the breaking of bread represents this intimate fellowship as well as our participation in
Christ's body.
-also represents a foretaste of the heavely banquet.
1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until he comes. (NRSV)

d) Thanksgiving/Eucharist ("eucharistia")
-opportunity to thank God for many mercies, with special attention on the mercies of
Christ's sacrifice.

Sacrifice
-Anglicans emphasize that Christ's sacrifice is once and for all and that we do not offer it
again; we participate in Christ's sacrifice only in the sense that we share in the benefits of it;

Structure of the Service

1. Antecommunion - preparation of congregation
-Penitence, the Law or Summary, Readings, Sermon, Creed, Intercession, Peace and
Offerings.
2. Communion
-Eucharistic Prayer:
BCP - statement of God's mercy, prayer of participation, Christ's words
BAS - take, give thanks, break, give
3. Post-communion
BCP - quite elaborate, offers the sacrifice of ourselves
BAS - brief in order to emphasize the themes of the concluding prayers which emphasize
thanksgiving, the offer of our lives as a sacrifice, and a dismissal into the world to serve Christ.