Order of service for Holy Communion

An Order of Service for Morning Prayer

Holy Communion

Readings, hymns and a homily may be inserted as required.
PreparationMinister - The Lord be with you.

All - And with thy spirit

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Purity
All - Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit; that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Summary of the Law
Minister - Jesus said:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

All - Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.
IntroductionMinister - Friends, in our service of Holy Communion we seek to draw near to our heavenly Father just as did the Israelites in theTemple who ate theircommunionsacrifices together but left a place at the table for Him. So we would also keep a place at our table and in our hearts for Jesus, as we remember his last Supper. For we all seek to follow his command to eat the bread and to drink the wine in remembrance of him, and we pray that through our participation in that remembrance and in the bread and wine, we may receive grace to do His will so that he may reign in our hearts and we may rest in his Kingdom.
ConfessionMinister - Jesus said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’, and since our God is a Father of mercy like the father of the Prodigal Son, we can be assured that if we sincerely repent of our sins and intend to try to improve, then our prayers and our presence at His table will be welcomed by Him.

Let us pray:

All - Father, you know that since we last confessed our sins, we have not loved you with all our heart nor our neighbour as ourselves; we may have neglected our devotions to you - we may have wasted opportunities to do good - we may have done things which were not good - you, Father, know our hearts. We are genuinely sorry for these our sins, and sincerely repent of them. We pray that our wills may be so strengthened by thy grace to resist temptation that we may serve you in the future in newness of life to the glory of your Name.

Minister - May our heavenly Father who forgives all who sincerely repent, have mercy upon us, pardon and deliver us from our sins, strengthen us in all temptations, and keep us in his Kingdom; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
General Intercessions(unless prayed previously)
Words of GraceMinister - Hear how our heavenly Father feeds us:
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God”.’ (Exodus 16.4 and 12).

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst’.(John 6.35).

Jesus also said, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me’. (Revelation 3.20).
The SupperMinister - Let us lift up our hearts.

All - We lift them to the Lord.

Minister - Father, we ask you to bless this bread and this wine so that our reception of them may bring to us, each in our own way, such fellowship with you and with the spirit of your Son as may strengthen us to cleave to your Kingdom, and to encourage others towards it.

All - Amen.

Minister - We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.

All - Though we are many, we are one body because we all share the one bread.

Minister - An account of the Last Supper taken from the reports of Paul, Mark and Luke:

On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I had earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God’.And he took bread, recited the blessing, broke the bread and said, ‘This is my body which is broken for you’.He then gave the bread to them.He said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me’.And he took the cup, recited the blessing, and said, ‘This is my blood which is poured out for many.My blood will solemnise the new covenant. Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.He then gave the cup to them. He said, ‘Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’.

Minister - Let us take and eat this bread in remembrance that Jesus died for us, and let us feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.(At the distribution the minister says to each celebrant: ‘The broken bread of Jesus’).

Let us drink this wine as a foretaste of the Messianic Banquet, that symbol of the heavenly Kingdom which, as Jesus taught, may reign in ourhearts here and now.(‘The poured wine of the Kingdom’).

All - Under the veil of earthly things we now have communion with Jesus Christ; but with unveiled faces we shall soon behold him and, rejoicing in his glory, be made like him; and by him all his disciples will be presented before the presence of his Father's glory with exceeding joy. Father, we thank you for the fellowship with you and with the spirit of your Son and with each other which we have enjoyed this day through the remembrance of, and participation in, the Last Supper, and we rejoice to sing, like the angels on that first Christmas night:
Glory be to God on high and, on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we give thee thanks, O Father everlasting, for all thy love to us in Jesus Christ, thy Son.
ConclusionAll - O Lord, our heavenly Father, we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice to you.Send us out in the power of the Spirit, to live and work to thy praise and glory. Amen.

Minister - May the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, and which the world can neither give nor take away, be with us now, and abide in our hearts for ever.

All - Amen.

Minister - Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All - In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.