A Look at the History of the Who and How of Presbyterian Communion
One of the many overtures that the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) will take up at its general assembly this year has to do with the distribution of the Lord’s Supper. More particularly, the overture from the Providence Presbytery seeks to amend the Book of Church Order 58-5 to state (additions in italics): “Here the bread is to be distributed by the minister or to other officers for distribution” and “While the minister is repeating these words, let him give the cup directly to the people or to the officers for distribution.” In light of this, I thought I would look into the history of the distribution of the Lord’s Supper in Presbyterian churches.
The original Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland, commonly known as John Knox’s liturgy (adopted in Scotland in 1564), directed the minister to come down from the pulpit and sit down with the communicants at the Lord’s Table after he had read the words of institution and exhorted the congregation. After praying at the table, “the Minister breaketh the bread, and delivereth it to the people, who distribute and divide the same amongst themselves, according to our Saviour Christ’s commandment, and likewise giveth the cup…”
In that case, communicants, and only communicants, came to sit at a table to partake of the Lord’s Supper, passing along the elements around the table. Some continental Reformed churches did this, while in others, people came up to the front to receive the Lord’s Supper while standing.
In 1618, James VI of Scotland was able to get the Scottish General Assembly to adopt the infamous “Five Articles of Perth,” which included kneeling at communion. However the conviction that sitting at a table was the proper posture for the Lord’s Supper remained strong, and the Five Articles of Perth were repealed by the General Assembly in 1638.
As B.B. Warfield notes in his article, “The Posture of the Recipients at the Lord’s Supper,” communicants in the reformed Church of England initially partook while kneeling in their pews. Puritans preferred to do this sitting in their pews and were sometimes able to practice this. But under Archbishop Laud, there was a move toward having communicants kneel at a rail around the table in a certain part of the church to partake.
Thus, English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians came to the Westminster Assembly with different customs and controversies in the background. As the Westminster Assembly worked on a Directory for Public Worship, they debated for three weeks on the logistics of the Lord’s Supper. In particular, the Scots argued for sitting at a table, even if it required successive groups. The English Independents argued for sitting about the table in pews, elements being brought to them, all partaking together of the bread and then the wine. In the end, the Westminster Directory for Public Worship (1645) directed the communicants to sit “about [the Table], or at it,” a compromise that would permit the Scots and the English to carry on their preferred manner of partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
There was also discussion about other officers helping the minister. A few Independents, like Philip Nye, suggested that the deacons could help bring the elements to the pews. There was also mention of ruling elders assisting. When the question was raised as to what they were to do, the assembly concluded, as John Lightfoot records in his journal, that while ruling elders were not to administer the Lord’s Supper, they were “to place the people, to see to their orderliness, and to bring up the elements from the lower end of the table to the higher, where the minister is, when one company hath received.” On the same day, the distributing of the bread and cup from party to party was granted easily, but there was a dispute as to “whether every communicant might break the bread for himself after the minister had broke the loaf.”
In the 1788 American revision of the Directory for Public Worship (DPW), the phrase regarding the seating of the communicants was updated to “around the table, (or in their seats before it,) in the presence of the Minister.” It became more and more common for the elements to be brought to the communicants in their seats. This was the case even in Scotland, where Thomas Chalmers led the way.
It thus became common for the minister of word and sacrament to give the elements to the ruling elders, the representatives of the people, for distribution to the rest. As the 1906 Book of Common Worship put it, “Then the Minister, who is also himself to communicate, is to give the Bread to the Elders to be distributed.” (It says the same thing of the Cup).
This practice did not necessarily require a change to the DPW, as this was still a case of the minister giving the elements to the people. For example, the DPW of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church simply says, “The minister shall then break the bread and give it to the people” (and likewise with the cup), even though it is common practice in the OPC (in my experience) for the minister to give the elements to the ruling elders for further distribution.
The DPW of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS, a.k.a. the Southern Presbyterian Church) did allude to this practice when it mentioned “the Elders in a convenient place together” in preparation for the Lord’s Supper and recommended in its 1933 edition “that the minister be served before the people; and that he serve the Elders after they have served the people” (the 1894 edition had recommended the people be served first, then the minister, then the elders). The DPW of the PCA dropped the recommendation about the order but kept the reference to “the elders in a convenient place together.”
The fact that the process was generally presumed but not explicitly required also gave some flexibility to churches to ask others to help if there were not enough elders. In 1910, the General Assembly of the PCUS addressed an overture inquiring whether others could assist the minister in case of need. “To an overture from the Presbytery of Western Texas touching the distribution of the elements at the Lord’s Supper by others than elders, we recommend that the Assembly reply that under the conditions specified, it is permissible that the help of deacons or of worthy members be employed. Adopted.”
The DPW of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America says, “The distribution of the elements may take place in a variety of ways, as determined by the session” (RPCNA DPW 3.16). It permits and alludes to elder involvement (e.g., “the elders may take their places before the congregation”). The DPW of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is the most explicit in affirming the custom of ruling elder assistance: “The minister shall take and break the bread, and afterwards take the cup, and distribute both to the congregation. Normally, ruling elders assist the minister in the distribution, for they share with him the keys of the kingdom” (ARPC DPW 8.c.(6)).
It seems that what has provoked controversy in the PCA is that some churches have not only used non-officers due to a lack of officers but instead of them. Some sessions may be motivated by the desire to see non-ordained members more visibly involved in ministry and worship more so than other considerations. There may also be some disagreement in the PCA as to which non-officers are suitable to be called upon for this service.
However the PCA decides to handle the situation, I think it is important to be clear about the differences between administering the Lord’s Supper, bringing it from the minister to the rest of the communicants, and passing it from person to person. It is a Presbyterian conviction – and not just a Presbyterian conviction – that only ministers of the word administer the sacraments due to the unity of word and sacrament. The minister is to take the bread, break it, and give it to the people, and also give the cup to the people, in the name of Christ, as a minister of Christ.
Ruling elders pass along the elements to fellow members, not as ministers of the sacrament. Yet, it is fitting for ruling elders to receive the elements from the minister as representatives of the people. The congregation is already visibly represented by the ruling elders they have chosen. It is also relevant that the ruling elders share the government of the church with the minister. In our day, unlike the days of Knox, communicants sit among non-communicants, complicating the passing of the elements. While this does not necessarily mean that they cannot pass the elements down the pew, it is one more reason for the elders to be nearby to oversee what is going on if possible.
Each communicant member, officer or not, partakes of the Lord’s Supper, this holy sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. May our minds be then fixed on Jesus Christ, our Savior, “hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on him by faith, receiving of his fulness, trusting in his merits, rejoicing in his love, giving thanks for his grace” and “renewing of [our] covenant with God, and love to all the saints” (WLC 174).
Image Credit: Unsplash
