Hospitality Serving Morning Tea After the Service

Hospitality Serving Morning Tea After the Service

OrmondAnglicanChurch

‘A community transformed by the love of Jesus’

Communion Assistants

Communion is held on the second and fourth Sundays - at about 11.15am, just before the children’s talk.
If you can’t fulfil your rostered duty please arrange a swap and let the service leader know.
Activities /
  • After the singing of the pre-communion song (The minister will be standing behind the table), 5 assistants make their way to the side of the platform. There you will find hand sanitiser, please use it.
- This is an especially meaningful part of our worship, do everything deliberately but without hurry.
  • Prepare yourself to serve as the congregation prepares to receive the bread and the wine. Join in the responses on the data projection screens. You will be asked to take a chalice or the tray of “little cups”.
  • If you are given the chalice, take the purificator (cloth) first in your least preferred hand and the chalice firmly in the other hand. Wipe the cup very carefully inside and out (you may have to tip it a little to do this). Rotate the chalice for every person and remember to use a new part of the purificator for each person – if it becomes soiled change it a spare cloth on the Lord’s Table.
  • If you are assigned the tray of individual (non alcoholic) communion glasses use your strongest hand. Lots of children partake in this way, get down to their level if you can – it always remains the parent’s decision. Allow time for glass to be returned to the tray.
  • When you administer the chalice or the individual communion glasses, use the words from the Prayer Book (pg. 142): Preference is: “The blood of Christ keep you in eternal life”.
  • When you have completed the task, return the chalice and purificator to the side of the Table and wait for the Vicar/assistant to take it from you.
  • If you are administering the bread, the preferred words are “The body of Christ, keep you in eternal life”.

Things to Note /
  • Every person who receives the Communion seems to take it differently. You need to get the feel for what the person is used to. It becomes very much an act of communion between the two of you for that short moment.
  • Generally expect the person to hold the chalice by themselves. With the very old or very young it may be prudent to help with a steadying hand or to hold the cup very firmly. It is a judgement call. Some will not want it to touch the cup at all!
  • If your wine starts to run low, don’t panic. Return it to the Lord’s Table and wait for the vicar/assistant vicar to do something about it.
  • Be careful – some people stand too far back from the platform and you may have to step down to reach them. Be mindful of where the steps are!
  • Generally those who may lose their balance are frail in other ways and will use the communion rail provided, but not always. Be mindful of these folk

Thank you for assisting with this very special ministry.

10.45 Service Job Description: Communion Assistants August 16